Time of study: semester 5

Duration: 4 week project

Critic: Donald Flint (studio master)

 

The Challenge

 

 “A theatre building is usually made up of a large number of rooms. Some of them, such as refreshment rooms and cloakrooms are designed to look after the needs of the audience before they go into the auditorium. Some of them, such as dressing-rooms and wardrobe rooms cater for the needs of actors before they go onto the stage. Others, including offices and workshops, provide working spaces for staff and technicians. Important as these rooms are, the most vital spaces in a theatre are the stage and auditorium, and the foyer. It is (all) these spaces that give the main traits of character to the building that we call a theatre.”

 

Stephen Joseph “Actor and Architect” pg. 1, University of Toronto Press, reprinted 1969. 

 

The Project

 

Set on the dividing freeway between Korsten middle class suburbia and Korsten low income settlements. Atop an incline set next to a busy freeway. This project set itself out to make the Theatre the prominent feature amongst a context with no focal point.  Hence, the design decisions to make the theatre dramatically contrast the strong natural ground incline to create design opportunities for a light optimized foyer space with a view overlooking the city towards the Port Elizabeth Harbour and enabling the Theatre to advertise its lively experience to onlookers from the traffic to the freeway and beyond. Therefore, the quieter suburban aspect of the site naturally becomes 'back of theatre' - Subdued as its neighbouring homes and enclosed in concrete to maintain ideal noise and sound requirements.

 

To erect it, a small promontory should be erected; which involves driving pilings into the ground in order to reach the weight carrying stratum, each piling is 25m deep. The self – supporting steel frame rises up from its concrete base and is organised in four structural bays to facilitate cross checks of the calculations. The entire steel frame structure is pulled back and down through the concrete box that rises from heart of the building (the stage) through the flytower. The cantilever is supported by two trussed girders that are tied back to the building shell with additional trusses.