Known in the West as Port Arthur, the city of Dalian today is, with its almost six million inhabitants, a major industrial and commercial center seeking to secure its image in the international arena. This image will include what is already the most recognizable icon of the new business district that is going up along the coast: a bulbous volume wrapped in a skin of aluminum scales and containing spaces for large conventions (with capacity for 1,600 people), a theater-concert hall (with seating for 2,500) and a center for exhibitions, besides parking facilities and all the necessary technical zones. All of this has been organized in accordance with a scheme resembling that of a traditional city, with the conference premises separated from one another by inner streets and arranged around a square where the enormous mass of the opera house rises in the middle.

In construction terms the building follows two basic criteria. On one hand, the loadbearing structure is resolved by a dense orthogonal grille that holds up the ground-floor slab, and a three-dimensional lattice that adapts to the complex geometry of the roof. On the other hand, an ambitious environmental strategy combines the job of capturing natural light and winds with an efficient climate-control system based on heat exchange with seawater.