Acoustic design of Grand Theatre projects in China

In the People's Republic of China a large number of so-called Grand Theatre projects have recently been completed or are at present being constructed. In addition, other Grand Theatres are still on the drawing boards. These new cultural venues, typically housing multiple auditoria, are dedicated to Chinese and western opera, symphonic music and theatre. The present paper discusses the acoustic design of the Wuxi, Weifang and Jinan Grand Theatres. Due to the stringent fast-track design process, it was considered unpractical to carry out conventional computer modelling studies to inform the design. Novel acoustic design techniques were used for fast optimisation of early reflections in close collaboration with the architects during the early design stages. In the later design stages, full acoustic verification was carried out, often while construction was already underway.