National Centre for the Performing Arts

The world’s largest new arts centre was constructed in the heart of the Chinese capital. The entire complex, designed by French architect Paul Andrieu, encompasses a theatre, an opera house, a concert hall and a mini theatre, all nestling under a huge steel-glass shell.

The centrepiece of the theatre is a revolving cylinder stage with integrated double-deck podiums, 13 of which are square and 2 rectangular. All elevators have hydraulic linear drives with a lift of over 6.8 metres. The 13 square podiums have no guiderails and are entirely independent from one another and the rigid steel support frame of the stage, while the rectangular podiums are guided. The podiums have automated or manually traps.

The overstage machinery of the theatre consists of 45 vertical drum hoists, which for space reasons are housed in two dedicated machine rooms above the side stage areas, as well as a further 16 hoists of the same type for the lighting, the cyclorama and the backstage as well as side stage areas. The vertical drums are 2.5 m long with a diameter of 162 mm. The distance between the hoists is only 200 mm. The winches are equipped with DMS shear force sensors for load measurement.