Busan Opera House

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Project: International Ideas Competition for Busan Opera House 2011
Client: Busan Metropolitan City
Program: Culture/Public Building
Size: 60,000m2
Location: Busan, S.Korea

Our aim is to create a new experience for the opera and theatre going people enhanced and facilitated through architecture. The goal is to create an ultra open, ultra light building that is truly liberating to the water, the sky, and the city. Ultimately, this translates into liberating the art of opera and theater, providing an unprecedented publicly accessible space for it to thrive and evolve.

Light, Air, And Water

One very important feature to keep the Busan Opera House light and accessible is it's building enclosure system. The combined use of louvers, strategic perforated openings and a translucent PTFE inner skin provide precise control of light entering the building.

To keep the building open to the elements of light, air, and water, our opera house is designed to operate in a semi open space. While this concept can be easily appreciated or even desired, Busan has a cold winter which demands a well thought out enclosure strategy year round.

While a definitive enclosure will need further investigation, on board our design team we have the world's best environmental/ climate engineer. We are currently looking at enclosure options such as a large frameless glass enclosure, operable enclosure, localized climate control, and many other design innovations to keep the opera house an accessible and lively place throughout all seasons.