A ribbon of steel and aluminium winds around the Suzhou Bay Cultural Center, which French architect Christian de Portzamparc has completed on the shore of Lake Tai in China.
Set on an esplanade in Wujiang District in Suzhou, the centre is divided into two distinct wings that contain a mix of performance halls, educational spaces and galleries.
The wings are unified by a curved, 500-metre-long metal structure, which swoops up and around them in a figure of eight and distinguishes the building from afar.
Above: the cultural centre sits on the shore of Lake Tai. Top image: it is wrapped by a continuous metallic ribbon
Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning de Portzamparc divided the Suzhou Bay Cultural Center into two wings in response to its site, which is positioned at the point where an avenue through the district meets the waterfront.  "It was clear that the meeting of this pedestrian axis and the great lake would be an exceptional place, and it was on this site, on either side of the axis, that the cultural centre was to be implanted," said de Portzamparc.
The ribbon forms a figure of eight around the centre
Where the metallic ribbon bridges over the pathway, it frames views of the lake and city from the avenue. At this point, de Portzamparc has also incorporated a 40-metre-high viewpoint for visitors.
"The cultural centre creates a new landscape by connecting water, sky and city in a play of iridescent reflections given by this metallic ribbon that spreads o...