A new performance venue completes in one of the world’s densest cities

The Xiqu Center, a performance venue and the new home for Chinese opera, recently completed in Hong Kong’s new multi-billion dollar West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD). The Xiqu Center is the first performance venue in WKCD and also the first venue in the world designed for classical Chinese Opera.

The main theater is suspended 90 feet in the air to open up the entire ground level as public space. “It results in a new paradigm of an open, shaded, protective, and generous public plaza inHong Kong’s legendary dense urban fabric,” says John Wong, FASLA, FAAR, Design Principal and Chairman, SWA, in a release.

Xiqu’s ground floor serves as an urban stage designed to facilitate movement, provide a gathering space, and enhance the visitor experience. The landscape and architecture blend together to create a space that feels both indoors and outdoors and features groupings of trees at each entry and a naturally ventilated open-air interior courtyard. Another two outdoor gardens flank the main performance hall on the fourth floor.

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The exterior of the building is curved three dimensionally with arched openings strategically located at all corners. A lifted facade provides three main entry areas with access to the ground level. Each entry level is determined by the surrounding site conditions. A public amphitheater with an outdoor performance area is also included.

Revery Architecture and SWA collaborated on the project’s design.