National Theater of China Genre Influence Style Idea Speed Rush!

"What the National Grand Theater of China wants to express is the inner vigor, the internal vitality under the cover of external tranquility. A simple 'eggshell' that nurtures life inside. This is the soul of my design: shell, life and openness."

Looking south from West Chang'an Street, the unveiled National Grand Theater of China hovers above the horizon, its curves clear and soft in the setting sun, and the official debut of this 14. 90,000m2 comprehensive theater building on the west side of Tian'anmen Square, the center of China's political and cultural center, has attracted the world's attention.

On September 25, the National Grand Theater opened its doors to people for the first time, with the first performance of the ballet "Red Detachment of Women" attracting people's attention. In the cafe on the second floor, which is not yet open for business, the designer of the Grand Theater, Paul? Andrews was interviewed by reporters.

The warm orange sun sifts through the titanium alloy frame structure into the National Grand Theater's huge nave.

Paul Andrews, who is very old, has a lean body. Andrews has a lean body and intelligent face, with dark eyes like those of an Asian, but unlike eight years ago, his brown hair has turned gray.

April 1998, Andrew participated in China's National Grand Theater design competition, after two rounds of competition and three revisions, which lasted one year and four months, his "Dome" program from 36 design units in 10 countries in 69 programs came out on top, in July 1999, was selected as the National Grand Theater of the construction program. construction program of the National Grand Theater.

The eight years passed quickly, and it was "a very long process, and there were many moments when I was about to collapse, but when I look back, all I can think of is joy and sweetness," he recalls. He recalled.

His sketches became reality when the National Theater finally became a semi-elliptical sphere towering over a lake. The north and south entrances, clad in titanium panels and framed in transparent glass, seem to open up to the sides as if they were giant curtains, and with the theater's lights streaming through the windows, the giant hemisphere seems to be a seed of life. "What the NCPA wants to express is the inner vitality, the internal vitality under the cover of external tranquility. A simple 'eggshell' that nurtures life inside. This is the soul of my design: shell, life and openness." Andrew said.

Today, eight years later, the stunning scheme stands on the west side of Tiananmen Square: a vast green park with a vast expanse of water surrounding an elliptical, silver-colored amphitheater, whose shell of titanium panels and glass reflects the light of day and night in an ever-changing array of hues. The reflection of the building in the water forms the exterior view of the theater, which the audience will enter through an underwater passage. From a distance, the reflections in the water give the building a dreamlike appearance, and the curved central glass canopy opens up like a curtain, revealing the interior's gilded opera hall and lacquered wooden spaces in the deep tones of ancient musical instruments.

It's a muscle that's at once simple and complex, explicit and hidden. It makes extensive use of high technology in glass manufacturing, fa?ade decoration, and composite structures. Inside the building, there is a small theater below ground, and on the ground level are located the Opera House, the Concert Hall, and the Drama Theater, which are separated from each other by a roadway and connected to each other by a suspended walkway. The Opera House is surrounded by a partially transparent golden mesh glass wall, topped by an eternal sky that can be seen from inside the building.

The main facilities include a 2,416-seat opera hall, a concert hall with a capacity of 2,017, a theater, as well as stores, exhibition halls and restaurants. In its various functions, the project is reminiscent of the Pompidou Center for Culture and the Arts in Paris, which Andrews said was a great success in creating a large and colorful public ****place.

Andrew was 29 when he designed the circular Charles de Gaulle airport terminal in Paris in 1967. Charles de Gaulle airport terminal. The following year he received the French National Diploma for Architects. Since then, as chief architect of the Paris Airports Company.

For more than 50 years, Paul Andreu has designed the buildings that stand today. Andrews has designed countless airport plans that stand today around the world, and has won many international architectural awards for his work in countries around the world: the co-operation of the "New Arc de Triomphe" in Paris, France, the Grand Arch in De Fonce, the Oceanographic Museum in Osaka, Japan, the French Terminal of the Anglo-French Tunnel, and the New Stadium in Guangzhou, China. ...... Of course, the most numerous are the airports: Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, Jakarta Airport in Indonesia, Cairo Airport in Egypt, Dar es Salaam Airport in Tanzania, Kansai Airport in Osaka, Japan, Brunei Airport, Sanya Airport in China, the new airport in Pudong, Shanghai and many others.

Before then, many of these places were barren, and his mastery of the ground transformed these unfamiliar names into new world landmarks. Many of Andrew's works have survived the test of half a century with a quality and power that still captivates. Under his influence, the activities of Aeroports de Paris have evolved towards the design of large-scale iconic buildings.

An engineer by training, Paul Andreu used a different approach from that of a "designer". Paul Andreu saw his buildings in a different way from "pure" architecture, not as simple reproductions of aesthetic standards or unimaginative applications of basic structures, but as active explorations that were made to follow a strict set of rules.

As an architect, Andrews has a deep knowledge of airport construction. His designs are permeable, like a beautiful shell opening its heart to the sun. His buildings are a typical world, a rationalized place where all the facilities are fully functional and people feel comfortable and cozy in them.

In view of the deterioration of the titanium surfaces on several projects in Japan, Andrews decided to leave the titanium in the structure of the National Theatre in its untreated state to render the reflections of the sky, and it was also specially oxidized to withstand future cleaning. To contrast with the gleaming metal exterior, Andrews lined the interior surfaces of the roof with dark red wood.

Over the next 18 months, Andrews reworked his design. But his basic ideas remained the same: no defects in the fa?ade of the theater, no back of the building, and all parking and technical equipment rooms underground. In addition, he was adamant that the most important part of the project, the theater, should be positioned at the center of the building and that the building should be on the same axis as the adjacent Great Hall of the People. His futuristic designs and foreign status sent shockwaves through the Chinese architectural industry.

Andrew's design creates a series of shell layers and activity levels -- the pool even doubles as an ice rink in winter. Visitors can enter from the north through a 59-meter-long underwater glass-topped walkway. "My design adds some water to Tiananmen Square, which can serve to change the environment and view for people. The underwater entrance to the Grand Theater is my masterpiece and an important part of my design. I want people to feel this way: first of all, to have the desire to enter into this 'shell' to discover something; and when you enter this temple of art from underwater, you immediately understand that it is not the same as when you go to a shopping center, or when you visit a historical monument, that it is all changed here, and that your spirit has to change, that you want to have some fresh feeling. You have to have some freshness. It's a dreamy place, and you should change for that. And after entering the Bolshoi through such an abstract, simple, dream-like entrance, one should feel life, vitality, richness and charm. Also, the Bolshoi Theater should be a place that people visit often, not necessarily every time to come to a play or a concert, but it should also be a place worth visiting." He said.

Inside the grand atrium, each performance hall has a unique architectural form. The Opera Hall, for example, is covered in gold metal mesh. The hall's seating is arranged in a soothing curvilinear pattern and there are no visible corners in the room, something acoustic consultants have complained about. To achieve good acoustics, Andrews used woven metal mesh to control the curved rows of seats so that the sound could pass through the back wall. The gap between the metal mesh and the wall allows for colored lighting.

The small theater, with 1,040 seats and walls clad in silk fabric, will be used for Peking Opera, a traditional form of performance that requires close interaction with the audience. In contrast, the rows of seats in the square white concert hall allow the audience to enjoy the show from a distance. In the case of the theater, the storage space, technical equipment and even the cargo area are located underground, so as not to interfere with the various activities above. The project's vertically layered structure creates a floor-by-floor set-back platform above the opera hall, from which buildings such as the Forbidden City and the Great Hall of the People around Tiananmen Square can be seen.

As Beijing's first "big project" in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics, the NCPA has opened up new avenues for international architects. Today, Andrew's confidence in architectural exploration overrides his trepidation in the face of skepticism. "More than 100 years ago, when the Tower designed by the architect Eiffel was first built, it was like a steel monster, weighing heavily on the hearts of the French. A few decades ago, the Pompidou Center for the Arts ribbon cutting, was specially designed by the designer in the building's exterior of the horizontal and vertical, crisscrossing the pipeline so that the people who came to visit the people exclaimed, 'the project is not yet complete! and almost no one dared to applaud once they knew that this was the completed art center. When I.M. Pei came up with the transparent pyramid as a plan for the Louvre's entrance renovation project, there were a lot of eye-rolls and objections that the design completely undermined the overall style of the Louvre, of which the French are so proud. Time will tell." As Andrews explains, his architecture "is creating continuity and division without causing conflict."

Andrew

Andrew said, "I understand the National Grand Theater of China in four main ways: first, the location determines its symbolism: the Great Hall of the People next to it symbolizes the supreme power of the state, while the Grand Theater should be a representative of culture; second, it is a new, huge and important building, a building that can represent the new century Third, it should have a complete social function, that is to say, it is good to use and people love to use it; fourth, the appearance should be attractive and have a sense of culture and history."

Talking about the old topic of whether the National Grand Theater matches the traditional Chinese architectural features of the county, Andrew said, "What is the tradition of Chinese architecture? Big roofs? I know there's always been a debate between 'traditional' and 'modern' in Chinese architecture. The problem is that if one knows a lot about the tradition one is trying to conform to, and knows what one should want; or, if one knows nothing at all about the tradition one is trying to conform to, and can let go of one's imagination without restriction; or, most troublesome of all, if one knows only a little bit about it, and neither dares to imagine it, and shrinks from it, nor really embodies the tradition, the result is surely not good."

"Architects also can't really understand the culture of a country before going there to design and work. Even for French culture, I can't say I have understood it. The art of architecture, like literature, music and other arts, is first and foremost a creation, an innovation; copying, plagiarizing, imitating are not what architects should do, that's what craftsmen do. And artistic creation does not and should not have any national boundaries."

"It will definitely make Beijing more beautiful"

The artistic "multi-functionality" of the Crystal Eggshells was once one of the main points of doubt in traditional Chinese architecture. One of the main concerns of the traditional Chinese architectural community. Some people thought that Andrew's design was a "flowery framework", costly and impractical. Andrews explains this in detail. He believes that defining the function of the theater, if it is still only limited to the traditional "theater" this only concept, is far behind the international trend.

"I first tried to design the theater as a theatrical community, not just three theaters of one size or another. It can be open to the audience as well as to all the public. So I designed different pathways for the audience and the public. People can walk from the ground to the plane and then to the high platform, enjoying the view of the surrounding lake as well as the endless beauty of the Forbidden City. I also designed the space to be able to hold various art exhibitions and cultural events, so that the area can come alive during the daytime. By designing it in this way, I can attract more people to experience culture.

"I designed the National Grand Theater of China as a completely new concept, a program that no one has seen before. It is a very ambitious and creative program. It is not only beautiful on the outside, but also functional on the inside. It's a very big building and inside it's like a city with many neighborhoods. You can listen to music, you can walk around, there are exhibitions, and other commercial and cultural facilities. Just not listening to music, it's a beautiful place to walk around and visit and visit."

"Even though it is called the National Theater, it is very important that it is designed not only for opera lovers but also for the general public. Inside the Grand Theater, four sections are set up: the Opera House, the Concert Hall, the Drama Theater and the Little Theater, but there is also a fifth section, which is an event space created for the cultural life of the people."

The building was able to integrate well with many of its surroundings. In terms of matching with the Great Hall, which has a very vertical fa?ade, the Grand Theater should be a contrast. If you bring out the beauty of the Great Hall without depressing its glory, you've succeeded. So I looked at the Grand Theater as one fa?ade from every angle, instead of designing it as four fa?ades, to create a very strong contrast with the City Hall, in order to reveal the beauty of the building. The sunlight pours from the sky, and at different moments, it reveals different shades on top of the Grand Theater, which in turn creates an inverse contrast with the Great Hall, and becomes a harmony, a dialogue.

"An era has its own architecture," Andrews said, "and I would like to point out two things: firstly, this design is not an irrational, crazy idea, it's a rational design. Secondly, when people have confidence in life, they don't care to take a little risk in life. But I'm not erasing the Chinese tradition, and I hope that in 20 years, this theater will be known as a Chinese building."

Andrew continued, "My design is very much about contrast and balance. The simplicity of the structure, 'Eggshell', is a strong contrast to the classical surrounding architecture, but still maintains a dialogic echoing effect."

"A formal simplicity of an 'eggshell' envelops all the life force; and this 'eggshell' is suspended above the water. When one enters the Opera House, one actually steps into a 'dream world'! People could abandon the chaos of the earthly world and enter the midst of a fairytale world. In order not to make it too abrupt for the audience, I designed a long walkway. Viewers walking on it can have the space and time to view the dream world in their hearts from afar."

"With the addition of water to the square, a small lake surrounding the Grand Theater appears, which complements the view of the square. When you look at Beijing from the air, the Forbidden City is surrounded by a moat, and not far away there is the North Sea and the South China Sea, and the small lake around the Grand Theater is a fitting extension of this body of water, and the overall setting of the city remains unchanged."

Andrew is very confident in his design: "Perhaps it is hard for people to imagine the beauty of the building until it is a visible and accessible building. But once it's built, people will understand why it was designed this way and not that way."

Talking about whether the Chinese will be able to accept a European design, Andrews said, "There is no question that the National Theater of China will be a Chinese building, a cultural facility for the Chinese to enjoy. It doesn't matter what country it was designed by. Not long ago, during the Olympic Games, images of the Sydney Opera House appeared on TV almost every day. Did anyone mention that its designer was a Dane? No. It's a symbol of Sydney, an icon of Australia, so who cares who its designer was?"

Andrews said excitedly, "I bet when the National Theater of China is built and people are in it, most of them will like my design. The theater is a cultural and educational venue, a cultural space to breathe and enjoy. That's what I'm aiming for with this design."

As architects, we are fortunate to grow up in the golden age of China's great development, full of opportunities, adventures and challenges. Andrew said, "As for whether China should build a national theater, I would like to point out one fact: almost no country in the world has a major theater or cathedral built when the country was at its richest and strongest. Quite the contrary, many important buildings were built when a country was pursuing national strength."

"For an old city, new buildings are designed more cautiously, but not immovably. It would have been better if Beijing's walls and gates had stayed until today, but now that they are gone, we have to think of new ways. Is it better to stop designing new buildings for this?"

Andrew said with passion and confidence, "I believe my design will make people think about the architectural design of Beijing. In a word, it doesn't make Beijing ugly, but just the opposite!"

In the face of stylistic skepticism, Andrews said, "I know some Chinese think the NCPA doesn't match its surroundings, but I'm sure it will blend well with them. People say the Dome doesn't match the style of the Forbidden City, but it's actually very far away from the Forbidden City. Also, do you guys really think the style of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City match that well? Do you guys really think that the buildings around the Forbidden City are conducive to emphasizing its inherent style?"

According to his words, no building in the world will be able to satisfy everyone's needs. "To be honest, I once did a survey which was huge, but only 16 people supported my design. When the architects built the pyramid inside the Louvre, it caused a huge controversy in France, and people accused the architects, saying: you don't know anything about French culture, you're destroying the palace. But when it was built, that proved to be a successful design."

"China needs the world, the world needs China more"

Why China? Andrew explained it with three reasons: it's developing rapidly, the culture and spirit attracted me, and it's far from France. Why is far away from France also a reason? Andrew shakes his head and smiles.

"It is true that Beijing has become an internationalized construction site. It's true that Beijing has lost a lot of its old stuff, which is a shame, but many countries are facing the same problem. At the same time, the old forms of architecture are no longer adapted to modern society, and we have to find some solutions. It's not just a question of our own culture, but also of absorbing outside influences."

He believes that everywhere in the world should have the same attitude that culture, architecture and so on need to be exchanged and exchanged. "You have to attract people from other places to come and you have to contribute something to the cultural development of other places, and in that you will have gains and sacrifices. That's normal. Don't buy into this idea that you don't need the world, you don't need foreigners. You will always be yourself, don't be afraid."