Suzhou, China
“The cultural center creates a new landscape by connecting water, sky, and city in a play of iridescent reflections given by this metallic ribbon,” states Christian de Portzamparc.
“From the urban axis, the ballet of the ribbon can be perceived in curves and counter-curves. Its lines rise, shelter, frame the sky and remember ribbons used in the traditional theatre in Suzhou.”
Designed by Christian de Portzamparc, the new Suzhou Bay Cultural Centre’s s hefty size appears light and airy because of the gravity-defying metal ribbon that wraps around it, unifying its multifaceted program as one.
The Suzhou Cultural Center is part of a series of emblematic projects initiated by the city through the Wujiang Lakefront Masterplan.
On the shores of Lake Tai, de Portzamparc discovered the deserted plain in 2013, while appreciating the plan of the future city.
It was then built so quickly, he was amazed at each visit.
It is already alive like a real Manhattan of towers ordered according to a grid of streets and avenues bordering a central pedestrian axis heading towards the lake.
It was clear that the meeting of this pedestrian axis and the great lake would be an exceptional place, and it was on this site, on either side of the axis, that the cultural center was to be implanted during the architecture competition.
The program has two parts: the music and performance halls on one side of the axis, and museums and pedagogical places on the other side.
Two wings appear at the arrival of the pedestrian axis on the lake.
Christian de Portzamparc then chose to connect these two wings on the roof to create at this very central place a huge opening to the sky in the form of an arch visible from afar on the pedestrian axis.
A long ribbon that winds up and passes from one wing to the other on the roof and then over the facade wall forms an “eight” figure that crosses the pedestrian axis at a height of 40 meters to frame the visual opening to the lake.
The two loops of the ribbon cover the esplanade where the pedestrian axis meets the lake.
This central place gives access to the numerous cultural facilities spread out in the two wings, to the north and south of the axis.
In the North wing, one enters the large lobby gallery which is the entrance to the theater-opera house and to the Chinese opera.
From this gallery, one ascends to the music conservatory and the 360° cinema.
In the south of the esplanade, the wing divides into two museum buildings: a history museum and a city museum with educational spots, and finally a conference and ceremonial center.
The cultural center creates a new landscape by connecting water, sky, and city in a play of iridescent reflections given by this metallic ribbon (made of steel and aluminum) that spreads over 500 meters of span.
From the urban axis, the ballet of the ribbon can be perceived in curves and counter-curves.
Its lines rise, shelter, frame the sky, and remember ribbons used in the traditional theater in Suzhou.
But one can also walk upon this ballet: the ribbon is equipped with a 40 meters high path from which one can see the whole city and the lake.
The cultural center includes a 1,600-seat opera house, a 600-seat modular hall, two museums, an exhibition center, a convention center, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, as well as shopping malls, on a total surface area of 202,000 m² distributed through the south and north along the urban axis.
Project: Suzhou Bay Cultural Center
Architects: Christian de Portzamparc
Landscape Architects: Régis Guignard
Acoustical Engineers: Xu Acoustique
Client: City of Suzhou
