This futuristic Chinese opera house looks like a spaceship

Courtesy of MAD Architects/Adam Mork

China may have recently put out a ban on "weird architecture," but this stunning opera house, recently opened in the northern city of Harbin, has evaded the ban.

Following in the tradition of iconic opera houses around the globe — think of Sydney's well-known waterside structure, or the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles — Harbin now has its own unique cathedral to the classic art.

Designed by MAD Architects, a Beijing-based firm responsible for major projects around the globe, the opera house is intended to look like an organic outgrowth of its environment. It's full of natural materials, undulating shapes, and innovative ways to bring light into a massive space.

Check out the futuristic images below.

Located on Harbin's wetlands, the structure takes up about 850,000 square feet of the site's 444 total acres. During the snowy winter, the opera house almost disappears into the frozen expanse.

Courtesy of MAD Architects/Hufton+Crow

"We envision Harbin Opera House as a cultural center of the future – a tremendous performance venue, as well as a dramatic public space that embodies the integration of human, art and the city identity, while synergistically blending with the surrounding nature," Ma Yansong of MAD Architects said in a press release.

Courtesy of MAD Architects/Adam Mork

Smooth exterior white aluminum panels create a "poetry of edge and surface, softness and sharpness," according to MAD Architects.

Courtesy of MAD Architects/Adam Mork

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