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This stunning opera house recently opened in the northern Chinese city of Harbin, and somehow evaded China's ban on "weird architecture"—and we're glad it did.
For some reason opera houses tend to be dynamic, stunning structures—like the iconic opera house in Sydney—and now Harbin has its own to boast of.
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This spaceship-esque hall for the classic art form was designed by MAD Architects, the Beijing-based masterminds behind many stunning projects worldwide. They designed Harbin's opera house to look like an organic outgrowth of the environment, full of natural materials, wavy shapes and natural light.
And they did a good job making it blend in—once it snows the structure fades into the winter landscape.
At the end of the day it's still an opera house, and not a tiny one—the main theater seats 1,600. But the design doesn't stop once you hit the stage, the stage and seating area incorporate the building's larger designs and use wood panels of Manchurian ash to produce near-perfect acoustics. [BI]
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