A dramatic mountain-shaped theatre in the southern Chinese city of Dali – the latest cultural creation from Beijing architects Studio Pei-Zhu – has entered the final construction phase.

The Yang Liping Performing Arts Center will feature an enormous canopy roof, which falls and rises to evoke the surrounding Cangshan mountain range in China's Yunnan province. Visitors will be encouraged to walk over and under the roof in order to reflect on “the boundless relationship between the earth and the sky.”

The intertwined and latticed form of the facade allows daylight to enter the structure, illuminating a plaza below which also doubles as a performance space. Although covered by the roof, this space will not be enclosed by four walls.

Explaining this unusual design feature, the studio said “we are using the blurred boundary between landscape and stage to explore and erase the boundaries between performer and spectator.”

The finished theatre is expected to open to the public in the first half of 2016. The project’s structural engineer is the Fu Xueyi company and theatre consultant dUCKS scéno has also partnered on the development.

Studio Pei-Zhu have developed a reputation for their unique, nature-inspired designs which play with the concept of space. Earlier this year they unveiled a planned garden installation in Quanzhou National Art Park which will let visitors wander the grounds over, under and around huge stacks of flowers.

Chinese arts space to feature hovering flower garden