Harbin Grand Theatre

Harbin Grand Theatre looks less like a building than a drift of snow that the wind has shaped and then abandoned. It stands on Cultural Island in the wetlands along the Songhua River, and it was the centrepiece of a master plan for which Ma Yansong's MAD Architects won an international competition in 2010. Work began in 2011 and the house opened in 2015. Ma set out to make something calm rather than towering: instead of the vertical landmarks that crowd so many Chinese skylines, the opera house is low, pale and continuous, and in winter it almost vanishes into the frozen landscape around it.

The skin is made of smooth white aluminium panels that curve without a single hard edge. Paths are cut into this surface, so visitors can walk up the outside of the building as if climbing a hillside; at the top an open-air stage doubles as a lookout over the wetlands and the city beyond. Under the entrance, a crystalline curtain wall of glass pyramids, some smooth and some faceted, rises over the grand lobby on a light diagrid frame, and the play of light through it recalls wind-blown ice.

Inside, the mood turns warm. The grand theatre, seating around 1,600, is lined with Manchurian ash that wraps the stage and the tiers like a block of timber gradually worn away by water, and a discreet skylight lets the audience sense the passing of the day. The smaller hall of about 400 seats has a sound-proofed glass wall behind the stage, so performances can play out against the real landscape. The building collected several international design awards in the year after it opened, among them ArchDaily's Building of the Year.

Getting there

The theatre sits on Cultural Island in the Songhua River wetlands on the edge of Harbin; the Hulan district lies about 10 km away. Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB) is roughly 33 km from the island.