| NEWS | DESIGN | BUILDING | DESIGN TOOLS | ENVIRONMENT | CULTURE |
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Beijing Terminal 3 by Foster | |
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Young Vic Renewal | |
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Viñoly at Wageningen | |
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Heathrow Terminal 5 by Rogers | |
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Young Vic Renewal Elaborate new stage sets are prepared on stage or in the new back-of-house spaces. An enormous floor-to-ceiling sliding door can be extended to separate the back-of-house set-making workshops from the stage or rehearsal area. "We used to build props outside in a shed and wheel them in; it restricted the sizes of things," says theater manager Louisa Sharpless, who remembers the constraints of the old building. "Now we can build in situ or in new workshop spaces; we have more options." The two new studio rooms, the Maria and the Clare, can be configured as performance spaces or as rehearsal or workshop spaces — with seating or without, with mezzanines or as simple large volumes. Both have a bare, industrial design, and give the option of allowing natural light or blackout blinds. Partition walls can be added using the inset integrated fixings slotted into the painted blockwork walls. The floors are slightly sprung plywood, and the warehouse aesthetic is robust and minimal. These multipurpose spaces were the result of months of consultation with user groups in an attempt to anticipate future uses and predict new ambitions of the theater. Sitting on the surprisingly comfortable recycled-cardboard furniture in the bar, the atmosphere is almost like a university, but with more of a mix of ages and languages. Visitors to the lobby bar and cafe will encounter this double-height space, with its polished concrete floors, long communal plywood tables, exposed red-and-black painted steel structure, and timber-clad ceiling. It seems industrial, yet relaxing, with enough of the original building and flavor to retain its unique urban character. Urban Sustainability The renovated Young Vic makes perhaps its strongest environmental statement by reusing the existing buildings. Extending throughout the project is the approach of retaining what works, and creating simple, modern forms as context. The staff who have offices above the lobby, in the brick Victorian shell, need only to walk along a corridor to the new office areas to share the communal roof garden — a secret green roof for the 40 staff who have offices spread around this level. At the tables in this quiet oasis on the roof, it is possible to look down into the glazed double-height courtyard restaurant that is between the main theater volumes, and see the open window — sensor-operated to close in rainy weather — that naturally ventilates the restaurant below. The combination of new community facilities and a bold urban gesture successfully integrates this theater into its urban context. The result is a truly sustainable community theater with national recognition, housed in a unique blend of old and new, run-down chic and modern — totally at home in gritty South London. Terri Peters is a writer and designer based in London. Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
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