Paul Andreu & Beijing Opera House

Last July, French architect Paul Andreu completed one of the most important works of his career: China's national big theater, also known as Beijing Opera House, an island. culture grows in the lake.

It took nearly eight years to form the most awaited cultural base and symbol of a new China. Located along Chang'An Avenue and about 500 meters from Tiananmen Square, Beijing Opera House consists of three performance rooms, a concert hall, an opera theater of 2,416 seats, a stage and exhibition spaces. . The father of this project, architect Paul Andreu said: "The Opera Theater, the nucleus of the entire complex, will form a baroque pearl above the water."

Paul Andreu architecture (Photo: dupont)

69-year-old Paul Andreu is not a " newcomer " in China. He built Pudong Airport and Dongfang Art Center in Shanghai. In addition, he is designing a new administrative district in Chengdu and an urban planning study for Nanjing.

Maybe he is now the most famous French in China thanks to the Beijing Opera House, when there are nearly 4,000 employees working day and night for 5 years to bring up from the ground a huge arch bearing The futuristic design of titane and glass, surrounded by a 35,000-square-meter water tank.

The Beijing Opera House is an uplifting point in a long career of Paul Andreu , an encyclopedia alumnus who became an architect in the late 1960s. His talent is known worldwide. In France, he made Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport and many of the airports of the airport, the Great Circle in La Défense and the winter skiing bridge in Courchevel.

For nearly 40 years, Paul Andreu left a mark at nearly 60 airport terminals and built more than 20 airport terminals from Chile to Japan and Egypt while working for Aéroports de Paris. It was only in 2002 that he decided to fly by his wings when he established his own architecture office.

A great admirer of Charles Garnier (architect of the Opera de Paris) and art enthusiast, Paul Andreu - the ambassador of this French architecture abroad has received the most prestigious awards such as Fruit 2006 glass bridge of the International Academy of Architecture, the French National Grand Prix.

Beijing Opera House (Photo: Businessweek)

Nguyen Van