Long day's journey …

Beijing's new National Theatre is in the fourth year of its four-year construction programme. Yet the building, an immense upturned rice bowl designed by French architect Paul Andreu, is still only a skeleton and a year's worth of work remains to be done.

At least things are moving again after a bruising series of delays and a protracted controversy. The main forms are now in place, with the recently erected arches of the 45 m high dome covering the completed concrete structures of the three internal auditoriums. And encircling everything, an enormous crater has been dug away ready for the artificial lake in which the finished building will sit.

In any case, delays are nothing new to this project. Former Chinese prime minister Zhou Enlai proposed a national theatre some 46 years ago. The site itself has been waiting for a building for the past two decades.

And it's no ordinary site either, as it is situated next door to China's giant-columned parliament building, the Great Hall of the People. Think Portcullis House in London facing off with Big Ben.

Prestigious though it is, this has been a difficult project for Andreu, the veteran architect responsible for the Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris and Shanghai's Pudong Airport. But perhaps problems were always likely given the cultural and political sensitivity of the exercise. Many Chinese were appalled when they heard that a foreigner had been picked to add a shiny floating hemisphere to the neighbourhood. The Chinese building industry was also upset by the news that Andreu was to be given a contract for the full design – the first overseas architect not to have his concept given to a Chinese firm to work up.

The outrage prompted 157 Chinese architects and engineers to sign two petitions calling for a reassessment of the plans. This was presented to the government in July 2000, halting the construction programme, which had begun in April.

Andreu had the theoretical backing of the officials who selected him but he was still made to rethink the project. In particular he had to deal with criticisms over cost. Early estimates were £100m but, as plans were fleshed out, this grew to £300m. Under pressure, Andreu then trimmed the budget to a still-contentious £200m.

Construction was restarted in December 2001 and the completion date pushed back a year to September 2005. Since the early experiences, Andreu and his French partner Aéroports de Paris Ingenierie (where he was himself chief architect until he retired) have worked extremely closely with both the Chinese client and contractor to avoid any further upsets.

"All week we have meetings to check and approve detailed design and technical specifications," says Francois Tamisier, chief architect at API. "We try to discuss as much as possible, but it is difficult. Meetings take double the time because of the language barrier.

In the end we make it work because we work hard together."

The French design team has no responsibility on site – "this is impossible in China," says Tamisier – but inspections are made every day and a progress report is written. This hands-on approach is considered unorthodox.

"It's not the regular case in China for architects to face engineers and site supervisors," says Tamisier. "Our Chinese partner, Beijing Architectural Design and Research, is surprised by how well we can discuss things and how strong we can be. But we have to be. Everywhere else, this is part of an architect's job but here it isn't, so you have to make sure you take the power."

Since construction started up again, work has progressed at speed. The vast concrete shells of the three auditoriums were assembled simultaneously over 10 months, a period of activity that saw 4000 workers on a site that was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Then came the two-and-a-half month process of putting the dome on top. For this, steel arches prefabricated in Shanghai were brought by truck and then craned into position. Next up is the dome's cladding and then the interior work.

The main structural elements are complete but everything else is bare with finishing inside and out yet to come. Building services are beginning to arrive and, after the dome is sealed, services installation will begin in earnest. One headache for Tamisier now is that there is little co-ordination between the various specialists. He is working from different sets of drawings coming in at different times from the plumbers, electricians and services engineers. The lack of organisation is frustrating and slows things down.

Site life is only slightly different to its equivalent in the West. There is a mix of professional builders and jobbing short-termers, the latter mostly farmers from central China attracted by the monthly 700RMB (£46) salary. It is also fairly common to see women working alongside men. Francois Tamisier has had occasion to worry about the level of co-ordination but he is impressed with professional attitudes. "Everyone works hard without noise or argument. It's a very gentlemanly ambience, in fact."

But not everybody is so respectful. No-smoking rules are gleefully flouted and on at least once occasion fresh human excrement was discovered in the basement of the theatre.

Although differences of language can be sorted out through translation, differences of culture can take longer to understand. For example, for the Chinese, making mistakes means losing face. When there is a problem on site the workmen are often reluctant to ask for help until they have thought of a solution of their own that they can propose. Often there will be a delay while the workmen get together to noisily thrash out their suggestions. Tamisier says that he will often know something is up before he knows what it is. But at least when he does go to find out, the workmen will have already thought ahead.

There is still a great deal to be done before the final deadline next September, but Tamisier is confident that he has seen the end of disputes and delays. As he puts it: "If we were not confident, we would go back to France."