Set Design or Structural Architecture? Or two ends of the same Rainbow?

Info & Images: Courtesy Stufish Entertainment Architects

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Giving the spectators a pulsating and exceptional experience, Stufish Entertainment Architects continue to explore the thematic of traditional Chinese symbolism to mount the Franco Dragone Water Show...

The new Han Show Theatre in Wuhan, China creates the perfect armature for the Franco Dragone production it has been specifically designed to accommodate. From the external symbolism of a Chinese lantern through to the design of the internal theatrical space, each facet of the project is one piece of the complete jigsaw.

 

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Stufish wanted to create an instantly recognisable Chinese symbol that would provide an aesthetic cladding to the theatre's auditorium and fly tower. The lantern itself is designed to work at many scales. From distant views from across the lake it can be read as a simple symbolic form.  Up close the lantern surface is created from thousands of disks each of which is lit both inside and out. Inside the theatre lobby space, the glazed roof of the atrium looks up into the 56m high lantern structure.

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The façade of the theatre is assembled from eight 'bicycle' wheels with hundreds of spokes that connect it to the main drum of the theatre.  The wheels support a mesh with 25,000 steel disks - the detailing of which was inspired by the Chinese bi disks - an historic Chinese object symbolising skyward ambition and the heavens - an external symbol of what the audience will discover in the water show.

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The show will feature audience seats that move to reveal an 8m deep swimming pool and the largest ever movable LED screens.  The technical apparatus will form an astonishing armature for Franco Dragone's creative genius.

The building opened 20 December 2014