Tianjin Juilliard School

The Tianjin Juilliard School is a creative centre combining performance, training, research, exhibition and public space, inviting the public to take part in the process of musical creation and performance. The school offers programmes in orchestral performance, chamber music performance and piano arts, a pre-college division for gifted young musicians aged 8 to 18, continuing-education programmes for adults and music professionals, and instrumental instruction for learners of all ages, alongside regular high-quality public performances. It is the first institution in China to award an American-accredited Master of Music degree, and it occupies a 45,000-square-metre site in the Yujiapu Economic and Technological Development Zone of Tianjin. The building is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the firm responsible for the 2009 expansion of Juilliard's New York campus. The building is composed of four polyhedral volumes, including a 690-seat concert hall, a 295-seat recital hall, a 225-seat black-box theatre, and associated administrative and rehearsal spaces. Five glass skybridges link the volumes, drawing the surrounding park environment into the building and providing a rehearsal and performance space for students, citizens and professional musicians to meet. Classrooms, studios and rehearsal halls are set within the glass bridges, and their transparent design encourages exchange among all groups. The Tianjin campus echoes the New York campus in certain respects: both use advanced teleconferencing technology to connect students and faculty across the Pacific. The result is a performing-arts campus that treats transparency and connection as its primary architectural materials, linking music education to the civic life of Tianjin.