Dali Transformer Factory Theatrical District by Atelier Alter Architects: A Surreal Industrial Park Reborn as a City-Within-a-Theatre

Situated southwest of Erhai Lake, on the threshold of Dali’s ancient citadel, the Dali Transformer Factory Theatrical District by Atelier Alter Architects transforms a derelict industrial complex into a new cultural engine. Completed in 2023, the 13,358 m² adaptive-reuse project reimagines the abandoned transformer factory as a multilayered theatrical park—an immersive urban landscape where performance, architecture, public life, and memory intertwine.

The redevelopment turns the former workshop, storage, offices, and assembly hall into a network of performance venues, new media installations, restaurants, bars, and theatrical experiences. Anchoring the district is the Transformer Theatre, a hybrid of architectural design, interior scenography, and stagecraft that redefines the very typology of a theatre.

A Factory Between Mountains and Lake Becomes a Cultural Acropolis

The tallest structure within the old citadel, the former assemblage building—now the Transformer Theatre—sits at a dramatic vantage point, with terraces oriented toward Cangshan Mountain to the west and Erhai Lake to the east. Atelier Alter uses paths, ramps, and interconnected roofs to create a layered topography, reminiscent of a contemporary acropolis.

This “undulating plateau” transforms the industrial site into a monumental cultural terrain. As Athens’ rocky hill shaped Western civilization, this new theatrical landscape aims to reawaken Dali’s cultural identity, linking past industry with contemporary performance.

From Single Theatre to “Theatrical District”

Spatial constraints inspired a radical rethink of theatre typology. Instead of a single performance hall, the architects aggregated four existing factory buildings, each taking on a new theatrical function:

• Assemblage Building → Front Stage / Transformer Theatre
• Storage → Backstage Support
• Office → Gift Shop
• Workshop → Theatre Services

The alleyways between the old buildings become cross-stage passages, blurring boundaries between audience circulation, performance zones, and urban space.

Here, theatre is democratized—no longer reserved for elites but embedded in the rhythms of daily life. Borrowing from Lewis Mumford’s idea that “the city is a museum, and the museum is a city,” Atelier Alter proposes:“The city is a theatre, and the theatre is a city.”

The result is a rhizomatic cultural district, where performance sprouts spontaneously in the gaps of daily urban experience.

Heterotopia: Micro-Worlds of Illusion and Reality

As the architecture “spaces out” beyond its functional program, it forms pockets of Heterotopia—illusionary micro-worlds that coexist with reality.

These theatrical micro-spaces appear:

• on rooftops
• inside cut-out clerestories
• as protruding theatrical boxes
• within transformed industrial rooms

Linked together, they form a surreal urban field. Moving through the district becomes a journey across the section of a city, and through the section of ordinary life, amplified through performance.

Industrial DNA Reborn as Theatrical Language

The site’s industrial past—machinery, steel, concrete, mechanical systems—forms the basis of the project’s architectural vocabulary.

Industrial elements become:

• structural motifs
• stage props
• lighting frames
• spatial generators

The result is a “mutated transformer factory” where industry, vernacular architecture, VR art, and immersive theatre collide. The aesthetic tension between Dali’s natural beauty and the factory’s rugged past enriches the city’s evolving cultural landscape.

Immersive Program: A City of Performative Rooms

Ground Floor – Immersive Theatrical Worlds

• Tarot Bar
• Queen's Broadcast Room
• Experimental Cabin
• Research Unit
• Immature Canteen
• High Club Bar

Each area is a unique performance environment, blending linear and nonlinear storytelling with architecture as both stage and performer.

The gift shop connects seamlessly between levels, concluding the visitor's theatrical journey.

Second Floor – Digital Dreamscapes

Performance spaces include:

• Fragment of Memory
• Suspended Sleeping Tank
• High Club mezzanine

Using wire screens, yarn screen projection, action capture, and digital illusions, these rooms push beyond physical space.

Third Floor – Theatrical Dining

• Tarot Bar Extension
• Red Wine Restaurant

The dining spaces extend the narrative, merging industrial motifs with surreal scenography.

Hybrid Performative Spaces

Thematic environments inspired by the factory’s old chemistry lab:

• enlarged machine parts as metaphoric sculptures
• DNA double-spiral staircase spinning inside a parametric “forest”
• AR + VR interactive performance worlds
• electronic wire-screen stages
• an AI-robot performance chamber

Each space becomes a metaphorical meditation on technology, time, and human existence.

Finale: A Floating Stage and Underground Echoes

At the climax of the visitor’s journey is a hybrid dance club + performance stage.The architects repurpose:

• a factory crane
• an industrial cable car

These become a floating, movable stage that rises and descends during performances. Two underground stages echo the motion from below, all equipped with LED ice screens for VR shows.

Old transformer machines are transformed into bar furniture, blurring the line between theatrical illusion and industrial memory.

A Surreal Urban Theatre for Dali

Through immersive performance, industrial reuse, digital storytelling, and architectural reinvention, the Dali Transformer Factory Theatrical District becomes a living cultural organism—a city within a theatre and a theatre within a city.

It stands as a visionary model for urban regeneration, blending heritage, technology, art, and public life into a new cultural landmark for Dali.

All the Photographs are works of Highlite Images, Zhi Xia