GOA completes the Earth Valley Theater in Yaohu Village near Yixing, Wuxi, as a 9,200 square metre open air venue designed around interaction between people and birds. Completed in 2025, the project occupies a naturally formed T shaped valley in the Mingling Mountains and combines a 2,300 seat amphitheater with aviaries, public spaces, planted areas and technical infrastructure.
LANDSCAPE
The architects use the existing terrain to organize arrival and circulation. Three plazas at the northern entrance connect with three cuboid halls grouped within a geometric composition. From this point, routes divide spectators before descending toward the theater. Visitors can follow a stepped deck beside the water or take paths shaped by the surrounding terrain, while protected routes maintain separation from the birds’ habitats.
GOA lowers the amphitheater into the valley to reduce its physical impact on the site and coordinate seating with avian flight paths. The arrangement allows raptors to fly independently above the audience at eye level while maintaining appropriate distances between birds and spectators. The theater therefore treats animal behavior as a design condition rather than adding it after the architectural planning.
GOA developed the project alongside the theatrical direction team and Puy du Fou’s avian behavioral consultants. This collaboration informed several technical systems that support the birds’ daily routines. Independent programmers control flicker free LED lighting inside the aviaries and reproduce gradual dawn and dusk transitions. Automated sliding doors and dedicated homing boxes allow birds to leave and return with less human intervention.
Acoustic planning also responds to the presence of the aviaries. Directional line array speakers concentrate sound toward the audience and reduce noise reaching nesting areas. The project integrates theatrical lighting, multimedia equipment and acoustic devices into structural joints and carved concrete recesses, keeping technical infrastructure visually discreet.
Materials connect the theater to Yixing’s association with pottery and local making traditions. GOA uses CNC shaped and hand sculpted concrete with rammed earth effect coatings through public and performance areas. Sand washed finishes provide a rougher surface that reduces glare and helps prevent birds from slipping or becoming visually disoriented.
The aviary structures take a lighter approach. A low carbon steel framework supports free form woven HDPE components that reference local bamboo weaving. The material allows ventilation, limits glare and provides weather resistance while reducing the visual weight of the enclosures.
Environmental systems form another major part of the design. GOA reuses soil excavated from the sunken theater to form surrounding sculptural slopes, creating a site wide earthwork balance. The architects place service functions beneath the terraced seating, where the surrounding ground helps regulate temperature. Stepped green roofs provide additional insulation above these areas.
A hidden slot drainage network collects runoff from the irregular mountain terrain and directs water toward existing flood channels and recycling systems. These networks also support irrigation and seasonal flood management. The project follows China’s Green Building Evaluation Standard at Two Star level or higher.
The Earth Valley Theater brings architecture, animal behavior, performance and environmental engineering into a single open air venue. GOA uses the valley itself as the organizing structure, allowing seating, circulation, aviaries, drainage and planting to respond to the same terrain. The result proposes a different model for avian performance spaces, one that gives birds greater freedom while placing visitors within close visual contact with their flight.
