Located in Mawei New Town, facing the Minjiang River, the Strait Culture and Arts Centre is about connections. It connects cities and communities along and over the Taiwan Strait. It connects the Fuzhou Mawei New City Development and its waterways to the Minjiang River and the natural environment. And, finally, it connects people to culture.
A central Concourse Lobby, open all day, connects all five separate venues. This concept provides for a flexible usability of the public spaces and creates a vessel for a playful connection of the arts to the people, promoting the growth of local creativity and art production.
We discovered ceramics as a suitable, truly Chinese material for the project. The ceramic material is used in different ways in several key areas throughout the building design and is strongly linked historically to the context of the Maritime Silk Road trade connection between China and Europe.
The five main façades are made of ceramic louvres, maximizing the shading capacity of the façade, and creating a translucent “Jasmine color” skin for the building.
In the 1000 seat Concert Hall convexly curved inclined walls surround the orchestra and audience, creating a multitude of lateral reflections, as well as an intimate space. A floral pattern was engraved onto the three-dimensional ceramic tiles, the design inspired by the “Scrolling Peonies” pattern of the Yuan Dynasty.
The 1600 seat Opera Hall features ceramic tiles in different shades of warm grey, combining 13 floral motives to create the continuous 3000 m2 “Jasmine Branches” pattern.