Henning Larsen designed tech white angular volumes of Hangzhou Yuhang Opera, which visitors can climb up, to look like "floes of ice" on a lake.
The waterfront performance venue in Hangzhou, China, contains a 1,400-seat auditorium, a 500-seat black box theatre, and an exhibition centre.

The white facade of the cultural centre in Hangzhou, China, is punctuated with geometric windows designed to create a pattern like cracked ice on a frozen lake.
Two sloping white volumes that are designed to look like ice form the opera house, with roofs that touch the ground at the place where they meet on a public plaza.

One side of the black box theatre can be opened to the plaza, transforming the space into an open air venue with the capacity for 10,000 people. Visitors can walk up the roofs for a view out over the lake that Henning Larsen built next to the Hangzhou Yuhang Opera.

Mirroring the city's existing West Lake, the new body of water both reflects the opera house and provides a pleasant outdoor space for the city's residents.
"There is a competition amongst Chinese cities to create new destinations, each with their iconic cultural landmarks," said Claude Godefroy, design director at Henning Larsen's Hong Kong office.

"When designing those cultural nodes our most important task is to create truly lively urban centres that can welcome citizens at all times whether they are paying guests or not."

A promenade rings the lake, which is dotted with ...