CAMPUS HARMONY CANVAS : GLOBAL DESIGN

 

Tianjin - China : In October, the Juilliard Schools branch institution in Tianjin welcomed the inaugural class of graduate students to a campus designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Located about an hour outside of Beijing, the new 350,000-square-foot complex began construction in 2017 and features performance halls, rehearsal rooms and teaching studios, connected by a ground-level lobby that is open to the public.

Expansive windows offer visitors a view into the educational and creative processes.

In China, ''there's still a sense of fascination and curiosity with Western music,'' said Charles Renfro, the partner in charge of the project, noting that the building was designed to be a teaching aid for both students and the community.

As the building neared competition in early 2020, Mr. Renfro said he spent many evenings viewing video walkthroughs, trusting that the firm's partners in China were meeting the precise specifications.

''It forced us into new modes of technological proficiency,'' he said. His team even managed to review the school's acoustically sensitive spaces remotely with the use of instruments that recreated the buildings' sounds virtually in New York.