The Hengqin Culture and Art Complex is China’s newest cultural megastructure

China’s epic scale is laid bare on Hengqin Island and this new project by Yunchao Xu and Atelier Apeiron at the heart of a new urban development. This 106 sq km area of land is strategically located at the southernmost point of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, one of the junctions of Chinese financial and industrial might, close to both Macau and Hong Kong over the water.

Set at the heart of the ‘Hengqin New Area’, the Hengqin Culture and Art Complex is a megastructural destination, finished with render-like precision and standing out against the low hills and slender identikit residential towers of the surrounding urbanisation. Six years in the making, the project began with a competition, won in 2018 by Shenzhen-based Atelier Apeiron.

Explore the new, vast complex of The Hengqin Culture and Art Complex

Yunchao Xu, lead architect of Atelier Apeiron, describes how the massive 142,560 sq m building is intended as the epicentre of the local community and cultural scene, home to no fewer than nine different departments. These include a library, archive, cultural centre, art gallery, concert hall, science museum, and three separate ‘activity centres’ for the elderly, the young and women and children.

‘The requirements for each [department] were independent and filled with contradictions,’ says Yunchao Xu. ‘We approached it from the perspective of integrating nine independent buildings into a single complex, and we convinced the client to give each department relative independence in order to proceed with a comprehensive strategy that resolves conflicts and stimulates public energy.’

Known as the ‘Living Hall of the Grand Bay Area’, the building is currently opening in stages following completion last autumn. Located on a waterside plot just a few hundred metres from Hengqin’s business district, the new complex also adjoins a public park.

As a result, the structure forms a porous junction between open and closed public space, with the parkside façade defined by three monumental arches, each differently shaped and leading into three different halls, the Knowledge Hall, Performance Hall and Exhibition Hall. These glazed arches reveal the inner workings of the building, with skylights above that illuminate the huge undercroft throughout the day.

The arches are clad in bamboo panels, as are the curved walls and ceiling of the semi-enclosed amphitheatre at the river end of the long, stepped structure. The upper level is taken up by a landscaped park, a symmetrical arrangement of precisely aligned steps and stairs that cascades down four storeys to the waterfront. The architects reference natural features like caves and cliffs in the way the topography shifts between zones and functions.

‘Arches have been embraced as a critical form of architecture since the beginning of time and are prevalent in both eastern and western culture,’ Yunchao Xu says, explaining how the arched openings also serve to support the vast structure. The main body of the building is clad in a suspended glass curtain and contains a number of modular units that can used for different activities. The façade has also been carefully engineered to withstand the region’s frequent summer typhoons.

It's the three ‘urban living rooms’ that dominate the ground floor, with the Knowledge Hall, a ‘Book and Literature Reading Center’, taking inspiration from the Oodi Library in Finland by ALA Architects. A multifunctional space, it features what the architects call ‘a vertical village of crystal book blocks’.

Next door is the Performance Hall, which has both a large open stage and a traditional black box theatre, separated by a foyer with distinctive spiral staircases. The final arch leads through to the Exhibition Hall, the interior of which resembles a block of Swiss cheese, with circular rooflights above and glazed arched openings at either end. ‘Together, the three halls offer visitors a range of parallel world experiences, all within the confines of a single complex,’ the architects say.

‘Our vision is for the Hengqin Culture & Art Complex to be a vibrant, three-dimensional vertical city that will host millions of tourists each year, as well as a growing community of local residents, while seamlessly connecting with its surrounding environment,’ Yunchao Xu concludes.

The riverside frontage of the building concludes with a semicircular stage and circular auditorium, a place designed for public celebrations like weddings, arranged by the local Macau Wedding Company. On the rooftop above, the gardens include a children’s play area, a shared garden with staff canteen and facilities, and an ‘environmental zone’, intended as a ‘sort of ecological laboratory’, with stairs leading to a bamboo garden and book shop.

‘This project is a milestone for our firm, and it opens new avenues for us to design innovative architecture in the future, based on more multi-dimensional thinking,’ Yunchao Xu concludes. ‘It has motivated us to expand the definition of architecture, and to push the boundaries of traditional design.’

Atelier-Apeiron.com