Zaha Hadid's Guangzhou Opera House – in pictures

The opera house surrounded by the urban skyline Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung Looking up to the roofline, as night falls and the surrounding office towers begin to light up Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The ramp down to the lower floors; the two pebble-like structures are connected underground Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The staircase rising to the main entrance is lit up at night, showing off the building's sinuous form Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The walkway snaking around the opera house lake. In the daytime, reflections from the water ripple through the structure and across the walls of the foyers Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The newly completed International Finance Tower, designed by British architects Wilkinson Eyre, soars above the opera house. At 440 metres, it is currently the tallest occupied building in Guangzhou Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung A gap, or crevice, between Zaha Hadid's 'pebbles': the main opera house is on the left, and the smaller, multi-purpose auditorium is on the right Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The main foyer, showing its eye-boggling spider's web structure to suitably operatic effect Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The view out from a balcony at night. The city and its towers are always in view; this is the least claustrophobic of opera houses Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung An intergalactic meeting between the exposed steel frame of the opera house and the concrete walls of the freestanding auditorium. The space between the two provides the serpentine foyers Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung An asymmetrical opening from a balcony overlooking the main foyer; the auditorium is encircled by different-sized spaces and meeting places Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung Looking from a balcony to a far corner of the steel skeleton, which shrouds and enmeshes the main auditorium Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung Stairs wind down to the main foyer from an upper level, twisting and curving around the auditorium Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung Spot the straight line. It’s the security door. There are very few right angles in this soaring, swooping building Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung A typical zig-zag staircase reaching theatrically from the main foyers to the three upper tiers of the auditorium Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung A beautiful rehearsal room; the ceiling folds down and over to reach the floor in a dance of acoustic folds and arches Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung Another view of the rehearsal room, with the folds of its ceiling falling like a curtain to the floor Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The grotto-like 1,800-seat auditorium in all its asymmetrical glory Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung The auditorium from another angle, looking like any seashore metaphor you can muster: crab shell, underwater cavern, magic grotto Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung Zaha Hadid takes a seat Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian Photograph: Dan Chung