Proposal Two (Development Centre) Itinerary

In the second of the three proposals I am currently working on, I am working towards designing a centre for the develpment of National Theatre. The idea is that three perfomance groups or individuals will come to London for one month and, working with professionals from the Existing NT, develop their piece.

The centre will not be a theatre. It will be a place where performances are discussed, analysed, rehearsed and made stronger. A team of professional directors, designers, and technicians etc will be on board to aid in this process. the centre will act as a physical place for this to happen. I'm concerned that the contents of the building do not become the physical objects used in performances, but a means to assisiting the making of performances. I have tried to keep it to a minimum, but maybe there are some things left off which i should include....

Wooden Chair x10
Trestle Table x5
Two Seat Sofa x3
Coat Rail x1
Coat Hangers x40
Large Black Curtain x1
Large White Curtain x1
Large Theatre Light x2
Laptop Computer x3
Printer x1
Drill x1
Toolbox x1
Can Red Paint x1
Can Blue Paint x1
Can Yellow Paint x1
Paintbrush x1
Roller x1
Flat Screen Television on Stand x1
DVD Player x1
CD Player x1
Large Speakers x2
Stepladders x1
Flats x5
Bicycle with trailer x1
Video camera x1
Digital Camera x1
Anglepoise lamp x1
Extention cable x1

DEMOCRATIC DESIGN MODELS FOR ALL

Justin McGuirk, editor of Icon Magazine, this month writes about Internet-based knowledge sharing systems that are influencing conventional systems for design (superstar creates, many consume). Click on the image below to get a larger version of his text. He does not specifically mention theatre institutes in his brief introduction, but does state,

Machine-like institutions run by professional monopolies will be broken down. It's a change that has profound implications for social systems such as education and healthcare

For an example of what he's talking about, follow this link to a review of Mydeco.com. This interior design website has 30,000 users producing hundreds of thousands of interior designs using real furniture, voting for their favourites and blogging about design.

These models, which are slowly emerging, grass-roots style, are challenging the widely upheld notion that the designer is a celebrity. National theatre, for a long time, has been a few people selecting work for the nation and world to see. Mydeco, amongst others offers a model of an alternative solution to this rather hierarchical way of making national theatre.

3 Proposals

The project so far has taken a few unexpected turns. Being thrown between theoretical ideals and practical necessity, I'm now in the place of acknowledging that the rest of the work could go in many directions. This project was always about the breaking down of the hierarchical structure of the way that pieces of national theatre are chosen developed and presented. As well as this, the project has always been about dispersing the chance to be involved in the National Theatre, without having to live in, or travel a very long distance to, London.
Click on the images below to see a more detailed view of the three proposals. i have made these as three separate preliminary proposals that can be taken to the National Theatre for development. I hope to meet with someone there who can assist me in developing one of the proposals or making a new one that is a combination of separate elements of the three.
What do you think?

Radicalism. Cedric Price.

Designing a radical change to a giant institution, such as the National Theatre is not simple. It is easy to become scared and give way to traditionalists who would prefer to keep things 'the way they've always been', therefore weakening the design into something way less than it could potentially be. One has to find the balance between timidity or becoming cynical and reactionary.

Cedric Price acts as a model of inspiration for me. Pictured above is his 1965 plan for Parliament. Price is better known for the London Zoo Avery, or his proposal for a giant wheel on London's sky line but this piece really shows some of his personal devotion to ensuring democracy.

If we want an efficient parliament, lets give it a whole efficient building to work in...replace the present historic monument with an up-to-date structure - flexible, accessible and dispensable. New Society, 1965

Price did not propose to move parliament to another location in London, and use the historic monument to, say, sell to a hotel developer. He chose to defy the historic monument by building a counter design in its place. With the proposal of destroying the existing building, he allows us to question the way that parliament, and politics in whole, are perceived.

I'm not necessarily proposing that we destroy the current National Theatre home, but if changes were made, what implications would that have on what is often seen as a 'complete' theatre building?