With the city of Zhangjiagang, China lacking their own identity, Gras Arquitectos aims to create a presence and scale with their Tangram Theatre, which won the second prize in the international competition. This mutual need can enable the creation of a new urban icon, an item that addresses a new identity to the city. Historically, the icon of Chinese cities is the pagoda: from the forbidden city to the unknown monument in rural China. The architects intend to create a theatre that becomes a sort of pagoda, icon for the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
How can the building evolve from the straight forward icon-pagoda solution to a more conceptual one? Combining the natural feature of the water, the river, natural icon, and the artificial icon, the pagoda. Combining the 2 icons: the natural, river, and the artificial, pagoda, The truth, reality of the architectural icon, pagoda, blurs in the water reflection: this distortion of the real thing, equal in soul but vague in the form can be matched to the dream world of the theatre: a blurred representation of the reality: things that appear what they are but are not: the Chinese theatre.
