The futuristic National Center for the Performing Arts travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

 The $400 million complex, a concert hall, opera house and theater under one space age span, is designed to be the center of Chinese culture, just as Tiananmen Square next door was designated this country’s political center in Beijing.  The futuristic “egg-shaped” building is an irony to their neighbor, Forbidden city, with its modern design. This is one of the anticipated architectural masterpiece designed by the French architect Jean Andreu. Formally known as National Grand Theatre, Beijing Center for Performing Arts opens to the public December 22, 2007.

 The Center is one of several large new architectural showpieces commissioned by the Chinese government in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The main building of NCPA includes three performance spaces: a 2416-seats opera house, a 2017-seats concert hall and two theaters (one of 1040 seats). The glass opens the building like a curtain which we move away showing the interior: theaters, exhibition and public spaces.

The exterior is a super shell in the shape of a half ellipsoid with an east-west span of 212.20m and north-south span of 143.64m. It is 46.28m high and reaches a depth of 32.50m under the ground. The artificial lake surrounding the ellipsoid shell covers an area of 35,500 m2. Plants cover a total area of 39,000 m2. The titanium protects and covers, creates shadows areas more secret. The concept of the National Center for the Performing Arts is a cultural island in the middle of a lake.