Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre. Tadao Ando's concrete and glass captured in new photographs
26/01/2017.
by Yueqi Jazzy Li [Shanghai] China
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Large tunnels carve through Tadao Ando's concrete and glass theatre in Shanghai, which has been documented in these new images by New York-based architecture photographer Yueqi Jazzy Li. Hi spent a summer day touring the building, aiming to capture its "playfulness", two years after it first opened to the public.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre by Tadao Ando. Photograph © Yueqi Jazzy Li.
The Poly Grand Theatre photographed by Yueqi Jazzi Li, is located between two man-made waterways in Jiading district, 12 miles northwest of Shanghai's centre, and is accompanied by a housing and office tower, also designed by Tadao Ando.
The Poly Grand Theatre stems from a 100x100x35m reinforced concrete box which forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system. Not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure and veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system and structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles and sides, seemingly intruding into the structural rationale of the project.
Photographer Yueqi Jazzy Li explains his experience during the shooting of the project.-
The Poly Grand Theatre stems from a 100x100x35m reinforced concrete box which forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system. Not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure and veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system and structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles and sides, seemingly intruding into the structural rationale of the project.
Photographer Yueqi Jazzy Li explains his experience during the shooting of the project.-
‘Photographing this building proved to be a rather inspiring experience. familiar here is the concrete walls that jut out at an angle, unfamiliar here is also the concrete that sits quietly behind a veil of glass curtain wall. the visual effect of this unusual and somewhat gratuitous double wall helps the building take on different appearances depending on the time of the day and the angle from which one views. Inside, the grand halls are colossal in scale but the wood clad walls that articulate the bored tunnels help counter the grandness with whimsical spatial character. Although the buildings plenty indoor outdoor spaces was largely unused due to the stifling summer heat, those who are adventurous do find it very enjoyable to experience the unpredictably spaces and to be shaded by the massive concrete box. Compared to the massive office tower also by ando next door, which is very much about a masculine statement, the theatre building seems to have a well balanced blend of masculinity and femininity that together give the building a wonderful theatrical spirit atypical of ando’s many other zen evoking works.’
More information
Design architect
Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.- Tadao Ando, Kazuya Okano, Yoshinori Hayashi
Associate Architect
Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tonji University
Engineers
Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tonji University (civil/MEP)
Consultants
Beijing Qingshang Architectural Ornamental Engineering (interiors); Zhang Kuisheng Acoustical Design and Research Studio (acoustics)
General Cordinator
CA-GROUP
Construction Manager
Shanghai Poly Jia Real Estate Development
Client
Shanghai Poly Jia Real Estate Development Co.Ltd
Construction
China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd (Shanghai)
Size
602,000 square feet
Completion Date
August 2014
Cost
Withheld
TADAO ANDO
Tadao Ando was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941. A self-educated architect, he spent time in nearby Kyoto and Nara, studying firsthand the great monuments of traditional Japanese architecture. Between 1962 and 1969 he traveled to the United States, Europe, and Africa, learning about Western architecture, history, and techniques. His studies of both traditional Japanese and modern architecture had a profound influence on his work and resulted in a unique blend of these rich traditions.
In 1969 Ando established Tadao Ando Architect and Associates in Osaka. He is an honorary fellow in the architecture academies of six countries; he has been a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, and Harvard Universities; and in 1997, he became professor of architecture at Tokyo University.
Ando has received numerous architecture awards, including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the 2002 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and also in 2002, the Kyoto Prize for lifetime achievement in the arts and philosophy. His buildings can be seen in Japan, Europe, the United States, and India.
In fall 2001, following up on the comprehensive master plan commissioned from Cooper, Robertson & Partners in the 1990s and completed in 2001, Tadao Ando was selected to develop an architectural master plan for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute to expand its buildings and enhance its 140-acre campus.
YUEQI JAZZY LI
Yueqi ‘Jazzy’ Li is a licensed architect and photographer based in NYC. A graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and Tulane University in New Orleans, he received the distinguished Dean’s Honor Scholarship and won a number of other awards and competitions while in school. Li has worked at EXH Design, a Swiss-Chinese firm in his native China and Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu (SO-IL) in New York, where he led the Flockr Pavilion to completion as project lead. Currently Li has been working at Ennead Architects in NYC and Shanghai since 2013.
Li's architectural photography intends to capture space, life, and detail in buildings and urban environments. His documentary style of work is completely informed by his architect eye where he approaches each shoot as a design sketch on paper. Each photograph has a focus, be it clarity of structure, transparency of glass, or ephemerality of a shadow. Together they narrate architectural stories that may be otherwise untold.
In his design work, he is informed by a contemporary sensibility that emphasizes context and minimalism aesthetics. Part of a new generation of western-trained Chinese architects, he believes that there is an emerging Chinese modernity in architecture that has yet to be fully developed. His architect heros include Wright, Saarinen, and Wang Shu, whose explorations in light and in materiality inspired works such as Straw-blurry Fields and NMCM Master Plan.
