Client
Nanjing Municipal Government
Location
Nanjing, China
Completion date
2017
Jiangsu Grand Theatre is located at the new development district of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, China. The project started at the beginning of 2013 and completed in May 2017.
Jiangsu Grand Theatre is the largest performing arts centre project in China to open in the past 10 years. The development includes six performing halls: 2,300-seat opera house, 1,500-seat concert hall, 1,000-seat drama theatre, 3,000-seat conference hall (can be used for variety shows) and two small conference halls.
Jiangsu Grand Theatre is a government project, invested by the Jiangsu Provincial government. The architect for this project is the East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (ECADI), based in Shanghai.
Our Scope
Marshall Day Acoustics provided the full acoustic design and consulting services for:
- The 2,300 seat opera house
- The 1,500 concert hall
- The 1,000 drama theatre
- Associated spaces, including rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, and foyers etc.
During the whole design and construction phase Marshall Day Acoustics cooperated closely with the architects, interior designers, stage machinery designers, lighting engineers, sound system engineers, and site contractors to create the acoustic excellence of the performing and rehearsal spaces.
Opera House
The main functions of the opera house are the performances of opera, musicals, ballet and variety shows. This auditorium is designed for uncompromised natural acoustics to suit unamplified Opera. The sound in the hall possesses sufficient reverberance and fullness to support musicians and opera singers, meanwhile having high sound clarity. The design has effectively guided reflections throughout the audience areas from the stage so that every member of the audience in the hall can hear sufficiently loud sound during unamplified performances. The design has included acoustic banners to be installed at the upper part of rear and side walls to reduce the reverberation time for amplified performances (the acoustic banners have not been installed yet but the spaces for installing the acoustic banner driving mechanism are reserved in the ceiling space).
Concert Hall
The main functions of the concert hall are western symphonic concerts, Chinese folk music concerts, chorus and solo; all unamplified. Both client and architect wanted the concert hall to be a perfect ellipse. Such geometry is not common for concert hall as there is the potential for focusing sound effects and an uneven sound quality distribution. Marshall Day developed a solution, in harmony with the flowing water theme, by creating a wave on the elliptic wall that grows as the wall rises above the circulations. The wave creates natural sound diffusion that scatters the strong reflections in many directions. This has the dual effect of eliminating the focusing effect as well as increasing the homogeneity of the acoustic quality in the hall.
In addition, the ceiling which is built as various streams of water, provides opportunity to provide further early lateral sound reflections. This significantly increases the intimacy and envelopment of the hall, even for the most distant seats. The stage is located within the audience hall surrounded by the audience seats to achieve visual intimacy between musicians and audience.
Through our collaborative approach, the acoustic design is a fully integrated into the architecture and interior design and is rendered invisible. The space has maintained the architect's intentions while providing an equally exceptional quality of sound to seats throughout the hall.
Drama Theatre
The main functions of the drama theatre are spoken drama, Beijing opera and various local operas. This auditorium is designed to provide suitable reverberation and high clarity for the performances to be held in the hall. The attention is also given to support actors on stage and musicians in the pit.
