Text description provided by the architects. Ballet, in Asia, is often dismissed as an aristocratic passé, or mistaken for a weak and feminine art form. As the premier platform for the development of Ballet in China，how does one reframe this story to a new Chinese audience? Can the spatial qualities echo the nature of the art form? This was the brief we gave ourselves when we were commissioned to work on the design of the Morning Star Ballet Foundation.
We explored instead, a dual-faceted notion of Ballet, focusing on the one hand, a visual performance of light and grace, and on the other, an intense expression of strength and discipline, often internalized amongst dancers. Thus, the “entry”, akin to Ballet’s external expression, is made as both sculptural spectacle and as passage, rendered in gradients of light. The studio proper, in contrast, is carried through with more solemn palette of greys in varying textures from unfinished concrete to thin set epoxy resin.
To create a seamless sculptural passage, the stair geometry is defined by two rails, one that traces the hand from the edge of the info desk onto the stair rail, another from the outer rail onto the wall, and ceiling. The surface between the rails adopts a slight curvature, generating concave and convex surfaces that gently gradate the northern daylight, thereby giving lightness to the form. Burnt Sienna white was specified in matt and gloss for the walls and inner rail respectively, to complete the space with just a touch of warmth against the cooler concrete.
