Meixihu International Cultural Arts Centre

Sweeping white-tiled curves, rising in what have been described as whipped peaks, mark out Zaha Hadid Architects' complex beside Meixi Lake in Changsha. Opened in 2019 across 115,000 square metres, it gathers three institutions under one continuous set of forms: a grand theatre of 1,800 seats, a multi-purpose venue of 500, and MICA, a contemporary art museum with its own atrium, workshops, lecture theatre, café and shop. Pedestrian bridges link the site to Festival Island on the lake, and the metro reaches it directly. Film music has been played in the grand theatre, whose scale suits the orchestral forces such programmes require.