The Tianjin Juilliard School, a campus by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is located near the Haihe River in the Yujiapu business district of Tianjin, China. Tianjin, a port city southeast of Beijing, has undergone intense development in recent years, due to the high-speed train that connects it to the capital in less than an hour.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro was commisioned to design the expansion of the iconic Juilliard campus in New York. Therefore, for the design of Juilliard Tianjin, they establish an architectural connection to the Juilliard School in New York, while capturing the spirit of the city of Tianjin.
“We certainly thought about Price’s Fun Palace and how you can create a place where lots of different things can happen, both programmed and unprogrammed.”
Charles Renfro, the DS+R partner in charge of the Tianjin project
 
Diller Scofidio + Renfro establish a close relationship between the site of the Juilliard School in Tianjin and its context. This is why they designed a central foyer which opens onto the surrounding park and welcomes the public. The foyer is surrounded by concert halls, a recital hall, a black box theatre and a library, all of which are connected by transparent bridging structures. Between these structures, Diller Scofidio + Renfro house classrooms, rehearsal rooms and private teaching studios. The corridors of the complex receive natural light through large skylights. On the rooftop, a garden overlooks the landscape of the Haihe River.

Juilliard Tianjin's state-of-the-art 350,000-square-foot campus is dedicated to performance, practice, research and interactive exhibitions. Diller Scofidio + Renfro thus create communal spaces to welcome the public into the creative process and performance of music.
 

Project description by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The Tianjin Juilliard School is a center for performance, practice, research, and interactive exhibitions, with communal spaces that are designed to welcome the public into the creative process and performance of music. The first performing arts institution in China to offer a U.S.-accredited Master of Music degree, Tianjin Juilliard School presents programs in orchestral studies, chamber music, or collaborative piano; a pre-college program for students ages 8-18; an instrumental training program; adult education; and public performances. Located in the Yujiapu Financial District, the 350,000-square-foot building is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the same firm responsible for the 2009 expansion of Juilliard’s iconic New York home.

The building is composed of four faceted pavilions housing a 690-seat concert hall, a 299-seat recital hall, a 225-seat black box theater, and administrative, faculty, and rehearsal programs. Five glass bridges span an expansive public space that extends the surrounding park into the building, inviting students, visitors and concert goers to mingle, relax and experience the students practicing and giving informal performances. The bridges contain classrooms, teaching studios, and practice rooms, all clad in transparent glass to encourage visual and auditory access to the study of music, inviting both casual and structured exchange between students, faculty and visitors.

With design features throughout that mirror those of The Juilliard School in New York, the institute also utilizes leading edge telecommunication and video conferencing technologies to ensure a high degree of connectivity and collaboration between students and faculty at Tianjin Julliard School and The Juilliard School in New York. The Juilliard Imagination space, for example, is a digitally connected exhibition space, capable of hosting livestreamed concerts between both Juilliard facilities.

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Architects
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Diller Scofidio + Renfro.- Charles Renfro, Elizabeth Diller, Benjamin Gilmartin, Ricardo Scofidio.
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Project team
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Project Directors.- Ellix Wu, David Chacon. Project Architects.- Ayat Fadaifard, Brian Tabolt, Heng-Choong Leong. Project Designers.- Andrés Macera, Yushiro Okamoto, Jack Solomon, Ling Zhang, and Barry Beagen. Architect of record.- East China Architectural Design and Research Institute (ECADI).
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Collaborators
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Engineers.- Structural Engineer.- ECADI with Arup. MEP Engineer.- ECADI with Arup. Consultants.- Façade Engineer.- Front. Acoustics.- Jaffe Holden Acoustics. Theater Design.- Fisher Dachs Associates. Lighting Designer.- Tillotson Design Associates. Landscape Architect.- Hargreaves Jones. AV/IT.- Shen Milsom & Wilke. Sustainability.- Transsolar.
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Builder
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MCC Tiangong Group Co., Ltd.
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Area
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Gross square footage.- 350,000 square feet.
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Client
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Tianjin Innovative Financial Investment Company (TIFI).

The Tianjin Juilliard School is a joint venture partnership among The Juilliard School, the Tianjin Conservatory of Music (TJCM), Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area Administrative Commission, and the Tianjin Innovative Financial Investment Co. (TIFI). The Juilliard School oversees the hiring of senior administration as well as the directing of the academic and artistic curriculum.
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Manufacturers
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Structural System.- GERB Base Isolators (Acoustic and Vibration Isolation). Exterior Cladding.- Metal/glass curtain wall.- RP Technik GmbH Profilsysteme. Precast concrete.- LDI. Wood.- Parklex International S.L. (Facade Wood Cladding). GFRC panel.- Hebei Hongjing GRC Co., Ltd. Windows.- Metal frame.- RP Technik GmbH Profilsysteme. Glazing.- Glass.- Luoyang North Glass Technology Co., Ltd (Facade Glazing). Skylights.- Beijing Jangho Curtain Wall Co., Ltd. Doors.- Entrances.- RP Technik GmbH Profilsysteme. Revolving doors.- Boon Edam. Metal doors.- RP Technik GmbH Profilsysteme. Fire-control doors, security grilles.- IAC Acoustics. Special doors.- IAC Acoustics. Glass Partions.- PDA.- Beijing Keffier Building Materials Co., Ltd. Hardware.- Locksets.- Stanley Black & Decker Inc. Exit devices.- Stanley Black & Decker Inc. Pulls.- Stanley Black & Decker Inc. Security devices.- Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. Interior Finishes.- Acoustical ceilings.- Stanley Black & Decker Inc. Cabinetwork and custom woodwork.- Aurora Furniture. Paints and stains.- Dulux Paints. Wall coverings: SanFoot (Performance Hall Wood Veneer). Paneling.- Leeyin (Mirco-Perforated Wood). Special surfacing.- Kinetics Noise Control (Box-in-box Acoustic isolation). Acoustic performance at World-Class levels required assistance from many specialty acoustic manufacturers, Kinetics Noise Control, IAC Acoustics, Gustav, Rockfom, Leeyin, installed by the two interior fit-out contractors, Beijing Gangyuan and ZFT Culture Building Construction. Wood Floor.- Shenzhen Anrantabu Wood Industry Co. LTD. Carpet.- Interface Carpet Tiles. Special interior finishes unique to this project.- SanFoot (Performance Hall Wood Veneer). Acoustic Banners.- Gerriets Int. Absorber CS. Furnishings.- Office furniture.- Herman Miller, Haworth. Reception furniture.- Aurora Furniture. Chairs.- Haworth. Tables.- Haworth. Performance Hall Seating.- Zhejiang Dafeng Industry Co., Ltd. Lighting.- Task lighting.- Aurora Furniture. Dimming system or other lighting controls.- Lutron. Stage lighting.- Zhejiang Dafeng Industry Co., Ltd. Conveyance.- Elevators/escalators.- Otis.
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Dates
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Completion date.- October 2020.
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Budget
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Total project cost.- confidential.
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Location
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Tianjin, China-Yujiapu (Binhai District).
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Photography
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Diller Scofidio + Renfro Studio. Founded in 1981, Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) is a design studio whose practice spans the fields of architecture, urban design, installation art, multi-media performance, digital media, and print. With a focus on cultural and civic projects, DS+R’s work addresses the changing role of institutions and the future of cities. The studio is based in New York and is comprised of over 100 architects, designers, artists and researchers, led by four partners--Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, Charles Renfro and Benjamin Gilmartin.

DS+R completed two of the largest architecture and planning initiatives in New York City’s recent history: the adaptive reuse of an obsolete, industrial rail infrastructure into the High Line, a 1.5 mile-long public park, and the transformation of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ half-century-old campus. The studio is currently engaged in two more projects significant to New York, scheduled to open in 2019: The Shed, the first multi-arts center designed to commission, produce, and present all types of performing arts, visual arts, and popular culture, and the renovation and expansion of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Most recently, the studio was also selected to design: Adelaide Contemporary, a new gallery and public sculpture park in South Australia; the Centre for Music, which will be a permanent home for the London Symphony Orchestra; and a new collection and research centre for the V&A in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Recent projects include the 35-acre Zaryadye Park adjacent to the Kremlin in Moscow; the Museum of Image & Sound on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro; The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles; the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley; the Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center at Columbia University in New York; and The Juilliard School in Tianjin, China.

DS+R’s independent work includes the Blur Building, a pavilion made of fog on Lake Neuchâtel for the Swiss Expo; Exit, an immersive data-driven installation about human migration at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; Charles James: Beyond Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Arbores Laetae, an animated micro-park for the Liverpool Biennial; Musings on a Glass Box at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris; and Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design at the Jewish Museum in New York. A major retrospective of DS+R’s work was mounted at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Most recently, the studio designed two site-specific installations at the 2018 Venice Biennale and the Costume Institute’s Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. DS+R also directed and produced The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock, a free, choral performance featuring 1,000 singers atop the High Line, co-created with David Lang.

DS+R has authored several books: The High Line (Phaidon Press, 2015), Lincoln Center Inside Out: An Architectural Account (Damiani, 2013), Flesh: Architectural Probes (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), Blur: The Making of Nothing (Harry N. Abrams, 2002), and Back to the Front: Tourisms of War (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996).

DS+R has been distinguished with the first MacArthur Foundation fellowship awarded in the field of architecture, Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential" list, the Smithsonian Institution's 2005 National Design Award, the Medal of Honor and the President's Award from AIA New York, and Wall Street Journal Magazine's 2017 Architecture Innovator of the Year Award. Ricardo Scofidio and Elizabeth Diller are fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and are International Fellows at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
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ECADI, The East China Architectural Research and Design Institute, was renamed the former East China Architectural Research and Design Institute. It was first established in 1952 and is the first large-scale architectural design consultation in New China.

For more than 60 years, the ECADI East China Design Institute has always remained at the forefront of the industry with its great technical skills and constant innovation, and has become a recognized architectural design company with international competitiveness in China.
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Published on: April 15, 2021
Cite: "Thinking about Price’s Fun Palace. Tianjin Juilliard School by Diller Scofidio + Renfro" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/thinking-about-prices-fun-palace-tianjin-juilliard-school-diller-scofidio-renfro> ISSN 1139-6415
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