Red Diamond / Chiasmus Partners

Architect: Chiasmus Partners
Location: Beijing, China
Principal Architect: James Wei Ke, Hyunho Lee
Project Team: Oscar Ko, Gu Yun Duan, Feng Bo
Client: Beijing Modern Dance Company
Program: Performance Hall, Practice Hall, Saloon
Project years: 2008-2009
Photographer: Chiasmus, Jenny Hung

Located in the historic DongCheng district of Beijing, the project calls for a conversion of old factory complex into a dance center with a performance hall, a practice hall and a saloon.

Old factory

With the intention to emphasize the public character of the new dance center, the concept was to make the courtyard an outdoor “theater” – a public space that would revitalize the complex, the hutong and its neighborhood.

By wrapping the old factory building with evenly-spaced-out steel tubing, the façade of the performance hall was perceived as a theater stage. The old white door in the middle was kept and untouched, telling the history of the building’s transformation.

The white floating box opposite to the performance hall is a saloon which was perceived as box seats overlooking the stage on the side. At the same time, people in saloon are also being seen upon entering the complex. There is a blurred boundary between stage and seats. The relationship between seeing and being seen are constantly reversed.