As one of the major projects for improving Beijing's role as the nation's International Exchange Center, the Beijing International Theatrical Center, a new venue of Beijing People's Art Theater, has recently been completed. Building a new theater in the heart of the city is no easier than "doing ballet on an egg." From preserving the old building to installing a glass block wall, this new place of art couldn't have been created without craftsmanship spirit.

Precise Construction: "Ballet on Egg"

Beijing People's Art Theater is an essential cultural icon of Beijing that has been carrying the cultural sentiments of the citizens. Back in 1955, the Capital Theater was constructed at 22 Wangfujing Street as the professional theater of Beijing People's Art Theater.

Now, a new theater is built on the east side of the Capital Theater, namely the Beijing International Theatrical Center whose construction area is approximately 23,000 square meters. Two professional drama theaters, "Cao Yu Theater" and "Small Theater of Beijing People's Art Theater," which can accommodate an audience of 700 and 300 respectively, can be found in this center.

To build a new theater in the core zone, the key is to harmonize with the outlook of this ancient capital. To be consistent with the overall artistic style of the Capital Theater, the newly built Beijing International Theatrical Center not only pursues harmony with the external facade of the older one but also strictly controls the ground level. To this end, a design scheme of four stories underground and three stories above the ground was adopted, which means that there is a deep foundation pit underground where the audience cannot see. According to Zhang Jinfeng, manager of the Beijing People's Art Theater project from Beijing Urban Construction Yatai Group, the average depth is 18.4 meters and the deepest place is 20.2 meters deep. What's more, the foundation pit is only 1.78 meters away from the building line of the brick-concrete structured Capital Theater with a maximum acceptable deformation and displacement of 5 millimeters. Taking this very fact into consideration, one can imagine the difficulty of the construction.

"In the end, we kept the deformation within 0.4 millimeters, which can be almost considered as an instrument error for a huge project like this," Zhang said. Such precise construction is just like "doing ballet on an egg."

Rounds of Demonstrations: Glass Blocks Only for Decoration, Not for Load-bearing

The moment the reporter entered the lobby of the Beijing International Theoretical Center, a high L-shaped glass block wall caught her eye. Beams of summer afternoon sunlight refracted through the glass met the light reflected from the marble floor, creating a wall of light and shadow that lights up the lobby and improves the interior aesthetics of the theater. Upon inquiry, the reporter learned that this 60-meter-long and 12-meter-high wall is composed of 32,000 glass blocks.

"According to our experience, glass block walls are mostly installed in an entryway or as a low partition wall in a limited area for decorative purposes and in most cases, its height will not exceed three meters. 12 meters in height is far beyond the load-bearing capacity of glass blocks," said Zhu Changyu, executive manager of this project. After rounds of demonstrations, the project department decided to build this wall in a layer-by-layer upside-down way. They first built the keel with T-shaped steel beams and then divided the overall structures into three spans. Each span had four three-meter-long stainless-steel rods to connect the glass blocks together. The upper and lower joints were fixed by corner connectors and steel beams. Therefore, the construction was conducted from the top to the bottom, so the glass block wall won't bear any load but is only for decoration. In this way, the wall gives full play to its delicate design while meeting the safety regulations. At the same time, to make the mortar joints of the wall as invisible as possible, the transparency of glass glue used in the construction is also the closest to that of the glass blocks.

Magical Experience: Unique Starlight Effect of Ceiling Decoration

The stage is the heart of an advanced theater. In the medium-sized theater, Cao Yu Theater, the walls are made from thousands of pieces of sound-absorbing materials with special fire-retardant treatments. The stage sound system adopts acoustic holography and even the red cushions on the seats are all made from sound-absorbing materials so that they can provide an immersive sound experience for the audience in the future.

What is even more amazing is that by installing delicate fiber optic bundles at different depths and angles on the ceiling of the auditorium, a unique starlight effect will be presented to the audience. The brightness of each "star" can be adjusted to create a peaceful and serene atmosphere for performances. The Beijing International Theatrical Center is expected to open to the audience soon and it will become one of the highest-level professional drama theaters in China. By then, the Beijing People's Art Theater will welcome audience from all over the world with its five theaters and present numerous fantastic cultural performances.

(Reporter: Zhao Yingying)