the street. A number of mezzanine balconies, staircases and bridge elements crisscross the overhead
aspect, and bricks, timber, steel and glass converge to establish a material character that is part
industrial, part museum, part playground. With a lively F&B programme inserted, plus occasional
performances or exhibitions, the space is never neglected, and has become a true community ‘lounge’.
The main street facade is conceived as a series of movable, adaptable panels that can open in fine
weather, and may be used as artwork or advert canvasses. The shutters perform as sun shades as well.
Under a giant red nameplate, a full-height open frame announces the entrance to the complex, leading
directly into the new foyer space, and then towards the auditorium. When the other shutters at grade
level are opened up for cafe tables, passersby can view right through the space into the back. In the
evening, the lighting makes it all the more dramatic, especially before and after theatre performances,
as crowds spill around, have drinks or food, and mingle. A black-with-red-trim palette runs a note of
unity through most of the new interventions, playing nicely against much older surfaces of brick
or stone.
This is a notably modest approach to the commission, and Haworth Tompkins has been wise in taking
it. The new ‘unbuilding’ is just what the site seems to have craved all along.
Photography by Fred Howarth