The Songshan Lake Exhibition and Performance Center, designed by ZHA in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, is a new cultural and sports facility in Dongguan City, China. It's located in the city's High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, a technological innovation and science city established in 2001 as a hub for research, development, and high-tech manufacturing. Covering a total floor area of 45,000 square metres, the new cultural centre was designed to be a civic and cultural anchor for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The construction of the riverside building started in 2021, and the complex was officially opened on March 30, 2026.
The new Songshan Lake Exhibition and Performance Center stands by southern China's Pearl River estuary, at the centre of a mixed-use masterplan to revitalise the Songshan Lake waterfront. Informed by the region's traditional Lingnan architecture, the extended overhang of the building's roof maintains generous levels of natural light throughout the interiors while protecting the building and its outdoor spaces within Dongguan's humid subtropical climate. The building opens to a sheltered public plaza, garden terraces, and waterfront promenade on Songshan Lake for residents and visitors.
The design incorporates multiple distinct structures that crescendo and flare, rising at its western edge to frame the main theatre and exhibition space and evoking the traditional silk "water sleeves," white extensions of robes worn by performers of Cantonese Opera. A 1,200-seat Grand Theatre and an Exhibition Hall are designed to host large-scale productions by local, national, and international performers, in addition to conferences, industry forums, art exhibitions, and sporting competitions. Another 400-seat Multifunction Hall is expected to host smaller theatrical productions and children's theatre.
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From Deconstructivism to Barrier-Breaking Achievements: Zaha Hadid’s Legacy 10 Years After Her PassingThe Grand Theatre's walls and ceiling are defined by 100,000 slender spines, varied in length, density, and tone, that enhance sound diffusion, control reverberation, and disperse standing sound waves to enrich acoustic clarity throughout the theatre. The interiors incorporate aluminium and glass-reinforced gypsum for low-maintenance operations. Prefabricated ultra-high-performance concrete cladding, cast from reusable moulds, was chosen to reduce construction time, CO2 emissions, and waste.
Prefabricated aluminium soffits and roof panels feature a light grey opalescent finish to minimise solar heat gain at the centre's low-latitude location. The centre's roof includes photovoltaic arrays and rainwater harvesting to generate on-site renewable energy and reduce water consumption. The sheltered public plaza, garden terraces, and waterfront park combine permeable surfaces and re-planted wetlands to mitigate flood risk and enhance local biodiversity.
The new cultural complex's public programme was inaugurated with its opening concert, "The Sound of Songhu," led by the China National Symphony Orchestra. As the birthplace of Cantonese Opera, an art form dating back over 700 years to the Song Dynasty, Dongguan's traditional costume forms have inspired the centre's design. Designed by ZHA to serve as a civic and cultural anchor of a growing community, the new venue will host a variety of national and international events, exhibitions, and performances for audiences of all ages.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Zaha Hadid's passing. ZHA continues to develop a contemporary evolution of her signature architecture, a distinctive, mathematical, and, in her own words, "fluid" architectural language. Recent projects by the office include the International Gateway Centre (IGC) in West Kowloon, a mixed-use development nearing completion in Hong Kong; a design for the redevelopment of the waterfront as a sequence of landscaped parklands, terraces, and gardens along the Zhedong Canal basin in Hangzhou, China; and the new Bishoftu International Airport (BIA), designed for the Ethiopian Airlines Group, currently under construction.
