Harbin Grand Theater is located in the riverside wetland on the north bank of Songhua River. The whole project covers an area of ​​1.8 square kilometers and has a construction area of ​​79,000 square meters. It is part of the northern part of Sun Island, a famous natural habitat of this northern capital. In February 2010, MAD won the design right of the cultural center project through a competition. The whole building complex is expected to be completed in 2014 and will usher in the city's famous music event, Harbin Summer Concert, in July of the same year.

With the dual nourishment of Chinese local culture and Russian exotic culture, Harbin has the reputation of being the music capital of the north. Unlike other theaters, Harbin Grand Theater is not located in the administrative center of the city as an isolated city landmark. Instead, it is based on the local natural context and the reasonable protection and utilization of ecological wetlands. Harbin Grand Theater, the Workers' Cultural and Art Palace, the Ten Thousand People Square and the original ecological wetland landscape park together form a "cultural island" to achieve the integration of humanity, art and nature.

The Cultural Island is surrounded by water, with the open river bank as the background, like a continuous glacier connected, and it is naturally between cohesion and flow. The main entrance bridge is like a jade belt across the wetland, connecting the city and the Grand Theater. Several flowing buildings extend to the surroundings, using the undulating terrain to lead people from different directions to the entrance of the Grand Theater and the Palace of Culture and Art. As the central building of the Cultural Island, the external ramp of the Grand Theater is like the trace left by the wind across the snow-capped mountains, guiding people to walk from indoors to outdoors, from the ground to the air. People can climb up along the landscape corridor and enjoy the surrounding natural and cultural landscapes at different heights. At the highest point of the building complex, people are like standing on the top of the mountain, and the entire wetland scenery is in full view.

The design of the Grand Theater is inspired by the ice and snow style of the north. As a continuation of the environment, the architectural form dissolves the sense of volume of such large-scale buildings with the rhythm of nature. The entire building complex is like a snow-capped mountain, stretching and undulating, becoming part of the landscape of the earth.

The exterior surface of the Grand Theater building is a specially made pure white aluminum plate, and some walls are also made of white stone and concrete, giving people a pure feeling like ice and snow. The natural lighting design of the skylight on the top of the auditorium can fully meet the indoor lighting during the day, which is both energy-saving and can create a special light and shadow atmosphere. The Grand Theater consists of two theaters, large and small. The Grand Theater can accommodate 1,600 people and consists of a bottom pool and two floors of balcony seats. A large amount of solid wood is used in the interior space. On the one hand, it provides the best acoustic effect for the Grand Theater's viewing hall; on the other hand, these solid wood shapes form a contrast of cold and warm tones with the white walls, revealing the unique warm atmosphere of the snow-capped wooden house. The stage design of the theater is not only suitable for the performance of Western operas and modern dramas, but also meets the viewing requirements of traditional Chinese dramas. The acoustic and lighting design provides a high-level internal environment. The second-floor VIP seats wrapped in acrylic curved lamp bodies are transparent and shimmering, like huge stars floating under the dome of the theater. The stage part is a standard herringbone stage, combined with a multi-functional lifting design of the orchestra pit, which can meet the needs of large-scale performances such as operas and dance dramas. The 400-seat small theater, which is connected to the Grand Theater, mainly performs dramas, chamber music, and operas. The open-type design of the backstage curtain wall allows the stage backboard to be unfolded like a wide screen, with nature as the background, integrating the indoor and outdoor landscapes. The outdoor water surface can also be used as an outdoor auditorium, and the stage with the curtain wall opened becomes an unobstructed panoramic stage. The original design gives the Grand Theater a grand and delicate dramatic effect to adapt to the innovation and variability of modern theater art.

The Grand Theater shows the rich layers of urban scale, natural scale and human scale, fully realizing the publicity and participation of cultural buildings. The edge of the entire Grand Theater is intertwined with the river bank and wetland green fields, blurring the boundary between nature and man-made. The interlaced combination of open spaces such as ramps, bridges, aerial platforms and squares brings people closer to nature. People can get different sensory experiences according to the distance. The huge artificial lake between the Grand Theater and the Palace of Culture and Art forms a virtual and real contrast with the building. A long landscape bridge spans between them, creating a Zen realm of "emptiness/nothingness?" People can walk eastward from the Grand Theater along the landscape bridge to the Palace of Culture and Art next to the Ten Thousand People Square. This comprehensive building with a construction area of ​​41,000 square meters echoes the Grand Theater in shape, and its functions include staff training, meetings, cultural education, exhibitions, hotels and catering. These facilities will provide visitors, audiences and staff with humanized and diverse spaces to the maximum extent.

From the start of the project design in 2010 to August 2013, the overall structure of the Grand Theater has been capped and the entire project has taken shape. In the coming year, the building facade curtain wall, interior space and environment construction will be completed. This emerging cultural island in Harbin is gradually emerging to promote the integration of humanities, art and nature in the northern capital, and will become a source of nourishment for the soul of this city.