Harmonizing visuals for Kengo Kuma
We are delighted to share the news that Kengo Kuma has earned one of the runner-up honors of a competition to design the Shenzhen Opera House. To help them visualize their architectural design for the contest, we created an animation which was proposed in the finals.
Shenzhen’s vision for the opera
The aim of the city government is to strengthen Shenzhen’s position as a world-class art destination by establishing “Ten Major Cultural Facilities in the New Era”. The new opera house is the flagship of this cultural belt, envisioned to bring quality entertainment to citizens and to stimulate intercultural exchange. Located at the southern end of Shekou Peninsula, the new landmark will reach into the sea, integrating coasts, greenery, architecture and communities.
The creative process
Kengo Kuma had been named one of the finalists of the contest before the company commissioned Brick to create visuals for the proposal. Three weeks remained to complete the material by the submission deadline, which is not our typical production timeline for creating an animation. Still, we overcame this limitation as the challenge had an invigorating effect on how we approach the project from an artistic viewpoint and how we work as a team as well.
We decided to create a one-minute animation by sequencing 10 mood shots with compact stories. Live-action footage was composited in the foreground of some shots, combined with matte-painted images. We had collected a great number of references which enabled us to portray the atmosphere of the location – a serene wetland park. Gentle camera movements and a soft musical composition, the latter created in-house by Gergely Kis specifically for this project, were identified as key elements in enhancing the solemn union of architecture and nature.
A drama from nature
Making a reference to Kengo Kuma’s project motto, the animation could truly be viewed as “a drama from nature’’. The piece opens with a line of mysterious mood shots, presenting the unique endowments of the location along with fragments of the building. As time passes, the opera house emerges from the fog entirely, revealing its delicate details. In this respect, the story of the architecture unfolds step-by-step, led by the tunes of wind instruments. The animation culminates in a dramatic night-time scene that invites the viewer to contemplate and complete the visual journey.
A heartfelt thank you to Kengo Kuma for entrusting us with such an exciting project. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate again in the future.
To see further animations that we created for high-end clients, click here.
