The exterior’s fluidity is also predominant in the interior spaces. Upon entering the grand day lit lobby, you’re mesmerized by the billowing form of the lattice structure below the atrium roof and the immense wooden mass that contains the opera. Sculpted from Manchurian Ash that elicits a warmth that is sorely needed in  the ice-white interior, the sculptural volume of the opera is designed as per the architects to emulate “a wooden block that has been gently eroded away”. The sinuous wooden skin is also used inside the theater where it wraps around the stage and seating, all the way to the ceiling where, at the back, it surprisingly incorporates a skylight.

In contrast to the opera’s introverted design, the smaller theater opens up to the exterior through a soundproofed glass wall that acts as the stage’s backdrop providing spectacular views. Although rectangular in plan, the space is far from regular as it features undulating walls, their ripples made all the more dramatic by the daylight flooding in through the glass façade.

While the public plaza provides ample space for outdoor activities and performances, the architects have also designed a second exterior performance space located on top of the main volume. Accessible through curving paths along the building’s mass and open to the general public, the space, which doubles as an observation platform with views of both the city skyline and the surrounding marshlands, truly epitomizes MAD Architect’s philosophy of treating architecture as landscape.