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Once the domain of oyster farmers, Hengqin is a mountainous, heavily forested island in the Pearl River estuary adjacent to Macau and the Chinese city of Zhuhai that today is a booming tourist zone. Since its 2009 designation as a special economic district, authorities have rapidly redeveloped Hengqin in an attempt to create China’s answer to Orlando—a typhoon-vulnerable coastal landscape peppered with high-end resorts and a gigantic theme park. (In 2023, Hengqin’s theme park, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, ranked as the sixth-most visited in the world.) Meanwhile, the 41-square-mile island’s smaller, denser casino-heavy neighbor of Macau has been billed as the Las Vegas of Asia for decades.

Flanked by spacious public plazas, the complex is located adjacent to a large park. Photo © Position

Firmly established as a formidable, family-friendly tourist magnet, Hengqin has become more enlightened as of late with the recent debut of a 1.5 million-square-foot cultural hub that favors literature and classical music over roller coasters and dolphin shows.

Soft-launched last September on a waterfront parcel bordered by an existing park on one side and a cluster of residential high-rises on the other, the new Hengqin Culture and Art Complex brings nine different functions under—and on—a single sloping roof: a library, an archives center, a concert hall, a cultural center, an art gallery, a science museum, and activity centers catering to elderly users, teens, and young children.

The south facade of the building. Photo © Hao Zhang

A large skylight helps to illuminate the performance center. Photo © Hao Zhang

Wrapped in a suspended glass curtain wall, the colossal, wedge-shaped complex was designed by Columbia University–educated architect Yunchao Xu, whose Shenzhen-based studio, Atelier Apeiron, won the commission out of a Chinese government-hosted competition in 2018. Prior to establishing Atelier Apeiron, Xu was at the Rotterdam office of OMA and Rafael Viñoly Architects.

“We approached it from the perspective of integrating nine independent buildings into a single complex, and we convinced the client to give each department relative independence in order to proceed with a comprehensive strategy that resolves conflicts and stimulates public energy,” says Xu.

Xu adds that the complex is meant to appeal to both tourists, of which there are many, and the island’s growing number of permanent residents. He calls the project, which embraces “large-scale porosity” while adapting to a dense urban context, a “milestone for the firm that opens new avenues for us to design innovative architecture in the future based on more multi-dimensional thinking.”

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Archways for the library, performance center, and exhibition hall (1); a facade reflection at the library entrance (2). Photos © Shengliang Su

In addition to its immense scale and diverse program, a defining characteristic of the complex is the set of three inverted catenary arches, each a different size and shape, carved into the lower level of the structure on its park-facing side to form monumental, glazed portals leading into the building’s interior. Clad with bamboo and wood, the archways draw daylight into a trio of cavernous halls that offer visitors a “range of parallel world experiences.”

Envisioned as a sort of grand public living room, the Knowledge Hall is a plus-sized media repository inspired by Helsinki’s Oodi Library. Next door, the Performance Hall features an open stage and black box theater configured for dance, music, theater, and opera productions. (Performance spaces also extend to the exterior, including a sunken amphitheater tucked beneath a soaring cantilever at the front of the building and on the roof where an open-air circular auditorium can accomodate a variety of events). Finally, the Exhibition Hall, designed to host large-scale art and science exhibitions, has oversized circular skylights that flood the interior with daylight. Each of the three halls are clad in ribbed wood, which adds visual warmth and aids with acoustics.

View into the library and its “book mountain.” Photo © Position

Entrance to the art exhibition hall. Photo © Shengliang Su

Like the building’s interior, the rooftop of the Hengqin Culture and Art Complex accommodates multiple functions. Comprising four stacked platforms that each offer sweeping views, the activated roof features, in addition to the large event space, an expansive children’s play area, restaurants, and lushly landscaped public gardens. At nearly 120 feet, the highest of the platforms is a rain garden described by the architects as a “sort of ecological laboratory.”

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A cantilever shelters a sunken amphitheater (3); looking down into into the performance hall from one of two spiral staircases (4); view of the open stage through an archway (5). Photos © Shengliang Su (3,4), Hao Zhang (5)

While numerous cultural projects of eye-popping scale have been completed over the last decade across China, particularly in and around Shenzhen, the Hengqin Culture and Art Complex stands apart thanks to its ambitious, smartly executed all-under-one-roof approach. And what a busy roof it is.