The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) (), and colloquially described as The Giant Egg (巨蛋), is an arts centre containing an

opera house An opera house is a theater (structure), theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a Stage (theatre), stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venu ...

in the

Xicheng District Xicheng District () is a district of Beijing. Xicheng District spans , covering the western half of the old city (largely inside the 2nd Ring Road - the eastern half is Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District), and has 706,691 inhabitant ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

. Designed by French architect

Paul Andreu Paul Andreu (10 July 1938 – 11 October 2018) was a French architect, known for his designs of multiple airports such as Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and multiple prestigious projects in China, including the National Centre for the Pe ...

, the NCPA opened in 2007 and is the largest theatre complex in Asia. The NCPA is semi-spherical in appearance, with a long axis length of 212.20 meters in the east-west direction, a short axis length of 143.64 meters in the north-south direction, a height of 46.285 meters, an area of 119,900 square meters, and a total construction area of approximately 165,000 square meters, including 105,000 square meters of main buildings and 60,000 square meters of underground, auxiliary facilities, with a total cost of 3.067 billion yuan. The centre contains an opera hall, music hall, theater and art exhibition halls, restaurants, audio shops, and other supporting facilities.

Architecture

Construction

National Centre for the Performing Arts (China) 2

The exterior of the NCPA is a steel structural shell. It has a semi-ellipsoidal shape. The length of the long axis in the east-west direction of the plane projection is , the length of the short axis in the north-south direction is , and the height of the building is , which is slightly lower than the

Great Hall of the People The Great Hall of the People is a state building located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the ruling Chinese Co ...

by 3.32 meters. The deepest part of the foundation reaches . It is as tall as ten floors. The large theatre shell is made up of more than 18,000 pieces of titanium metal plates, covering an area of more than . Of the more than 18,000 pieces of titanium metal plates, only four are the same shape. The titanium metal plate is specially oxidized, and its surface metallic lustre is very textured and has a consistent colour for 15 years. The middle part is an involute glass curtain wall, which is made up of more than 1,200 pieces of ultra-white glass. The ellipsoidal shell surrounds the artificial lake, with a surface area of 34,300 square meters, all channels and entrances located below the water surface. Pedestrians need to enter the performance hall from an 80-meter underwater passage.

Design

National Centre for the Performing Arts and Great Hall of the People

NCPA located on the south side of Chang'an Street, in the heart of Beijing. According to the requirements of Beijing's overall planning, the height of the NCPA cannot exceed the height of the

(46 meters), but the functional requirements of the NCPA can not be load in the 46-meter space, so it can only develop underground. The NCPA extends ten stories underground, making 60% of the building area underground. It is the most in-depth underground project of public buildings in Beijing. The deepest place is 32.5 meters, which is directly below the stage of the Opera hall. The 17 meters underground of the NCPA is the ancient river channel of the

Yongding River The Yongding River () is a river in northern China. It is one of the main tributaries in the Hai River system and is best known as the largest river to flow through Beijing. In recent years, the Beijing segment of the river has dried up due to ...

in Beijing. The underground of the NCPA contains abundant

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

. The

buoyancy Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the p ...

generated by this groundwater can support a giant aircraft carrier weighing 1 million tons. Such tremendous buoyancy is enough to hold up the entire theater. The traditional solution is to pump groundwater out continuously, but the result of pumping groundwater is that a 5-km-wide "groundwater funnel" will be formed underground near the theatre area, causing settlement of surrounding grounds, and even ground buildings may appear crack. To solve this problem, engineers and technicians have conducted a detailed investigation and used concrete to pour an underground wall from the highest water level of the groundwater to the 60-meter underground clay layer. This vast "bucket" formed by subterranean concrete walls can enclose the foundation of the NCPA. The water pump draws the water out of the "bucket" so that no matter how the water pumped in the foundation, the groundwater outside the "bucket" will not be affected, and the surrounding buildings will be safe. The 6,750-ton steel beam frame made the largest dome. The structure of the NCPA is composed of a single curved steel beam. More than 18,000 pieces of titanium metal plate and more than 1,200 pieces of ultra-white transparent glass form a massive shell of 36,000 square meters. The world's largest dome is not supported by a pillar. The outer layer of the dome coated with nano materials, and when the rain falls on the glass surface, it will not leave water stains. At the same time, nanotechnology also dramatically reduces the adhesion of dust. To test the noise generated by raindrops falling on the domes with ten football fields, the scientists conducted repeated experiments. Experiments have shown that if effective noise prevention is not carried out, the sound in the entire dome will be like a drum when the rain falls. The anti-noise problem between theater to theater and theater to outside is solved by the use of a technique called "sound gate". NCPA is surrounded by an artificial lake, although the winter temperatures in Beijing sometimes fall below zero degrees Celsius and the lake does not freeze in the winter. It is achieved by the use of a closed circulation system, the constant temperature groundwater injected into the lake surface, so the water temperature of the artificial lake can be controlled above zero degrees in winter.

Location

The location, immediately to the west of

Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananme ...

and the

, and near the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrific ...

, combined with the theatre's futuristic design, created considerable controversy.- "China's National Centre for Performing Arts inaugurated"
, ''Macau Daily Times'', 24 December 2007. (Accessed 24 December 2007)

countered that although there is indeed value in ancient traditional Chinese architecture, Beijing must also include modern architecture, as the capital of the country and an international city of great importance. His design, with large open space, water, trees, was specially designed to complement the red walls of ancient buildings and the

, in order to melt into the surroundings as opposed to standing out against them.

Performance and other venues

Stands of NCPA Opera House (20190720181747)

Internally, there are three major performance halls: Opera Hall Opera Hall is the most magnificent building in the NCPA, with gorgeous gold colour. Mainly staged opera, dance, ballet, and large-scale performances. The auditorium of the Opera Hall has one floor of a performance pool and three floors of the auditorium. There are 2,207 seats available. The Opera Hall has an advanced stage with push, pull, ascending, descending and turning functions, tiltable ballet table and an elevating pool which can accommodate up to three bands. Music Hall The music hall is fresh and elegant, suitable for playing massive

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

, and can hold various concerts with 1859 seats (including stand seats). The music hall has the largest organ in the country, which can meet the needs of multiple genres works. Also, the digital wall, the abstract embossed ceiling with modern aesthetics, the GRC wall surface, the turtleback soundboard, and other designs can make the sound spread evenly and gently, making the music hall realize the combination of architectural aesthetics and acoustic aesthetics. Theatre Hall The theater is the most national theater of the NCPA, with Chinese red as the primary colour. Mainly staged dramas, operas, local operas, and other performances. The auditorium has one performance pool and three floors of the auditorium with a total of 1,036 seats (including stand seats). The stage of the Theater has advanced stage machinery and equipment, which can turn unique creation into the reality of performance. Its unique extended lip design is in line with the characteristics of traditional Chinese theatre performances. The NCPA also distributes filmed and recorded performances of its concerts, plays and operas through the in-house label NCPA Classics, established in 2016.

Cost

The initial planned cost of the theatre was 2.688 billion yuan. When the construction had completed, the total cost rose to more than CNY3 billion. The major cause of the cost increase was a delay for reevaluation and subsequent minor changes as a precaution after a

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

airport terminal building collapsed. The cost has been a major source of controversy because many believed that it is nearly impossible to recover the investment. When the cost is averaged out, each seat is worth about half a million CNY. The Chinese government answered that the theater is not a for profit venture. The government sanctioned study completed in 2004 by the Research Academy of Economic & Social DevelopmentResearch Academy of Economic & Social Development
/ref> of the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, of the upkeep costs of the building were publicized in domestic Chinese media: The water and electricity bills and the cleaning cost for the external surface would be at least tens of millions CNY, and with another maintenance cost, the total could easily exceed one billion CNY. Therefore, at least 80 percent of the annual operational costs must be subsidized by the government for at least the first three years after the opening, and for the rest of its operational life, at least 60 percent of the annual operational cost must be subsidized by the government. The director of the art committee of the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the standing committee member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Mr Wu Zuqiang (吴祖强) and the publicist / deputy director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts Mr Deng Yijiang (邓一江) have announced that 70 percent of the tickets would be sold at low price for ordinary citizens, while 10% of the tickets would be sold at relatively expensive prices for separate market segments, and the 60% of annual operating cost needed to be subsidized by the government would be divided between the central government and the

municipal government. Image:National Grand Theatre detail.jpg, Building detail: transition from glass to titanium. Image:Outside NCPA Opera House (20150409173452).JPG, Inside the theater Image:DecorationBeijingNationalTheater.jpg, Inside decoration

References

External links

*
Slideshow
from the

Guardian Unlimited TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and ''Guardian Unlimited'', is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'', ...

National Grand Theater of China: a steel architecture case study on Constructalia

Profile of the Centre retrieved 11 May 2008
National Grand Theater of China, Beijing

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100127025744/http://www.dorot.com/index.php?page_id=1158 The water control valves in National Grand Theater of China {{DEFAULTSORT:National Centre For The Performing Arts (China) Concert halls in China Music venues completed in 2007 Theatres completed in 2007 High-tech architecture Lattice shell structures Opera houses in China Performing arts venues in Beijing Postmodern architecture in China 2007 establishments in China Buildings and structures in Xicheng District