Bing Thom Architects and Ronald Lu & Partners are designing the upcoming Xiqu Centre, a cultural venue that serves to support and promote Xiqu – Chinese opera.

To be completed in 2016, the centre will be first building in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD), and is expected to be a new icon for the city.

Recently, a talk was held at Asia Society Hong Kong where architects Bing Thom and Ronald Lu sat down to discuss their design proposal for the new Xiqu Centre.

Click here for the video of that discussion.

Xiqu Centre will occupy a prime site of 13,800sqm at the eastern edge of WKCD, and will be a striking gateway into the cultural district. It will have a generous amount of public leisure space, 2,000sqm of training and education facilities, two auditoriums with 1,100 and 400 seats respectively, and a traditional tea house for performances.

The design is based on four key principles. The concept of gateway and pavilion is embodied in the siting of the building. All four corners of the site are open to welcome visitors to the centre;

The concept of courtyard is embodied in the building’s unique massing. Below the 1,100-seat main theatre is a large weather protected public space;

The concepts of nature and urban landscape are expressed in a three-dimensional landscape treatment found all through the complex;

The concept of ‘flow’ or ‘qi’ is expressed with curvilinear planes and form. The exterior facade is curved with arched openings. Multi-level circulation paths also capture the pedestrian flow from adjoining sites and the neighbourhoods.

Bing Thom Architects
bingthomarchitects.com

Ronald Lu & Partners
rlphk.com