After the recently announced project for the Alisher Navoi cultural centre in New Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Zaha Hadid Achitects adds another work to a portfolio that in recent times increasingly combines the habitual expressive dynamism of sinuous and aerodynamic, sometimes futuristic forms with the search for formal, material and constructive elements rooted in the ancestral memory of the country in which the firm operates.

This is the turn of China, where in the Shangyu cultural district of Shaoxing, in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, ZHA has been selected to design the new Zhejiang Shaoxing Shangyu District Cao'e River Culture and Art Centre. The complex, nestled on the banks of the historic Cao'e River, is designed to host local and international productions of symphonic music, opera, dance and theatre, and includes a 1,400-seat Grand Theatre, 500-seat Black-Box Multifunctional Hall, 2,900 sq. m Arts and Education Centre, 3,000 sq. m Conference Centre, 7,500 sq. m Heritage Museum and a 10,000 sq. m Digital Art Gallery.

Fluid volumes that seem to be moulded by the wind are articulated around a system of inner courtyards as a natural extension of the interior spaces.  The majestic sloping roofs, equipped with generous overhangs and integrated with photovoltaic panels, derive their articulated geometry from the solar analysis of the site in all seasons, to provide self-shading zones that effectively reduce solar heat gain, in response to the region's subtropical monsoon climate. Outside, public spaces articulated on terraces connect the building to the city, offering the community a variety of parks, natural gardens and spaces for recreation along the river. 

The design pays homage to the local architectural tradition, and in particular to the pitched roofs of historic buildings covered with glazed tiles, here re-proposed in a contemporary key through the exterior cladding of jade green Celadon tiles, whose origin in the area dates back some 1,200 years.