Ya’an Panda Performance Center

The Giant Panda, known as the 'living fossil', has lived on Earth for at least 8 million years. It has a gentle temperament, with a plump body shape, a round head and short tail, a body color of black and white, and large dark circles under the eyes, which is deeply loved by people. Ya'an is located in Sichuan Province, where is also the location of the Ya'an Bifengxia Base of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center.

However, it was not the Chinese who discovered the Giant Panda in modern times and introduced it to the world, but the French naturalist Father Armand David. In 1869, David made a specimen of a giant panda's skin and sent it to the National Museum in Paris for exhibition. From then on, the Giant Panda hiding in the wilderness entered the vision of human civilization.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, a series of protection measures were taken, including the establishment of the Giant Panda nature reserves and the promulgation of the Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, which played an important role in the protection of the Giant Panda. This species has been downgraded from "endangered" to "vulnerable".

From the hunting and smuggling, the Giant Pandas had become endangered species, to the enactment of laws for strict protection, it is the awakening of human environmental awareness. We finally realize that plundering nature will eventually be punished by nature. We can’t lose nature, which is the diversity built by a vast ecosystem that humans rely on to ensure their own safety.

The Earth is the “cradle” of human civilization, and the care and dedication of all things on earth enable the continuation of human civilization. Nowadays, we are doing our best to protect the precious species – the Giant Panda - and create a "cradle" for the survival and breeding of wild animals, making them to live permanently on this land…

We design two "cradle" like shapes for this proejct, one large and one small. The large volume is located at the center of the land, accommodating the main function of the performance, while the small volume is on the right side of the main building, arranging actor dormitories, rehearsal halls, and auxiliary functions. Both volumes adopt a sloping section to present the roof in front of the audience. With local plants all over the sloping roof, taking advantage of the abundant rainfall in the area, it reduces manual management costs. The two volumes are connected together, and this charmingly naive shape reminds people of Panda mother and son.

In order not to affect the integrity of the main building, the main entrance is a sunken square where visitors can move down steps and reach a tall, open lobby. This treatment stimulates the audience's space experience and enthusiasm for participation. This is the place for the audience to rest, undergo security checks, and verify tickets, also providing them a comfortable buffer zone in rainy Ya'an. The main facade facing the lobby is composed of multiple green vertical grids, as if allowing the audience to enter a mysterious bamboo forest. Bamboo is the main food for pandas, which also indicates that performances related to pandas are about to come.

Through the lobby, the audience will enter a proceeding auditorium where they can watch various related performances before entering the final performance hall, which is with 1200 seats. The huge stage wraps around the audience seats, allowing the audience to experience an immersive performance effect.

The façade of the building is made of perforated aluminum panels. To highlight the "furry" feeling, the single piece of perforated aluminum panels is designed with a 6:1 long strip, and the front and middle parts are fixed on the internal measuring keel, while the rear part is cantilevered out, forming a feather effect. This processing method solves the contradiction between huge surfaces and detail processing, converts complex 3D modeling into 2D positioning, and reduces cost and construction difficulty. Aluminum perforated panels are arranged in a double-layer staggered manner, and based on the semi transparent visual characteristics of perforated panels, three different "transparency" produced. At the same time, LED lights are installed internally to display special lighting effects at night.

The audience can reach the green roof by the second floor designed staircase. There are two platforms on the green roof for viewing. Wandering on the roof, the nearby green plants on the roof are connected to the lush mountains and forests in the distance, making people immersing in them and forgetting the hustle and bustle of the city, returning to the embrace of nature.