In 2024, a fire destroyed the building of the Khabarovsk Regional Academic Musical Theater. Completed in 1977, it was designed by M. A. Sheinfein at the Boris Mezentsev Central Research and Design Institute, which specialized in standard and experimental design of entertainment, sports, and administrative buildings. The institute, for example, developed the design for the Lenin Memorial Complex in Ulyanovsk.





The fire broke out during roof repairs and left the building in ruins. The city decided to construct a new theater on the site, and in 2026 presented two concepts that received a mixed response from both the public and the professional community. The Khabarovsk Region Ministry of Construction subsequently organized an open-call competition. Out of 34 entries, the jury selected seven finalists, while the winner was chosen by the public vote: the MV-PROJECT concept received 681 votes.



The new theater will be built on the site of its predecessor, in the northern part of Dynamo Central City Park, an area surrounded by administrative, cultural, and sports institutions.



Competition participants worked with predetermined technical and economic parameters, floor plans, sections, and a 3D model of the building developed by Zheldorproekt. They were nevertheless allowed to make minor adjustments – an opportunity the MV-PROJECT team, as we will see, took full advantage of.

The new theater reflects contemporary expectations of comfort. It will accommodate a 1,050-seat main auditorium, a 300-seat small hall, a studio theater with a telescopic seating system, rehearsal and storage spaces, workshops, as well as a restaurant and underground parking.



The competition brief called for an expressive building that would become a destination in its own right while responding to the region’s cultural, natural, and climatic characteristics. MV-PROJECT responded with a complex composition of white ribbons that completely obscure the original prismatic volume. This is, incidentally, a major distinction from the competing proposals, which largely adhered to an orthogonal paradigm.

Elena Andreeva, MW-PROJECT

The concept treats the building as an architectural form born from the movement of water, wind, and sound, bringing together three motifs: the Amur River, the musical wave, and the natural landscape of the Russian Far East. The articulation of the façades recalls the curve of a river or a shell opening toward the city plaza. The façade becomes not a neutral envelope, but a visual score in which horizontal lamellas, glazed openings, the glow of the foyer, and landscaped terraces come together as a unified composition.