national performance venue design blog

Prada Transformer Vs Patrick Bouchain

2009-04-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Koolhaas has just designed this 3-in-1 structure for Prada. It's currently in Korea. Take a look at the website for yourself.
http://prada-transformer.com/

In the same way that a sofa bed is often not a good sofa or a good bed, I suspect that this will not be a very good exhibition space, cinema or fashion show space as it is trying to accomplish too much at once. How does this 'pavilion' allow the user to adapt and change it over time? Or it intended to stop the users from being able to adapt it as the need arises. We have become silly, making architecture that has such a small lifespan due to the complete nature of its design.

Looking towards the new design for the National Theatre, it's more about a non-architecture...a collection of spaces that are transformable and able to be recreated according the vastly differing and transformable nature of the company using it at any given time, and their work.

Patrick Bouchain is a figure that is much more inspirational. An architect from France, he builds with a much more sustainable and human approach in mind. Less of a controller and more of an opportunity creator, he first builds a temporary building that the builders and public use to eat lunch, socialize, and watch films in. Once this space is established, and relationships have been fostered between the public, builders and himslef, the architect, the building can then start to be created. This approach, far less monumental becomes about community, engagement, and realistic usage pattterns rather than imposed methods. He socially activates a site in order to increase the worth of the architecture.

Proposal Two (Development Centre) Itinerary

2009-02-22T16:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-12T02:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-11T01:44:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-02-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

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?

MANIFESTO!

2009-01-31T09:36:00.001-08:00

Britain’s appeal for a re-nationalised National Theatre.

Britain’s national theatre is not relevant to its entire audience. Housed in London, it appeals to a small demographic of society, making little attempt to leave its monumental home in search for the nation’s performance capacity. It’s become a platform for indulging in celebrity as a means of civic pride. Rather than expressing its nations talent it seeks to maintain and glorify its own status.

The audience is limited and exclusive. The performance selection process is inherently biased. It’s become a place of representing what British theatre should be, rather than enhancing national theatre as it could be. Token gestures of ‘community engagement’ don’t encourage ownership, but limit involvement!

Today, a far more democratic performance showcase is already rising. This grassroots system is grown through making use of the Internet in a relevant and clever way. Utilizing video sharing technology, no one organisation body has to decide what is shown, neither are audiences targeted specifically. The success of work is based on the popularity, and therefore the ranking of the piece.

Britain needs a National Theatre that is completely renationalised, a theatre that exists not in one place, but is dispersed across the length and breadth of the country. In the streets, people’s homes, in schools, abandoned factories, leisure centres, church halls and fields the content is decided by its online audience.

Work would initially be selected for development through a democratic audience ranking system. The work is then eventually shown in the original location. This location could be anywhere in the country, not just London.

Our Monument of civic pride on the South Bank will inevitably be questioned. What is the need for a physical centralised building when there is a thriving self-supported National Theatre that is far more transient and broader than one geographical location?

Britain needs to take ownership of its theatre heritage, navigating its way forward, instead of leaving responsibility to a few, predominantly middle class people in one part of the country.

Conceive an institution known for creating politics rather than representing them, one that counters the hierarchical structure of our society in which we make theatre, one pushes our working method into the new millennium.

Test 3

2009-01-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

The third and final of this round of performance tests. This time indoors at Wimbledon College of Art in the ground floor lift lobby behind the theatre foyer.

In this event, again making use of the same direction and actor, but a different scene being played out, the red cushions were used but not separated by space from the action.
The audience were invited into the room where the cushions were placed in a circle on the floor. Not only did they provide the audience with the unspoken message of where to sit, but they acted as a design element within the way the scene was played out by the actor. Invited to attend the group counseling session, the border between spectator and actor was merged. What the cushions did here was, on one hand, provide a seat for the spectator, but then also forced the spectator to become involved with the action through keeping a level of proximity and intimacy.

Test 2

2009-01-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

The second of three test performances. This time In a semi-underground car park. Eleven red cushions laid out on a wall 40cm high. The audience are not told where to sit but follow the lead of the first person. Once seated the performance begins.

Housed in a semi-indoor space, artificially lit by fouresent lights, the audience of eleven followed the lead of one usher into the space. Confronted by eleven red cushions on a wall the audience sat and waited for the performance to start.

The aim of this test was to reproduce well known conventions of traditional theatre houses. The cushions were intended not so much for comfort, but more as a symbol to inform the audience to be seated, where to be seated and how far apart from each other to sit. Differently to the previous performance, there was a much more intensified level of focus between actor and spectator due to the defined areas for each.

Test 1

2009-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:00

National Performance Venue test performance. Outside space. Hardly any 'architectural' elements added.

This was the first of three performances held in Wimbledon last week. I worked with a actor, Hannah and a course mate, Izzy, who have both been working on Sarah Kane's Pshychosis performance individually. The collaboration brought the three separate elements of human presence, design and direction and the assistance of audience needs. (my bit)

In this, the first piece, Izzy requested that in order for the performance to work best, any elements other than the actor and design elements be reduced in order to not distract from the code of performang in a public space. Therefore my role was slightly redefined in that the main objective become the marketing and advertising of the event rather than providing any actual designed elements for the performance.

The posters and flyers were photocopy-able black and white print outs that could be selected, have the details completed by the users and posted wherever necessary. the poster included details such as the place, time and the name of the performance.

The Entire Theatre

2009-01-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

Today a friend showed me this quote by Richard Schechner. It's taken from Performance Theory which, although written in 1977, seems to have stood the test of time with regard to the basic analysis of theatre and its audiences.

When people go to the theatre they are acknowledging that theatre takes place at special times in special places. Surrounding a show are special observances, practices and rituals that lead into the performance and away from it. Not only getting into the theatre district, but entering the building itself involves ceremony: ticket-taking, passing through gates, performing rituals, finding a place from witch to watch: all this - and the procedures vary from culture to culture, event to event, -frames and defines the performance. " (Page 169)

This comes as an encouragement at a time where the main attention of the project is focusing on the public spaces that are often perceived as supporting the rest of the performance. What many fail to realise, in my opinion, is that there are many more factors than the performance itself that serve to influence an audience's experience of the theatre. Marvin Carlson, a thoerist specialising in the semiotics of theatre architecture writes this in Places of Performance,

The way an audience experiences and interprets a play, we now recognise, is by no means governed solely by what happens on the stage. The entire theatre, its audience arrangements, its other public spaces, its physical appearance, even its location within a city, are all important elements of a process by which an audience makes meaning of its experience. (1989 p.2)

We need to become more sensative to recognising the roll that the whole theatre plays. The countless interactions with the architecture, the marketing, public facilities such as the cloak room , the bar and the toilets, all make up the entire audience experience. Does one reality really stop at the fourth wall where another begins? And is visiting the theatre just about seeing the performance or is it more about engaging in an entire cultural experience?

2009-01-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

The first of the initial set of 'experiment performances' will be this Friday 16th Jan. There will be three separate parts to it, each in different locations within Wimbledon.
Meet outside the Odeon cinema at 3pm. The entire performance will take no longer than 30 minutes.

The Total Text

2009-01-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

Hans-Thies Lehmann wites in Postdramatic theatre (2006) that "Theatre is no longer a mass medium. To deny this becomes increasingly ridiculous, to reflect on it increasingly urgent." (P.27) Lehmann is writing about a post 1960's era where the text no longer takes a central role in making theatre, since we are no longer a text-based culture.. He useas a term, total text, that refers to how the entire perfromance is made up through its many elements.

This project, for a more national theatre is about extending the periphery of the existing National Theatre on London's south bank. It's about breaking down the heirarchical structure in which theatre is made, handing control back to the individual in their local situation.

Jerry Grotowski wrote that "The essential concern is finding the proper spectator-actor relationship for each type of performance and embodying the decision in physical arrangements. (Towards a poor theatre 1968. P.20)

These texts have been vital in making up a strong argument for this project and have heavily informed many of the smaller decisions being made. A realisation this week came about an essential element to the final product's roll.

I have been struggling with the project for a few weeks. The hard part was getting my head around how a temporary theatre set up can acknowlege the specific site, whilst not encroaching on the design elements. In other words, the focus of the work needs to be much more about the audience than it does about trying to produce some kind of kit that can assist the performer and the performance, as this would be dealt with by the many artists who chose to participate eventually anyway.

The work throughout January will be a series of small 'tests' to get sharpen up and practically inform a few ideas that are waiting in the pipeline about audience and essentially how the (architectural) features can inform the relationship between actor and spectator, (Intimacy and engagement) whilst also meeting the practical needs of a spectator upon arrival to a performance event. Keep checking back throughout the month for film clips and images.

Smallest Stage in the World?

2008-12-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

Thinking along the lines of International Festival's disco, I got thinking about stages and how people seem to act in a different way towards the people who are on them. There's a whole list of conventions such as not speaking too loud in pclose proximity, not going too close, not asking questions to the performer, that people seem to adhere to (although massively varying, depending on certain factors such as place, audience and performance types) and it would be interesting to test the boundaries of that. Where does the performance space begin and end? I spent last Saturday in the National Theatre's foyer where they have a stage and some seats right in the middle of a really busy spot. The public there are obviously a 'good' (respectful to the performer) audience giving room for the musicians and seated audience by not walking in between them. I wonder what would happen if you were to take that stage and place it elsewhere though. I'd guess that taking it outside onto the southbank would give a pretty similar result, the southbank being a parade for convention-obeying, culture-loving Londoner. But take it, say, a couple of miles south (the direction to which the theatre, architecturally speaking, turns its back) to the centre of Elephant and Castle shopping centre I doubt that the response would be the same.
Speakers Corner, pictured above, has it's own set of conventions. It is a place where spectator can respond to and challenge the political speeches, but the attention is always drawn back to the one one the stage. Interestingly, these stages are never very big and are usually very makeshift or just a set of two-step step ladders, but they do aid the focus back to speaker.

International Festival: Mobile Disco

2008-12-13T11:09:00.000-08:00

International Festival have interested me for about a year now. A duo made up of an architect and a choreographer, they aim to fuse architecture and performance, and do away with the boundary between spectator and viewer. Swedish, but working throughout Europe they have a wide variation of work. This photo, taken from their website, is part of the mobile disco they created one night in Graz, Austria, this summer. What I find interesting here, is the way that redefine surrounding architecture by the way that they inhabit and make use of the existing spaces they use.
Start Me Up is the current project they have running at the Tate Liverpool starting tomorrow until 14th Feb. Basically it's a modular film-set installation that can be reconfigured to provide platforms for performances and activities. For more information on that, click here.
The way that the duo work together acts as a big inspiration as they both redefine their practices, by intelligently and playfully collaborating, creating new an exciting opportunities for architecture and performance. I hope to visit the installation in Liverpool over Christmas, as a means of developing the research into the National Performance Venue. I aim to discover how they simplify essential elements and requirements for performance, and look forward to seeing how successful it is. I'll be looking for things like how easy it is for the public to be involved in the installation, what rules (if any) they have set up, and what guidance they give.

2008-12-10T16:57:00.001-08:00

In order to have a better idea of an audiences and performer's specific movements and requirements before i go into starting any designs, I have begun a process of tracking and mapping out information from various venues. Here's an example of the National Theatre concert pitch last Saturday afternoon.

What i found particularly interesting about this free performance that takes place before another, much larger, performance is the way that the public move. This stage and seating set up is situated right in a thoroughfare between the main entrance, cloakroom and bar. The public's movements generally changed once the performance had begun, creating a space between the stage and the small block of seating, even considering the small amount of space left to move through.

In these models i have represented the movements of the public in three stages. Firstly, the movement leading up to the start of the performance (green). Second, the movements whilst the performance was taking place, (represented in red) and finally the movements once the performance ended (shown in blue)

Psychosis Analysis.

2008-12-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

The performance was advertised throughout the college as part of a 5-day private view. An audience of about 20 people come to view it. The way the audience entered the space was through the main corridor from the main stairways to the print studios. The print studios acted as a kind of interim foyer space between the main corridor and the enclosed space where the performance took place.

This model shows the audience coming from two initial directions, the ends of the main corridor, feeding through a doorway into the print studio. This acted as a main gathering space where drinks were provided.

The doors to the performance space were then opened, allowing the spectators to enter the room. The performance started...and ended. Doors reopened and most left straight away, making their way upstairs to the rest of the private view.

The model also represents the movements that I made, as the performer, before and after the performance.

4.48 PSYCHOSIS

2008-12-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

Last week a friend and I staged a performance based on four lines from page 20 of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. This performance was part of a bigger process of mapping the preperation that I, as the performer undertook, as well as tracking how the audience moved towards the event, and where they were located before, during, and after the event.