Curve
Leicester, England, UK
The Curve in Leicester is one of those rare projects that succeeds at breaking boundaries at many levels. At first sight, the project consists of a relatively conventional 750 seat proscenium theater and a 350 seat studio theater. But there is more to this than meets the eye...
The brief for the project directed the design team, lead by Rafael Viñoly Architects, to develop a theater inside-out. Further research was needed to determine what this meant for (the) theater. Other arguments were discovered to get beyond a mundane response of transparency and visibility: a steadily growing part of the population had not grown up with British repertory theater, and might feel estranged by it. To attract these groups, the new theater would need more than a window at street level.
The answer was found in the combination of a few simple ideas with some radical consequences. The first was to make the stage the central point of the building. The connection of the studio theater to the main stage of the proscenium theatre could lead to new synergies and uses.
The second step consisted of wrapping the foyers fully around the two, now joined, theater blocks. There would be no back and front of the house, and thus no clear delineation between dressing rooms, workshops, and offices on one side, and coat-check and public foyers on the other. Where traditionally, circulation is strictly separated, here, actors, technicians and audience can cross, meet and mingle.
Both of these ideas were reinforced by the deletion of the stage walls. Over centuries, these heavy load bearing walls was the dark side of the theater building. With the wall gone, the stage became open to the foyer and through the transparency of the facade, the outside. When necessary, a gate can be lowered to provide the stage with a surface to store scenery against. The gate also assures a safe separation of stage and foyer area during setup and break-down while still keeping daylight on the stage. Finally, the stage can be fully closed-off by two large shutters, for additional privacy and to facilitate more traditional uses of the stage.
dUCKS played a major role in the concept design of the theaters, and designed all scenographic systems and equipment, including the fully motorized and computerized flying systems as well as the gates and shutters systems. CharcoalBlue was subcontracted to update the audiovisual and lighting briefs, and to provide local guidance during the construction phase.
