Shanghai yesterday started work on the performance center for
World Expo 2010.
Calling it an unique construction, Vice Mayor Yang Dinghua said
the pavilion "will become the city's new landmark of culture and
entertainment."
Located in the southeast of the Expo site, the Shanghai World
Expo Performing Arts Center will resemble a flying saucer on
eastern bank of the Huangpu River.
It will have a floor area of 80,000 square meters - 10,000
square meters bigger than the Shanghai Grand Theater - and hold
audiences of up to 18,000.
Design of Shanghai Expo
Performance Center. (photo: expo2010china.com)
The center, when completed by the end of 2009, will become the
city's first circular performance facility whose interior structure
is reconfigurable in three dimensions, according to designers.
The size and the condition of the central stage can be adjusted
to form different shapes for different purposes, from solo concerts
to ice shows.
The exterior walls of the center will have huge screens to
broadcast the performances inside for visitors outside.
There will also be venues for different forms of performance or
entertainment, including concerts, theater, music clubs, movie
clubs, bars, restaurants and even games rooms.
Some of its functions, such as the bars and clubs, will operate
around the clock.
The center was designed by Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural
Design Group and its construction will cost 1.1 billion yuan
(US$148.6 million), excluding the cost of land, city officials
said.
Wang Xiao'an, a chief architect with the group, said: "The
center is designed to merge culture with high-tech, present with
future, China with the world."
The Performance Center is one of the four major permanent
pavilions on the 5.28-square-kilometer Expo site. Its design was
selected among 27 submissions from around world.
The other three projects - the China Pavilion, the Theme
Pavilion, and the Expo Center - have already started
construction.
A scene of the construction
site of Shanghai Expo Performance Center (photo:
expo2010china.com)
(Shanghai Daily January 2, 2008)
