Description

Designed by famed French architect, Paul Andreu, the Shanghai Oriental Art Center occupies 40,000 square meters in the Pudong New Area. The futuristic building was designed to look like five petals of a blossoming butterfly orchid, each petal belonging in turn to the entrance hall, the Performance Hall, the Concert Hall, the Exhibition Hall, and the Opera Hall. Enhancing the effect, roof is inlaid with hundreds of high-tech lights whose colors change with the music being played inside. Inside, the dark granite floors and richly hued furnishings offer the feeling of being inside a forest, while the metal-layered glass screen walls filter the sunshine for a softly diffused forest floor effect. In operation since July 2005, the center is now home to the Shanghai Symphonic Orchestra.