Shenzhen Opera House

Jean Nouvel's design shelters a family of performance venues, outdoor foyers and an artists' village beneath a single sweeping, transparent roofscape that appears to rise from the sea. Four halls make up the program — a roughly 2,100-seat opera hall, an 1,800-seat concert hall, a 1,000-seat operetta hall and a 500-seat black-box theatre. Facing Shenzhen Bay on the Shekou Peninsula, the building blurs the line between architecture and coastline, its curved canopy framing the water while sheltering public promenades below. It is conceived as the defining cultural landmark of Shenzhen's western waterfront.