Putting On a Show: 7 Remarkable Venues With Real Wow-Factor
Architizer’s 11th Annual A+Awards is open for entries! With a Final Entry Deadline of January 27th, 2023, the clock is ticking — get started on your submission today.
Venues are the vessels of performance, and architecture is perhaps the most overlooked player on the stage. The geometries of events structures must perfect a complex dance that juggles elements such as acoustics, scale, sightlines, illumination and atmosphere. All the world may be a stage, to quote Shakespeare’s enduring words, but it’s the task of the architect to shape the stage into its own palpable world.
Performance spaces, whether theatrical, cultural or athletic, have a storied history that reaches back millennia. Yet, these typologies continue to be revised and rewritten in exciting new ways, as these outstanding winning projects from the 10th Annual A+Awards show. From concert halls and theaters to stadiums, discover seven of the most innovative contemporary venues deserving of a standing ovation.
Zhengzhou Grand Theater
By The Architectural Design and Research Institute of HIT, Zhengzhou, China
Popular Choice Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Hall / Theater
Envisaged as a boat traversing China’s Yellow River, this remarkable performing arts venue resembles a vast ship anchored amid the urban sprawl of Zhengzhou. A series of dramatic metal sails define the exterior; however, the structure’s imposing scale is softened by its receptiveness to the surrounding landscape. Angular glass openings create a rapport between the building and the street outside. After nightfall, the sails illuminate and the interior glows, beckoning passers-by into its theatrical world.
Inside, the complex is home to four large theaters with unique architectural identities. The spaces have been carefully designed to accommodate their differing acoustic needs while ensuring there’s no noise interference between the venues. Undulating balconies, curving forms and dynamic solid surface patterns shape an immersive visual and audio experience.
Andermatt Concert Hall
By Studio Seilern Architects, Andermatt, Switzerland
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Hall / Theater
Originally an underground convention hall, this concrete structure has been transformed into a contemporary concert hall in the picturesque Swiss Alps. The ceiling of the subterranean space was raised to amplify the venue’s acoustics and increase its capacity. From the origami-inspired timber cladding to the inclined balconies and suspended sound reflectors, the interior topography has been carefully orchestrated to create an enveloping space where sound rises and falls around the audience like a wave.
The redesign rejects the conventional notion of the concert hall as an insular, enclosed space. The glazed upper volume protrudes up into the rural landscape, allowing light to pour down into the venue and creating a mercurial backdrop for concerts that shifts with the seasons. Externally, the structure takes on the appearance of an art installation at first glance, the acoustic reflectors floating ethereally amid the mountain peaks. The result is an intriguing invitation to find out more…
Hayward Field
By SRG Partnership, INC, Eugene, Oregon
Popular Choice Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Stadium & Arena
The site of sporting venues since 1919, this state-of-the-art track and field stadium has a hallowed history. The newest iteration of this legacy was inspired by the energy of competing athletes. The asymmetric oval frame of the stadium dips and rises in height as though it’s in motion — a considered decision that increases the density of seats near the finishing line. Meanwhile, a canopy of wooden ribs covered in a translucent skin allows daylight to permeate the stands, shielding the heart of the stadium, the spectators, from the elements.
The athletes’ experiences are prioritized in the architectural fabric of the structure too. As well as a vast complex dedicated to training and recovery below the stands, every element of the stadium has been designed as a vehicle for practice, from the winding stairs at the entrance to the public concourses and ramps clad in track surfacing.
Montforthaus
By HASCHER JEHLE Architektur, Feldkirch, Austria
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Cultural & Expo Centers
This experimental venue is situated in a medieval town in western Austria. It was designed as a fluid space, capable of hosting everything from conventions and balls, to theater, pop concerts and classical performances. While its architectural form is strikingly contemporary, the structure doesn’t stand in conflict with its historic surroundings. Instead, traditional regional materials have been reimagined in a modern lexicon, creating a continuity between old and new.
The complex comprises an array of multipurpose events spaces, each shapeshifting in their scale and functionality. The large concert hall features over 300 square meters of adjustable surfaces, including six movable acoustic sails across the ceiling for a customizable aural experience. Height limitations posed an initial challenge to the design, which meant rethinking the theatrical rigging system. Instead, the classic fly tower was reimagined as interchangeable segments, an especially innovative configuration.
Quzhou Stadium
By MAD Architects, Quzhou, China
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Stadium & Arena
Embedded within an urban park, this extraordinary sports complex in Quzhou was devised to blur into the rolling topography. Six hills, a lake and sunken gardens sit in harmony with the structure, which is nestled within a crater-like recess in the ground. The entrances to the stadium appear as apertures in the earth, oversized burrows of sorts. From a distance, the only tell-tale sign of the arena’s presence is the translucent halo of the roof, which seemingly floats above the landscape like a cloud.
Encircled by woodland, the park sits at a distance from the city, the organic terrain a counterpoint to the developed skyline. The project offers a rebuttal to the typology of the stadium as a display of power — one that often appears to dominate the landscape. Instead, the sporting spirit is sensitively imbued into a communal outdoor space, placing the training of elite athletes alongside the quotidian physical activities of city dwellers.
Intuit Dome
By Cloud Architects, Inglewood, California
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Unbuilt Sport & Recreation
Combining sports with sustainability, the ground-breaking basketball stadium of the LA Clippers is striving to become the world’s first carbon-neutral arena. Harnessing Southern California’s sunny climate, the stadium, which is currently under construction, will be enveloped by a gridshell crowned with a solar array. The building will run entirely off electricity derived from the sun, while its solar battery storage system will have enough capacity to power a basketball game or concert. Coupled with natural ventilation and initiatives to eradicate landfill waste and improve local air quality, the arena will have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the region.
Embracing environmental responsibility hasn’t compromised the experience of fans either. The pioneering design will feature a bowl-style seating arrangement that ensures each seat has an unimpeded sightline, as well as integrated at-seat refreshment services. Meanwhile, the architects conceived the arena’s interior to optimize the Clippers’ home-court advantage — 51 rows of seats will flank one of the baskets, dubbed the ‘Wall of Sound’.
Winter Park Library & Events Center
By Adjaye Associates, Winter Park, Florida
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Libraries
This community development in Florida was designed as a cultural micro-village amongst the tropical terrain. Encompassing the northwest corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, the complex comprises three pavilions that house a two-story library, an events center and a welcome portico, as well as a number of outdoor socializing areas. The scheme’s radical design articulates its core principles of empowerment, education and unity with the natural world.
Just as the indoor buildings flow out seamlessly to the exterior meeting spaces, the divisions between the designated interior zones are porous. The library and events center feature flexible floor plans that promote the cross-pollination of ideas. Rather than a traditional, closed design, the tiered auditorium is open at the back to the rest of the events complex, encouraging engagement and participation. Here, the venue is not a singular confined space but a permeable zone of collaboration.
Architizer’s 11th Annual A+Awards is open for entries! With a Final Entry Deadline of January 27th, 2023, the clock is ticking — get started on your submission today.
This multi-residential project by Cherem Arquitectos on the outskirts of Mexico City is the contemporary equivalent of the traditional Mexican Hacienda. The project consists of a dozen flat roofed buildings interspersed by three main courtyards and large, lush gardens. Inside, the firm aimed to create a strong contrast between the large paneled concrete walls and the natural light entering from skylights. This is accentuated by the rich display of plants and native artwork throughout, suggesting an artisanal quality to the houses’ rough concrete finishes.
This 1960s suburban house in Mérida, Yucatán was recently renovated by TACO Taller de Arquitectura Contextual to accommodate the accessibility needs of the aging property owners. As part of the renovation, the firm gave a nod to the original era of the house with a new second skin: a lattice of compressed white cement made with discontinued molds from the sixties. The semi-permeable walls provide a new textured intermediary between interior and exterior, where both sunlight and interior light play in unique ways with the circular patterns.
This new home designed for a retired couple on the outskirts of Oaxaca is what the firm Espacio 18 Arquitectura has described as “an oasis at the city limits”. The house is modeled like an old colonial house from downtown Oaxaca with a floorplan centered around the kitchen and the central patio, where the couple hopes to host numerous social events. Likewise, the architectural combination of smooth concrete, timber and bright red clay brick creates a warm, hospitable atmosphere in the house’s congregation spaces. No doubt the homeowners will be recurring dinner party hosts.
This modestly sized house located in an industrial neighborhood of Santiago de Querétaro manages to look rugged and hospitable at the same time. Intersticial Arquitectura undertook major renovations to this once deteriorating one-story concrete house, decluttering the space with the addition of a luminous and well-ventilated second floor. The renovation also combines rugged and smooth concrete sections for the new walls – a play of textures that pays homage to the local industrial heritage without losing the warm touch of the former building.
Concealed underground, Yuyuan Station is Shanghai’s deepest transport hub. Elevating the experience of this subterranean space came with its challenges. Essential elements of the site, including the walls, columns and flooring, could not be altered. Nevertheless, the architects delivered an immersive scheme that consumes the senses of its users.
Revising religious architecture can be an imposing task, one that calls for reverence in the same breath as reinvention. This contemporary church in the Calabrian region of southern Italy negotiates that careful dance between tradition and innovation. While its organic, cross-shaped plan is inspired by some of the country’s most impressive Baroque churches, the interior is something of an inversion of the ornate domed designs of its predecessors.
In another life, this building in Spain’s Catalan region was a warehouse. Once a dark space of industry, it’s now been sensitively transformed into a modern light-filled residence. However, traces of the structure’s history still take center stage thanks to considerate spatial organization.
Situated in the Chinese city of Suzhou, this pioneering café was inspired by the concept of returning to the origin of life. The interior is an unexpected convergence of old and new, responding to the historic street outside while reimagining commercial typologies through a futuristic lens.
A performance complex of impressive proportions, the Zhengzhou Grand Theater encompasses four large venues with distinct architectural characters. In one hall, the walls ripple with a daring solid surface design in pink and orange hues. Narrow, repetitive channels envelop the room, resembling the interior architecture of a living, breathing organism, while the carefully considered contours were crafted to meet high acoustic standards.
Nestled in the arid Nevada desert, this residence reads as an extension of the topography, both externally and internally. Retractable walls of glass, which span across two different aspects, peel away in the main living and dining zone, erasing the boundary between natural and built environments. Exposed rock excavated from the site lines the walls of the living spaces and orients the home within the same tactile language as the rugged terrain.
This visually striking bar and restaurant in Beijing eschews right angles and straight lines. Approaching the curved threshold to this daring space is like delving into a warren. The arched entrance draws the eye down through a cocoon-like portal defined by dark, earthy colors.
Dating back to 1984, the lobby of this postmodern building in New York City underwent a contemporary update by architectural firm Gensler. While remaining respectful of the scheme’s heritage materials and capacious proportions, the towering, triple-height ceiling now arches softly around the space. The convex lines of the engraved oculus emphasize the vaulted barrel design, accentuated by the illuminated perimeter, which imparts a celestial, almost weightless effect.
Firm Location: Tokyo, Japan
Firm Location: Taipei, Taiwan (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Auckland, New Zealand (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Tasmania, Australia (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Firm Location: Delft, Netherlands (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Sopot, Poland
Firm Location: Vancouver, Canada
Firm Location: Los Angeles, California (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Salmiya, Kuwait (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Firm Location: Helsinki, Finland
Firm Location: Hong Kong, China
Firm Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Firm Location: Melbourne, Australia (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: London, United Kingdom (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Firm Location: Jacksonville, Mississippi
Firm Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Firm Location: Hangzhou, China
Firm Location: Seattle, Washington (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: New York City, New York (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Folkstone, United Kingdom
Firm Location: Shanghai, China (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Beijing, China
Firm Location: Shanghai, China
Firm Location: Shenzhen, China
Firm Location: Istanbul, Turkey (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Boston, Massachusetts (Headquarters, with offices elsewhere)
Firm Location: Kharkiv, Ukraine
Firm Location: Paris, France
Firm Location: Mumbai, India
This redevelopment in Budapest seeks to reconnect the urban landscape with the adjacent Danube River with an aquatic-inspired glass addition to an old commercial center. Most noticeably, the curving glass dome imitates a streamlined body of a whale. But the design is subtle enough that the glass addition takes a life of its own, beyond its biomorphic origins.
Given the eclectic mix of architecturally distinct campus buildings in its vicinity, it was fitting that this new library at the University of Chicago should stand out as well. The elliptical glass dome design elegantly rejects the common utilitarian box-shaped university libraries; in doing so creates a more natural and people-friendly place to do studies. Like a biodome, the library’s reading room offers a sunny, outdoor-like atmosphere without the inconveniences of being outside.
This new multi-purpose commercial space in the seaside town of Middelfart, Denmark brings a brisk change to the architectural cityscape, without excessively sticking out. The white slanted roofs offer a sharp contrast to the old town’s color palette, but the structure’s scale and proportions are not out of line with the neighborhood. Similarly, the triangular-shaped cornices that adorn the roof — which cleverly double as skylights — are a bold architectural choice, yet they simultaneously offer an imitation of ocean waves. It’s not a coincidence that those very windows provide a direct view of the Lillebælt seaside.
The central motif of this new transport hub in Salvador, Brazil consists in large overlapping semi-cylinders stacked like fallen dominoes. Conveniently enough, this slanted pattern allows for slivers of sun to pass through concealed, arching skylights, brightening the main station considerably.
While the design concept for the roofing on this project was supposedly based on the shape of a canyon, this retail center in Frankfurt turns curving glass on its head very literally. The resulting concoction, a light and airy shell, appears like a water funnel, a vortex or a portal into another dimension.
With two preexisting exhibition halls on the site, the architects were tasked with creating a harmonious third that would expand the existing buildings’ functions while adding an integrated path to connect all three. An urban concourse is an open concourse in Goyang City while weaving the entire exhibition hall, and it is connected to an outside walking square to become a communication space between the city and citizens. While the architectural precedents exuded a somewhat soft image (the existing buildings were inspired by a flower and a butterfly), overall the complex needed to project its identity as a global business platform.
Architects everywhere are tasked with building high quality spaces at the lowest possible costs. This is no different for architects in Iran, where micro living spaces aren’t just space-saving solutions in dense cities; they’re increasingly seen as cost-saving measures on large lots. This particular tiny home falls into the latter category. Sited in a forested and mountainous area, the metal-framed villa is raised above the ground so that it stands amongst the surrounding trees. with their trunks and create a sense of suspension in it. So, one column, like the trunks of trees, separate the building from the ground and lift it up.
Inspired by the movie “A Single Man”, which features a Californian home built by the one and only Lautner, this residential project involved the renovation and extension of an existing house. The resulting design was based on the principle of the viewfinder of a camera — a reference to the professional activity of one of the residents — and in this vain, each room has just one window to look out, as if you were looking through the lens of your camera.
Minneapolis’s Government District makes a stately architectural statement of civic duty. Yet, the dominant materiality of the historical area is granite: a material that may be associated with strength, but does not exactly emit democratic values openness and unity. This new contemporary alternative asks: “How can our public spaces better reflect the communities they serve?” In response, the design’s soaring glass and aluminum façades and double height pockets break up its massing, announcing themes of transparency and connection that continue inside. In recent year as, public trust in government has slipped; civic buildings can stand as monuments of the ideals that democracies should strive towards: a collective, reflective and pluralistic future.
Old becomes new in this distinctive update on this traditional A-frame cabin, located in the woods of northern Iran. One key aspect of this is the split that forms down the center of the the conventional sloping roof, which is filled with luminous glass window instead. Then, the usual sharp-angled corners of the A-frame are softened with curving lines, imbuing the structure with a sense of warmth and playfulness.
Earth colours, deep greens, deep reds with oak and stone, terrazzo finishes make up the warm and welcoming color palette for this three-person home which boldly blends forest cabin with luxury mid-century vibes. Embracing the family’s passion for pushing the design envelope, the interior is shaped by a composition of intersecting blocks, structures, textiles and colors. This compositional move at once separates the spaces while, at the same time uniting them under the umbrella of a consistent design. Unique spaces abound; one particularly delightful standout is a private tree house inside a child’s room.
This bright, yellow temporary urban installation represented Ethiopian history and culture while reflecting the existing reality morphing into a joyous “New beginning’. Two grand colossal vertical tower components form both a portal and a performance stage on Meskel square. These towers are flanked by numerous diagonal satin strips, varying inclinations, sizes, locations, and linkages that depict diversity. In the face of myriad challenges — climatic, social and economic — Ethiopians’ resilience in tolerating pressure and moving spiritedly forward is reflected in the fabric’s flexibility. 
Bijlmer Bajes was once an Amsterdam prison; now, it is a pleasant, safe and social urban neighbourhood. With a total program of 135.000m², the mixed-use masterplan was sprawling, but the former correctional facilities that stood on part of the site served a disproportionately large role in the overall design. Visually, three key elements — the canal, the main building and the wall — became motifs that guided the architects in designing a cohesive community space with a distinct urban feel.
Following the C40’s design priorities for the 10 climate challenges, this adaptive reuse project exemplifies a new architectural model of building for circularity and inclusivity. The master plan layers various programmes with the aim of inspiring habit changes in inhabitants, ultimately encouraging a carbon-neutral lifestyle. From urban farming to vertical timber greenery facades, the eco-conscious design provides practical functions, while harnessing construction techniques that won’t add unnecessary environmental stress.
The expressive, geological form of this two-story private home couldn’t be more apt for its setting. Sitting proudly at the foot of the Catalina mountains, the Ventana House straddles a line between the sprawling desert and a protected mountain peak. Yet, the rock metaphor can be extended. As the architects explain, the building is “like a geode,” with a surprisingly elegant, inviting and light-filled interior, the spaces of which are sequenced to move visitors through space cinematically by reorienting them while simultaneously revealing both interior and exterior spaces through the gaping windows.