The YANGLIUQING microtheatre

Located in Xiqing District, Tianjin, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal，the ancient town of Yangliuqing once served as the hub dock of water transportation connecting the North and South. Since the establishment of the town in the Jin Dynasty, it has gone through the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and the Republic of China dynasties, with a history of over a thousand years. With more and more choices of transportation and logistics in the contemporary world, the necessity of the Grand Canal has been declining year by year, and so do the unique geographical location and economic significance of the ancient town. The traditional ancient architectures in this town, which are mainly made of blue bricks and gray tiles, have been gradually left behind by the tide of people and the times.

In 2021, along with the implementation of the national "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal crossing the National Cultural Park", the mini-theater of Yangliuqing as the initially launched project of the national cultural park, was brought back to the spotlight again. In addition to revitalizing the local economy and providing a venue for traditional opera and cross talk for the local residents, the project also plays a significant role in building a new platform for the inheritance of the traditional Chinese opera and cultures. The design team refined and reconstructed the traditional architectural features of Yangliuqing based on their knowing of traditional dwellings in northern China: using local bricks and gray tiles to ensure the inheritance of local traditions while allowing the new building to better integrate into the environment and enhance the overall visual unity; the form of the structure is optimized and reconstructed by transforming the traditional sloped roof into a continuous curved surface, like the wave and the winding mountain water.

On top of this, considering that the size of the theater might overwhelm the surrounding ancient structures, the design team combined with the practical and functional requirements and adjusted the height: the ridge is the stage part of the theater, the height of the floor should also meet the requirements of the stage exhibition, while the height of the lower one is the audience seats, effectively reducing the overall height of the structure. In the open area, the design team has not only taken the need for outdoor activities in the square into account, but also cleverly combined part of the roof with the audience stands, so that the theater can take part in the daily life of all the residents in this town, providing a recreational zone for pedestrians and children.

Based on innovation, this project not only inherits the traditional elements and memories of Yangliuqing, but also sets up a new direction for the modernization, and injecting new vitality into this ancient town.

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