Haworth Tompkins_Performing Arts Book 2025

Performing Arts

HaworthTompkins

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HaworthTompkins

“Hurrah for Haworth Tompkins. There is now a generation of audiences who won’t remember what theatres were like before this inspiring firm of architects shook them up and opened them out. Before 2000 the Royal Court did not have its big red drum, the Egg in Bath had not been hatched, the Young Vic was all bunched up, Battersea Arts Centre’s different rooms were closed in on themselves. Haworth Tompkins have made theatres more welcoming, more continuous with life outside.

They started reshaping the stage when site-specific work was beginning to boom, reminding audiences of the importance of the places in which we see plays. Their impact has been as great as that of an artistic director.”

Susannah Clapp, The Guardian

“Haworth Tompkins are London’s default theatre architects, whose works span the magically ad hoc to the unutterably grand.”

Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times

“The Shakespeare of modern-day theatre architects.”

The Telegraph

“Above all, the brilliant thing about working with Haworth Tompkins is their camaraderie, teamwork, sense of humour and ability to tolerate high levels of stress whilst remaining true to the vision of the project.”

Dame Vikki Heywood

“A body of work as rich in character as that of any practice working in Britain today...these buildings feel like eternal works in progress, open to reinvention from production to production, even from night to night.”

Ellis Woodman, The Telegraph

“We owe a debt of gratitude to an architectural practice who don’t just do design, they also do cultural change.”

David Jubb, Artistic Director 3

HaworthTompkins

We have been immersed in thinking about, talking about, designing and experiencing performing arts buildings for three decades now, working with many of the world’s most influential show makers. We are regularly named amongst the most experienced and influential theatre architects currently practicing. Our explorations have ranged from developing ideas of increased porosity, accessibility and welcome of front of house, to the potency of provisional or temporary performance space, to high density adaptive auditoria, through to civilised dressing rooms and publicly engaging production workshops. All are driven by an overarching mission to rewire our thinking around sustainability, well-being and regenerative design. We work best in collaborative relationships: with clients, with artists; and with innovative suppliers. Our experience has helped us to understand that designing a performance space, whether large or small, retrofitting or building new, is a creative relationship that can be transformative for us all.

Young Vic

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HaworthTompkins

Bristol Old Vic

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We have developed a deep sensitivity to how a performance room ‘works’, honing the intensity of relationship between actor and audience - and between every member of the audience to each other - that is essential in generating a shared, theatrically electrified experience. We see the auditorium design not so much as crafting a finished object, but rather as forming a permissive framework to host generations of incoming show makers. We strive for rooms with malleability and adaptability to give directors and designers a welcoming and potent room to empower their work - both emotionally and technically - and to fully embrace the audience.

Young Vic

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HaworthTompkins

Bush Theatre

Bridge Theatre

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Theatres are an increasingly rare bastion of public gathering space, places for people of all backgrounds to meet in a welcoming, inclusive environment. Foyers are important public rooms in their own right, an extension of the public realm, a gathering space for a diverse audience to meet, relax, prepare for and ref lect upon a shared experience. Foyers need to have an intuitive clarity of welcome, orientation and circulation and be capable of working throughout the rhythms of the day, absorbing swings of low and high occupancies, feeling charged and activated whatever the density. We pay particularly attention to ensure the foyer has a robust materiality that ages gracefully, has good acoustics tuned to ensure pleasant noise levels and intelligibility, and that, crucially, the lighting has a range of atmospheres from relaxed informal café to theatrically intensified pre show. We love spaces that can drop down to almost candlelit levels when the mood requires.

Bristol Old Vic

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HaworthTompkins

Everyman Theatre

Young Vic

Bush Theatre

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We work collaboratively with the theatre artistic and technical teams, specialist theatre consultants and suppliers to find the right balance of technical infrastructure with an eye on cost effectiveness and low energy solutions. For adaptive spaces, we love to explore an ‘intelligent manual’ approach to stage engineering: robust, intuitive, low tech, cost effective and artistically permissive rather than complex, over-automated, expensive and quickly obsolete.

Battersea Arts Centre

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HaworthTompkins

Bristol Old Vic

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

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Designing efficient, effective production spaces requires a deep understanding of theatrical making processes and sequences, and of the connections to performance and rehearsal stages.

Production workshops are rare inner city creative ‘factories’ oozing magic and intrigue. Our experience has shown there is a huge public interest in connecting with these making processes, both from safe internal viewpoints and from views in from the street.Dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, workspace have traditionally been rather neglected, utilitarian spaces. Because we have learned that a happy cast and a happy crew is a happy theatre, we give equal concentration to back of house space and take great pleasure in getting to know and engage with the full technical, costume, production, front of house and administration teams to tune the spaces to their working methods and to impart shared knowledge of new methods.

National Theatre

Everyman Theatre

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HaworthTompkins

Royal Court Theatre

Everyman Theatre

Donmar Dryden Street

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Young Vic

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In addition to public facing auditoria and foyers many of our theatres include dedicated education, community and emerging talent spaces, enabling the organisations we work with to substantially expand their outreach programmes to the widest and most diverse audience.

Spaces we have designed have included: writers hubs for new and emerging theatre makers, Clore learning spaces engaging all ages of the local community and shared workspaces to share skills, grow businesses and enable new connections. As conglomerate civic spaces we aim for our theatres to be available - and meaningful - to the whole community.

The Egg

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HaworthTompkins

Everyman Theatre

The Den

National Theatre

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We are facing a planetary emergency which demands urgent and wide-ranging changes in all of our activities. Theatres will continue to be a crucial part of our collective public culture the spaces where we can share stories of our common humanity in real time - but those spaces need to change, alongside the organisations and productions they support. We have worldleading knowledge and experience both of retrofitting old buildings to sustainable, contemporary performance use and of designing new theatre spaces that aspire to be a positive contributor to the living world. We champion the principles of regenerative design through advocacy, research and live projects and we are on track to design only zero whole life carbon buildings by 2030 in accordance with our public commitments. Beyond building design, we are embarking on transformative relationships with client organisations to embed regenerative practices throughout the performing arts.

Young Vic

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HaworthTompkins

Haworth Tompkins is one of the world’s leading theatre architects, with twenty-five years’ experience of theatre design and over 180 major awards including the RIBA Stirling Prize for the Liverpool Everyman. We are also one of the leading proponents of regenerative design, whereby architecture is considered as an indivisible component of self-sustaining and constantly evolving planetary life support systems. We are a founder and key driver of Architects Declare, now a 7500 strong multi-disciplinary network of built environment organisations in 28 countries advocating to build a safe and just space for humanity to thrive within ecological boundaries. We have re-engineered our business model and our ownership structure to those ends; we are an Employee Owned Trust and a Certified B Corporation. Our combined architectural, social and environmental ethos earned us the AJ100 Practice of the Year award in both 2020 and 2022.

Bristol Old Vic

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Our Projects

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HaworthTompkins

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HT PERFORMING ARTS PROJECTS - LONDON 1. Almeida Gainsborough 2. Almeida King’s Cross 3. Battersea Arts Centre 4. Bridge Theatre 5. Bush Theatre

Barnet

6. Donmar Dryden Street 7. Lightroom

Harrow

8. National Theatre 9. National Theatre Studio 10. Punchdrunk Woolwich

Brent

11. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre 12. Royal Court Theatre 13. @sohoplace

Hammersmith & Fulham 55 Kens & Ch

Ealing

14. Olympia Theatre 15. Theatre Royal Drury Lane

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16. The Old Vic 17. The Shed

Hammersm Fulham

Hounslow

18. Young Vic

Wands Richmond Upon Thames

HT PERFORMING ARTS PROJECTS - UK 19. Bristol Old Vic 20. Chichester Festival Theatre

Mer Kingston Upon Thames

21. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool 22. Liverpool Playhouse 23. Theatr Clwyd, Mold 24. The Den, Manchester 25. The Egg and Ustinov Theatre, Bath 26. The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford 27. Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre, Cambridge 28. Snape Maltings, Suffolk 32

HT PERFORMING ARTS PROJECTS - WORLDWIDE 29. American Repertory Theater, Boston (USA)

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30. ECU City Campus, Perth (Australia) .. ..

31. Malmo Stadsteater, Malmo (Sweden) 32. Sentralbadet, Bergen (Norway) 33. The Court Theatre, Christchurch

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(New Zealand) 34. Kouvola Theatre, Finland

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HaworthTompkins

Enfield

Waltham Forest

Haringey

Camden

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2&7

Islington

Redbridge

Hackney

1 City of

City of London 13 Westminster 6&15 ington 8&17 18 helsea 4 9&16

Tower Hamlets

Newham

Barking & Dagenham

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12

mith & m

Greenwich

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Bexley

Southwark Lewisham

sworth Lambeth

rton

Bromley Sutton

Croydon

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Almeida Theatre, Gainsborough Studios, 2000 & King’s Cross, 2001

The Almeida Theatre, searching for a temporary venue in which to stage large scale productions of Richard II and Coriolanus, negotiated a one-year lease on a former power station from the developer and commissioned Haworth Tompkins to convert the building for the lowest possible cost. The great turbine hall was returned to its original volume by the demolition of an intermediate floor, creating a single space over 25m high. Basic soundproofing was installed and a simple scaffold seating system developed to create a large courtyard auditorium on three levels. The remainder of the building was treated almost entirely as ‘found’ and formed the various bars and foyers. Scaffold staircases, ramps and simple cut openings were inserted to deal with the complex fire escape and circulation requirements for an audience of 900. Maintaining the sense of discovery and risk one feels on first entering a derelict building was an important part of the experience. The result was a spectacular but surprisingly intimate auditorium, in which the old building was allowed to become an integral and essential part of the performances. Having played to full houses for every performance throughout the summer of 2000, the venue closed at the end of the season and has now been demolished as planned.

ADDRESS HOXTON, LONDON

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CLIENT THE ALMEIDA THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 900

“Haworth Tompkins intelligence and insight were very evident. They worked excellently and sensitively with everyone to create two performing spaces and a wonderful foyer. The few architectural ‘moves’ that were made were bold, low-cost and highly expressive: amongst them, a glowing polycarbonate entrance; roof and walls clad with grass as the solution to sound and heat insulation.”

Nick Starr

This second temporary theatre for the Almeida was made in a derelict bus depot in Kings Cross, scheduled for demolition, converted to provide two auditoria of 550 and 300 seats respectively along with full front and back of house facilities. Inside the theatre, the industrial interiors were left raw, with stairs, bar and WC facilities dropped into the space to modify their proportions and establish a sense of arrival, reinforced by a long panel of back-lit yellow plastic sheet to mark the theatre entrance down a narrow alleyway. The main auditorium exploited a wide, low space to create an unusual proscenium stage, used to great effect by stage designers and directors. The other space was more classically proportioned, allowing easy re-configuration for each show. To achieve the necessary sound insulation, the roof and gables of the building were turfed in sedum, loaned by a landscape contractor. The resulting pitched roof garden, full of wildf lowers in the centre of a busy urban block, became a local landmark for the year in which the theatre operated. From discovering the building to opening night, the entire project was completed in 17 weeks. Both projects, now long demolished, nevertheless changed perceptions of the neighbourhoods in which they were built, and established themselves in the collective memory as large scale, site-specific performances.

ADDRESS KING’S CROSS, LONDON

CLIENT THE ALMEIDA THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 550 & 330

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Battersea Arts Centre, 2018

Since 1974, Battersea Town Hall has been home to one of the most important incubators of new performance work in the UK. Haworth Tompkins worked here intensively alongside the Battersea Arts Centre team, the local community and theatre artists for over a decade. Seeking to reinvent the conventional supplier/consumer model of architectural practice, a number of jointlyimprovised, non-invasive alterations were originally made alongside specific productions - such as Punchdrunk’s Masque of the Red Death - to test strategies for change and to evolve a playful but rigorous architectural language. A brief for more permanent work was then developed, including the creation of a new courtyard performance space in a disused light well and the conversion of unused attics and rooftops for offices and a garden. Cumulatively the entire interior has been rennovated to allow multiple, interconnected performances, heritage spaces and community uses. In 2015 we were commissioned to rebuild the building’s Grand Hall after a shocking fire that partially destroyed it. The former decorative plaster vault was the starting point for a new timber grid ceiling, allowing far greater theatrical possibilities. The surfaces of the walls of the hall and its surrounding corridors have been preserved in their extraordinary, almost Pompeiian post-fire state.

ADDRESS LAVENDER HILL, BATTERSEA LONDON

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CLIENT BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE

“Haworth Tompkins have been superb partners through the process. Steve’s design work integrates the vision of the client and his own passion for space, not as an abstract artistic object but as a living, breathing, functioning body that seeks to connect with its inhabitants. Steve’s whole team have brilliantly delivered, always going the extra mile to realise a project as imagined.”

David Jubb

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Bridge Theatre, 2017

The Bridge Theatre, the first venue of the London Theatre Company, occupies a found space on an extraordinary riverside site overlooking Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The brief called for an urbane, welcoming venue with leading edge flexibility of staging formats. A high, brightly daylit timber-lined foyer functions as a friendly public congregation space throughout the day and evening. Acoustics are controlled by the use of canvas and felt ceiling banners, with lighting supplied by 500 bespoke copper fittings. The auditorium itself is a completely new design approach, designed in collaboration with the London Theatre Company team and stage engineering manufacturers Tait. The room was made and tested offsite in modular form before being erected as fully coordinated, finished components in the existing building shell. Sightlines and natural acoustics were tested and tuned in the digital design model and using full scale mock ups. A highly flexible, modular stalls and stage zone allow multiple formats to be easily and efficiently achieved in a very short turnaround time between productions. Using these revolutionary techniques, the theatre opened just two years after the site was acquired. Other versions of this system are being developed for different capacities.

ADDRESS POTTERS FIELDS PARK, LONDON

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CLIENT LONDON THEATRE COMPANY

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 950

“This project, my eighth with HT, has been a joy from start to finish. The keynotes of the process have been collaboration and trust, infused with their characteristic intelligence and tenacity. Their design of a new form of auditorium will, I hope, be adopted far and wide.”

Nick Starr

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Bristol Old Vic, 2018

Bristol Old Vic is the oldest continuously working theatre in Europe, completed in 1766. Successive alterations over the years culminated in 1972 with a new foyer and street frontage by the respected British architect Peter Moro, whose scheme incorporated the neighbouring historic Coopers’ Hall as the main entrance and circulation space. The auditorium and back of house spaces were skilfully renovated by architect Andrzej Blonski in 2012, after which Haworth Tompkins worked to open up the Grade I listed theatre’s front of house to a wider, more diverse audience and to place the theatre more visibly at the heart of Bristol’s public life and public space. Radical change was required to address these aims, and so the decision was taken to remove and rebuild entirely the 1970s additions, replacing them with a more transparent and legible foyer space, a new studio theatre in the lower half of the Coopers’ Hall and a reinstated grand public room as originally located in its upper half. The new foyer is conceived as an extension of the street, a covered public square enclosed by a framework of timber and glass to bring day light deep into the space and reveal the much-altered façade of the auditorium for the first time.

ADDRESS KING STREET, BRISTOL

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CLIENT BRISTOL OLD VIC

STUDIO AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 148

“these atmospheric and characterful plans have brilliantly unlocked Bristol Old Vic’s historical riches and allowed us to reveal Bristol’s architectural gem of a theatre after nearly 250 years.” Tom Morris

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Bush Theatre, 2017

Formerly housed in a room above a pub in London’s Shepherd’s Bush, the Bush theatre is deeply embedded in its diverse west London community, presenting cutting edge new work for a new generation. Haworth Tompkins helped the theatre to find a new home in a former public library (already relocated elsewhere) and to organise a series of public consultation and participation events to develop the brief and establish the feel of the new space. These processes resulted in a temporary, experimental use of the building for the first year of occupation, providing an auditorium, a foyer and rudimentary back of house spaces on a very tight budget. The second, more permanent phase of work has provided better facilities for staff and performers, enabled barrierfree access to the whole building for the first time, added a new performance and community events studio and meeting space, extended the public foyer and connected it to a new, fully accessible entrance courtyard which connects directly with the public street. Throughout the project, both architect and client have made maximum use of modest resources to expand the Bush’s mission for a far wider community of theatre makers and audiences.

ADDRESS UXBRIDGE ROAD, LONDON

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CLIENT BUSH THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 144

“We are proud of the landmark redevelopment of the Bush Theatre, wonderfully re-imagined by Haworth Tompkins. While our transformation has had an immediate impact, our project provides us with a sustainable platform for years to come. It enables us to work with more artists, welcome more audiences and to have a fundamental impact on the community in Shepherd’s Bush.”

Lauren Clancy and Madani Younis

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Chichester Festival Theatre, 2014

This project is a major restoration and renewal of the Grade II* listed Chichester Festival Theatre, incorporating a carefully remodelled auditorium, bigger foyer spaces, an improved parkland setting and a new back of house extension. Originally designed as a ‘pavilion in the park’ summer festival venue by the distinguished architects Powell and Moya, the innovative open stage auditorium was inspired

by Tyrone Guthrie’s Festival Theatre in Stratford Ontario and was the UK’s first thrust stage performance space, seating over 1300 people. The theatre’s dramatic, cantilevering concrete structure and lightweight cable-tied roof remain bold architectural statements, but piecemeal alterations since the 1970s had gradually reduced the clarity of the original architecture. Haworth Tompkins’ approach has been to clear away all the non-original structures, enlarge the foyer with two new extensions and re-house the back of house facilities within a new structure, complementing Powell and Moya’s rough concrete with an equally dramatic facade of Cor-Ten weathering steel. Regular collaborating artist Antoni Malinowski hand-painted the café ceilings and various walls within the foyer to complement the geometries of the existing structure and amplify the presence of the surrounding landscape. The auditorium has been significantly remodelled to improve sightlines, increase theatrical intensity and provide a far more technically sophisticated and adaptable environment for theatre makers.

ADDRESS OAKLANDS PARK, CHICHESTER

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CLIENT CHICHESTER FESTIVAL THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 1300

“The great thing about the superbly renovated Chichester Festival Theatre is that it simply seems like a better version of its former self.”

The Telegraph

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Donmar Dryden Street, 2013

Having acquired a small 19th Century warehouse building in London’s Covent Garden, the Donmar Warehouse theatre asked Haworth Tompkins to convert it for rehearsal, education and support facilities. The challenge was to design a convivial working environment within the constraints of a limited budget and a tightly enclosed site. By removing existing floors, extending the roof space and replanning the circulation routes, the new project yields a double height rehearsal room of a similar size to the main Donmar stage, a street fronting green room, administration offices, a large education studio in the roof rafters and a new attic apartment for visiting artists. Stripped back and partially demolished walls and ceilings have been left raw as a suitably theatrical backdrop to the Donmar’s working life, with a new polychromatic staircase, hand painted by regular collaborating artist Antoni Malinowski, as the warm heart of the building. The personality of the historic architecture has been allowed to set the tone, with a provisional, loose-fit language of new additions setting up a fluid, adaptable relationship of new and old. Materials added have been simple and straightforward complement the richly patinated texture of the found surfaces. The aim is very much for a benign occupation rather than an obliteration of the original fabric.

ADDRESS DRYDEN STREET, LONDON

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CLIENT DONMAR WAREHOUSE

“Dryden Street has had an immediate, transformative effect on the life of the Donmar. The warm, adventurous and pragmatic spirit of the building has changed our working lives. There is a generous and familial spirit to the rooms, and the building is a great invitation to creativity and communication.

Everyone goes into work that bit happier, and artists working in the building have - in our first month - been overjoyed with the atmosphere.”

Josie Rourke

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The Den, 2019

The Den is a nomadic, lightweight auditorium, commissioned by the Manchester Royal Exchange theatre. Designed to be portable, it is capable of being built and dismantled by the audiences it serves and will host performances, debates and community events on a regular cycle of temporary residencies within communities in and around Manchester. Working alongside the theatre production team, structural engineers Expedition and specialist timber designers and fabricators Xylotec, a sketch design quickly emerged for a circular theatre with a series of 15 ‘cranes’ around the perimeter, which raise the roof through the use of pulleys and ropes. Materials are recyclable or compostable, designed for minimal environmental impact. The structure is a slender larch and hemp rope frame, so light that it requires no foundations. The frame and covering are designed to be easily adjustable to achieve different diameters and seating capacities to suit different ‘host’ buildings. The enclosure is made of canvas and concertina cardboard seats are folded out in rings to create the in-the-round space. Felt cushions are secured by clothes pegs. The Den is intended to embed itself in the lives of local communities in and around Manchester through successive visits.

ADDRESS MANCHESTER

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CLIENT ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 186

“The Den has been a brilliant collaboration with the team at Haworth Tompkins resulting in a new and unique low carbon travelling theatre that will help us inspire and engage the communities of Greater Manchester.”

Simon Curtis

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The Egg, 2005

The Egg is a 120-seat children’s theatre in Bath, built within the shell of a listed Victorian church hall. Lacking any remaining interior fabric of value, we retained the façade and inserted an egg-shaped auditorium structure into the centre of the building, supported by a street level café, a basement workshop and a rooftop rehearsal space. The auditorium, which can be daylit from the existing windows, is highly adaptable and playfully detailed, but is nevertheless designed to evoke the glamour of the beautiful Georgian theatre next door. The café is a robust, friendly and accessible meeting place used throughout the day and evening by audiences, families with young children and the general public alike. A new circulation stair winds in and out of an enclosed former light well and incorporates lookout points, balconies and seats, inviting exploration and play. Materials are designed to complement the shell of the original building, while a mirrored café ceiling sets up games of inversion and distortion. We tried to adapt the scale and personality of the spaces throughout with young people in mind, helped by a group of children and young people who were involved in the briefing and development of the design from the outset. Adults are welcome of course, but the building belongs to the children.

ADDRESS SAWCLOSE, BATH

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CLIENT THEATRE ROYAL BATH

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 120

“When it is full of children, the atmosphere is beyong electric, and prepared adults should enter at their own risk. There are no stifling facilities-management regimes. Nothing here is precious.

This is very much a building for children and this has everything to do with the building’s design.”

Architects’ Journal

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Everyman Theatre, 2013

The Everyman is a new building to re-house an iconic Liverpool theatre. Like its predecessor, the auditorium is an adaptable thrust stage space of 406 seats, now constructed from the reclaimed bricks of Hope Hall; the former building. The bricks have created the internal walls of the foyers. Foyers and catering spaces are arranged on three levels including a new bistro, culminating in a long first floor foyer overlooking the street. The building incorporates numerous creative workspaces, with a rehearsal room, workshops, a sound studio, a writers’ room overlooking the foyer, and a community studio space. Our design combines thermally massive construction with a series of natural ventilation systems and low energy technical infrastructures to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating for this complex and densely inhabited urban building. The main façade of the building is as a large-scale public work of art consisting of 105 moveable metal sunshades, each one carrying a life-sized portrait of a contemporary Liverpool resident. Typographer and artist Jake Tilson created a special font for a new version of the iconic red ‘Everyman’ sign, whilst regular collaborating visual artist Antoni Malinowski made a large painted ceiling piece for the foyer, to complement an internal palette of brickwork, black steel, oak, reclaimed Iroko, deeply coloured plywood and pale in situ concrete.

ADDRESS HOPE STREET, LIVERPOOL

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CLIENT EVERYMAN AND PLAYHOUSE THEATRES

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 406

“It’s a beautiful space inside and out. From the moment you approach it, it feels welcoming and inclusive…but it is also deeply symbolic: this is a theatre of and for its people….a masterpiece.”

The Stage

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Lightroom, 2023

Lightroom is a new immersive venue in London’s Kings Cross, capable both of exhibiting and provoking innovative digital work.

A collaboration with performance design specialists 59 Productions in partnership with London Theatre Company, Lightroom is envisaged as a sister space to the Bridge Theatre. The project has required a very high degree of technical coordination and careful acoustic design to ensure that the space can respond to successive artists’ imaginations and allow maximum creative possibility. At its heart is a huge, subterranean exhibition volume (18.5W x 26L x 12H metres) with a capacity of up to 380 people in promenade. State of the art sound and projection systems enable artists to transform the space, which is approached gradually via linear acclimatisation zones from the arrival foyer and bar at street level on Lewis Cubitt Square. The foyer interior uses a similar visual language to the Bridge, with warm timber floors, a cloud of paper lanterns, a central timber staircase down to the show space and in this case a dramatic, copper coloured wall to signify the exhibition room beyond. Themes of compression, provisionality and contrasting light levels have been consistent explorations for Haworth Tompkins since the Royal Court in 2000, the studio’s first completed performance venue.

ADDRESS LEWIS CUBITT SQUARE, LONDON

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CLIENT LONDON THEATRE COMPANY AND 59 PRODUCTIONS

“Combining...deep architectural knowledge, meaningful sustainable outlook and beautiful material sensibility, with the story-focussed and technically inventive design team at 59, has resulted in a space I cannot wait to welcome our audience into.”

Richard Slaney

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MalmÖ Stadsteater Hippodromen, 2023

Malmö Hippodromen was built in 1898 as a dedicated circus amphitheatre. Malmö Stadsteater currently operates three stages, the largest of which is housed in the historic building - located within a city block separated from the street by a row of shop fronts and restaurants.

Our refurbishment project reconnects the auditorium to the street by creating a new link building that part-covers an existing courtyard.

This space provides an informal events space as well as connection between a new theatre street entrance, café & workshop space and the refurbished theatre foyers. The auditorium is completely redesigned within the retained historic circus shell, increasing capacity by over 100 seats in a variety of formats using a combination of repositionable seats and retractable rostra & bleachers, as well as a fully demountable and adjustable proscenium. The material aesthetic is durable and expressive of each material’s natural characteristics, including reclaimed cotton from denim clothing reprocessed as acoustic felt, refurbished ‘as found’ concrete floor surfaces, Swedish pine plywood joinery, visible fir timber floor joists, recycled rubber sheet flooring and restored brickwork. These will age gracefully, assembled to express their connections with raw welds, bolts, joints, pipes and cabling becoming a visible barcode to the craft of theatre making.

ADDRESS KALENDEGATAN, MALM Ö

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CLIENT MALM Ö STADSTEATER

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 520

“None of us saw the way forward until we met the architects of Haworth Tompkins. They have a deep understanding of our heritage and the need to preserve it, while moving the theatre into the future. They are visionaries through and through.”

Kitte Wagner, Artistic Director

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National Theatre, 2013

The NT Future project has transformed the UK’s biggest theatre into a more contemporary, welcoming and popular building for the public, significantly improved the production capacity and working conditions of the organisation, and dramatically improved the creative potential of the theatre for artists. The entire public and working realm has been reimagined, and the external spaces around the building redesigned to provide a new riverside destination for theatregoers and the general public.

A new build extension houses a 15m high scenic workshop and design studios along with all the servicing requirements of the theatre, freeing up the valuable riverside elevation for public use and crucial revenue generation. The making workshops have been refitted and streamlined to improve the productivity and technical capacity of the organisation. A public walkway allows the workshops to be viewed, unaccompanied, directly from the theatre foyer. The former Cottesloe, now Dorfman theatre, has been completely refitted to accommodate a state of the art adaptable seating system that can transform from a conventional 350-seat rake to a seat-free flat floor in a matter of minutes. Elsewhere, new bars, restaurants and cafés have hugely improved the energy and commercial potential of the foyers and external spaces around the theatre.

ADDRESS SOUTH BANK, LONDON

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CLIENT NATIONAL THEATRE

DORFMAN AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 464

“...this venerable modern monument is looking better than it has done for a long time, and in some ways ever.”

The Observer

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National Theatre Studio, 2008

This project involved the conversion and conservation of the listed former production building of the next door Old Vic theatre into rehearsal and development spaces. The renowned Brutalist building had been used on a provisional basis as the National’s creative laboratory for many years previously, so our task was to upgrade and extend the technical and theatrical capability of the spaces without losing the acquired patina of use and the sense of an ad hoc environment for creative experimentation. This required an acute sensitivity to materials, surface and light in order to reinforce the fundamental qualities of the space whilst upgrading technical capacity, expanding available workspaces and improving the artistic capabilities of the building. The new facilities include two large studios, a third education studio converted from a redundant service yard and a public archive with reading room and seminar room, along with smaller work spaces, offices, dressing rooms and a green room. Douglas Fir plywood, painted brick and concrete, ceramic floor tiles and woodwool ceilings remain the reduced palate of internal materials. The day-today life of the building now centres around a double height circulation spine, converted from the former paint frame pit and still encrusted with decades of scenic paint.

ADDRESS THE CUT, LONDON

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CLIENT NATIONAL THEATRE

“...this exemplary project by Haworth Tompkins of a 1950s brutalist masterpiece ensures its future as the National Theatre’s secret ideas laboratory.”

Ellis Woodman

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The North Wall, 2006

The North Wall arts centre at St Edward’s School, Oxford, incorporates the conversion of a listed but disused Victorian swimming pool and a new studio and foyer building. The swimming pool and outbuildings provided the enclosure for a new timber-framed 250 seat flexible auditorium and support spaces, while the remaining accommodation is housed in a series of contemporary ‘barns’ arranged along the existing wall. A foyer and gallery space in the centre of the linear building allows direct access both from the town and school sides, reflecting the art centre’s dual role as a school facility and public building. The interior is made of simple, hard-wearing materials: polished concrete, stained plywood panels and natural plywood slats. High levels of insulation, combined with carefully sized windows, help to minimise the energy use in heating and ventilating the spaces. Externally, the walls and roof of the building are clad in unseasoned English oak shakes (hand-split tiles) and slender green oak slats (both carbon neutral materials), designed to bend and twist into organic, patinated surfaces that will vary in colour and texture according to orientation and exposure. The combination of vernacular forms, large frameless windows and a traditional cladding material give the building a rich, abstract quality, appearing both familiar and strange in the sensitive historic setting of the school and its immediate surroundings.

ADDRESS WOODSTOCK ROAD, OXFORD

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CLIENT ST EDWARD’S SCHOOL

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 300

“What we have now is unanimously recognised as something really beautiful. The School refer to it as the jewel in their crown, and the public reaction has confirmed what a vibrant and intimate space it is.”

George Fenton

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Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre, 2018

The Perse School in Cambridge is a new building to house the school’s extensive programme of music and drama activities which had outgrown its previous home. The Performing Arts Centre is named after Peter Hall, who was a pupil at the school and went on to be the director of the National Theatre, an institution with which Haworth Tompkins has a long association. The project includes a 400-seat auditorium, an adaptable foyer space that incorporates a large, daylit rehearsal and teaching room, an exhibition space and full back of house dressing rooms, workshop and ancillary spaces, along with a suite of classrooms. The triple-height, galleried foyer with a ‘diagrid’ timber roof structure, is naturally daylit and overlooks a landscaped courtyard which will form the new heart of the school. The space operates as a café for pupils and staff during the school day, and as a foyer for audiences during events in the auditorium. The Performing Arts Centre incorporates full backstage facilities, enabling students to experience all aspects of staging a production and build on the activities of its thriving technical theatre company. The entire building is naturally ventilated via imposing brick roof lanterns which give the building its identity when viewed across a new garden and play space at the heart of the school campus.

ADDRESS HILLS ROAD, CAMBRIDGE

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CLIENT THE PERSE SCHOOL

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 400

“Haworth Tompkins’ vast experience in this specialist area of design, and their ability to listen and interpret were invaluable and made for the most productive and enjoyable design process.”

The Perse School

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Punchdrunk - One Cartridge Place, 2022

The scheme for Punchdrunk features a temporary entrance pavilion for their new base in south-east London. The pavilion, known as ‘One Cartridge Place’, spans across the carriageway between three listed buildings which house their opening show, and includes an entrance foyer, box office and internal passageways which link the buildings during the performance. Constrained by a temporary lifespan and its connection to listed structures and uneven road surfaces, the lightweight timber framed structure is a complex negotiation of internal floor levels supported by a system of sand-bag foundations. Clad in polycarbonate with a decorative chainmail mesh cladding, the material palette for the link building acknowledges the significance of the adjacent Grade II listed industrial buildings whilst announcing itself as a convivial and welcoming destination. In addition, we designed the cloakroom and toilet areas within the ‘lean-to’ part of the Grade II listed canon manufacturing warehouse, which connect to the temporary pavilion and supported Punchdrunk with their initial office space planning as well as core show infrastructure within the warehouse, creating technical plans for fire compartments, mezzanine, air conditioning and lifts in conjunction with the show’s designer, Livi Vaughan. The internal layouts have been developed to enable the building to become fully accessible for the first time.

The interventions are intended to be non-invasive and reversible.

ADDRESS WOOLWICH WORKS

78

CLIENT PUNCHDRUNK

“It’s been fantastic working with Haworth Tompkins on realising One Cartridge Place. The practical support and technical expertise they provided has been invaluable, and vital to the success of the project.”

Punchdrunk

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Regents Park Open Air Theatre, 2012

The Open Air Theatre, originally designed by the respected British architects Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis, is a successful London producing house as well as a much loved visitor attraction throughout the summer. Hidden by mature landscape from all sides, the theatrical experience relies on a sense of discovery, of entering a different world within the everyday surroundings of the park. Working with landscape architect Camlin Lonsdale, the first phase of work reconfigured the foyer and front of house areas to create picnic lawns, a new studio for rehearsal, performance, events and catering, sheltered seating areas and a long, covered bar amongst the mature Horse Chestnut trees. A language of planted trellises and woven hazel façades was used to merge architecture and natural landscape into a single, seamless environment. A second phase has added new offices and back of house facilities amongst the trees and a new box office and entrance building, enabling the organisation to remain resident on the site throughout the year for the first time. The new buildings are made of prefabricated timber panels for clean, fast construction and low carbon use. Using a combination of unfinished and dark stained Larch for the external skins, the structures are already growing back into the landscape that envelops them.

ADDRESS INNER CIRCLE, LONDON

80

CLIENT REGENT’S PARK THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 1240

“Subtly but incisively redesigned by Haworth Tompkins, the building looks sleek and intentional.”

Susanna Clapp

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Royal Court Theatre, 2000

The Royal Court represents both risk and continuity in British theatre, a radical tradition of contemporary work performed in a Victorian playhouse. Haworth Tompkins’ equally radical remodelling has transformed the creative and commercial capacity of the organisation by significantly expanding the public areas, renovating and upgrading the main auditorium, rebuilding the studio theatre and replacing the back of house spaces. The conceptual approach was partly archaeological - uncovering hidden layers of the building’s fabric and deciding what should be changed and what left exposed as evidence of a rich past - and partly invasive, demolishing, extending and reconfiguring the space to provide better facilities, improved access and more space. Respect for the past without sentimentality was the guiding principle of the project. The main auditorium was re-seated to achieve much better sightlines, while the previously limited front of house facilities were expanded by constructing a new foyer beneath Sloane Square to accommodate a bar, restaurant and bookshop. The connection between the foyers and the outside world was reinforced by the introduction of more transparent entrances onto the street, a new balcony and a large vermilion mural by Antoni Malinowski on the drum wall of the Auditorium. Materials throughout the project were selected to welcome the passage of time.

ADDRESS SLOANE SQUARE, LONDON

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CLIENT ENGLISH STAGE COMPANY

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 465

“The Royal Court’s partnership with architects Haworth Tompkins has been an extraordinary success story for over four years. Their acute awareness of our very particular needs, combined with a deep understanding of the company’s artistic and historical context, has led to a challenging and hugely enjoyable relationship which we believe will result in one of the great playhouses of the modern era.”

Stephen Daldry

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The Shed, 2013

This project is a temporary venue for the National Theatre on London’s South Bank, maintaining a third auditorium while the Cottesloe was closed for a year during the NT Future redevelopment. Designed and built in a year, the Shed is a collaborative process between the building designers, the National Theatre, and theatre-makers who will work in the space, in a way that more closely resembled a theatre show or an art installation than a conventional construction project. Its simple form houses a 225-seat thrust stage auditorium made of raw steel and stained plywood. The rough sawn timber cladding refers to the National Theatre’s iconic board-marked concrete, and the modelling of the auditorium and its corner ventilation towers complement the bold geometries of the National Theatre itself. The brilliant red colour covering the entire mass of a form without doors or windows, announces its arrival boldly against the geometric concrete forms of the NT, giving it a startling and enigmatic presence. Since its opening show in 2013, the Shed attracted a more diverse audience to the NT and helped to re-energise the entire site as the ‘NT Future’ project to regenerate the existing 1976 theatre building unfolds around it.

ADDRESS SOUTH BANK, LONDON

84

CLIENT NATIONAL THEATRE

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 225

“This is a building that opens your heart before you get into the auditorium. It’s a building that enables invention.”

The Observer

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Snape Maltings, 2010

This project is a new addition to Snape Maltings’ internationally important music campus on the marshes of Suffolk’s east coast.

The twin aims of the project were to protect the fragile ecology of historic architecture and landscape while significantly expanding the physical, technical and creative capacity of the campus. The new work includes a suite of professional rehearsal rooms and working spaces, building on existing music facilities by Arup Associates. The new project comprises a phased redevelopment of the former maltings buildings, the centrepiece of which is a new build orchestral rehearsal room, the Britten Studio, designed to complement the nearby concert hall. The room can be configured as a 350-seat recital hall for public use. A second workspace, the Jerwood Kiln Studio (converted from a derelict kiln building), can also accommodate 80 for public performances. Further practice rooms and support facilities have been formed within formerly derelict granaries. The central social space has been adapted from a storage barn sandwiched between older structures. Roof forms based on vernacular precedents and a palette of mellow reclaimed brick, reclaimed timber, concrete and Douglas Fir have been deployed to blend the new work into the existing spaces, extrapolating a process of accretion and gradual change that has been going on for over 150 years.

ADDRESS SNAPE MALTINGS, SUFFOLK

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CLIENT SNAPE MALTINGS

CONCERT HALL & JERWOOD CAPACITY 350 & 80

“The 350-seater Britten Studio, which will surely come to rank as one of the most attractive spaces for chamber music in Britain.”

The Telegraph

87

@sohoplace, 2022

The @sohoplace auditorium marks a new departure for contemporary performance space. Responding to impresario Nica Burns’ vision for a truly adaptable, intimate 600 seat West End auditorium, Haworth Tompkins, Charcoalblue, Arup and Tait have designed an intense, sumptuous room with multiple possibilities for artists and audiences to explore. Embedded at the heart of a new building by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, this project posed a radical challenge for the design team who were asked to deliver an adjustable thrust and in-the-round theatre, all within the tight spatial constraints of a dense Soho site.

The answer is an innovative modular system of swing out arms and drop-in balcony cassettes, allowing the auditorium to be reconfigured using overhead lifting beams. The design was developed and reviewed in consultation with theatre show makers, first in model form through to full scale mock ups. Every inch of space was interrogated to give excellent sightlines from all seats.

Balcony fronts in natural golden timber lend the space warmth and are acoustically modelled to both scatter sound sideways and reflect sound downwards back to the audience. These together with the inky blue seating continue the theatre’s colour scheme, set under a ‘starlit sky’ of house lighting. Noise and vibration from the Northern & Elizabeth lines below, and building directly above Crossrail infrastructure, brought significant acoustic and structural demands. The design solution houses the auditorium within a fully isolated acoustic box-in-box, isolating it from both noise and vibration. A set of state-of-the-art equipment including a large stage lift and trap room, overhead technical walkways, travelling bridges and a dedicated control room, completes the set up at @ sohoplace - a highly adaptable, theatrically dense, acoustically precise and physically glamorous auditorium.

ADDRESS SOHO PLACE, LONDON

88

CLIENT DERWENT

CAPACITY 602

“This place has the bare-bones simplicity of Shakespeare’s Globe but an even greater intimacy.”

Evening Standard

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Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 2021

Theatre Royal Drury Lane is one of the world’s most important theatres, in operation since 1663. This project, for LW Theatres, has involved seven years of painstaking research, analysis, design and craftsmanship to bring London’s grandest venue back to life. A central part of the project vision was to reveal and restore the 1812 foyers and staircases and to democratise the previously segregated circulation into the auditorium. A new lift, along with fully accessible circulation at each level, has ensured that every audience member can now experience the grandeur of the architecture. New bars, retail space and furniture enable the theatre to operate viably throughout the day and evening. Wyatt’s multi-tiered, enveloping auditorium was replaced entirely in the 1920s when a more disengaged, cinematic style of seating arrangement was fashionable, so a crucial aspect of our work has been to bring the audience into a closer and more direct relationship with the stage. The redecorated auditorium has been fully re-seated and technically refitted so that for the first time it will be possible to arrange the theatre in unconventional formats for specific productions. With major technical renewal of the stagehouse, greatly increased restroom provision and full refurbishment of the dressing rooms, the entire building has been restored and upgraded.

ADDRESS DRURY LANE, LONDON

90

CLIENT LW THEATRES

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 1979

“The wait, and the investment, has been worth it. Staggeringly beautiful, the Lane – as it is affectionately referred to – is a gift to Theatreland and to future generations of theatregoers” The Stage

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Ustinov Studio, 2008

Following successful completion of the Egg Theatre for children and young people, the Theatre Royal, Bath, commissioned Haworth Tompkins to renovate their ‘second space’, the Ustinov Studio. First, an improved public entrance and street presence were created. Inside, the foyer area was extensively remodelled so as to separate backstage and front of house areas. The existing performance space was transformed to create a flexible and technically sophisticated studio theatre adaptable for both spoken and musical performance. Improvement of the facilities for performers and technical staff was also a priority. Construction of wings and get-round provided full stage access. Circulation was rationalised to offer direct access to dressing rooms. Meanwhile, lighting bars were fitted to provide flexible stage lighting, and a fully-equipped control room was constructed at high level. Close collaboration with the client was vital to stretch an extremely tight budget to the limit. By making a virtue of this restriction, the aim has been to develop an architectural language which was warm and welcoming, but reflected the experimental nature of the studio’s work.

ADDRESS SAWCLOSE, BATH

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CLIENT THEATRE ROYAL BATH

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 126

“I couldn’t be happier with the transformation from the old Ustinov to the new Ustinov, which is like having a brand new theatre. I’ve got the Ustinov we always wanted from the project ... an exciting, vibrant, welcoming space, a fully functioning ‘grown-up’ theatre and a real complement and partner to the wonderful ‘Egg’ children’s theatre.”

Andrew Smaje

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Young Vic, 2006

The Young Vic is a famous producing theatre in south London, originally designed in 1970 as an informal, temporary space for the National Theatre company. Thirty years later, the building had become physically dilapidated but the innovative thrust stage auditorium had proved a potent performance space and the old butchers shop foyer (a lone survivor of wartime bombing) an important vessel of communal memory. Haworth Tompkins re-imagined a new building around these two fragments, upgrading the auditorium and adding an enlarged foyer bar, two new studio theatres and much improved support spaces. Artist Clem Crosby painted the new auditorium façade, layered with aluminium mesh and uplit to create a theatrical gauze effect. The building is designed along passive low energy principles, combining high insulation levels, natural ventilation, shading and orientation to reduce the building’s carbon footprint. The ‘public’ and ‘private’ territories of the theatre as a whole are deliberately merged to heighten the sense of a shared democratic architecture – a place, to quote the artistic director David Lan, “...where strangers can meet in peace”. Since its opening the new Young Vic has become a central part of London’s cultural life and one of Europe’s most discussed theatres.

ADDRESS THE CUT, LONDON

96

CLIENT YOUNG VIC

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 550

“The building, which comes in on time and on budget, is a stupendous new theatre factory, with three distinct and distinctive auditoria….stunning, versatile new venues.”

The Stage

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In Progress

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HaworthTompkins

The Old Vic

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Kouvola Theatre, 2025 Kouvola, Finland

Haworth Tompkins, alongside Finnish Architecture studio ARCO are working on rebuilding and part refurbishment of a theatre in Kouvola Finland. The proposals create an exemplar world class theatre through a bold sustainable transformation that both respects the integrity and cultural history of the existing buildings while radically opening up the theatre to the city, creating a strong cultural landmark for Kouvola.

The proposal retains the existing 1950s community education building and sports hall by the local architect Eero A. Kajava and rebuilds the adjacent 1960s Theatre. The historic and new building together will form the improved and extended theatre complex. The classrooms and sports hall of the historic community centre will be transformed into generous administration, dressing room and workshop spaces as well as the new studio theatre.

A new state of the art 400-seat auditorium and stage together with the public main foyer will be built on the site of the old theatre bringing Kouvola’s theatre infrastructure into the 21st century.

ADDRESS KOUVOLA, FINLAND

102

CLIENT KOUVOLA CITY

HaworthTompkins

American Repertory Theater Harvard, Boston

Home of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, the new David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance is designed to be a building that lifts the heart, inspires creativity, centers community, and welcomes people of all backgrounds. Created in close collaboration between A.R.T., Harvard University, Haworth Tompkins, ARC, and Charcoalblue, the Center for Creativity & Performance will be a place for public gathering, international research, teaching, and groundbreaking theatrical production. The center consists of an interconnected family of adaptable, multi-use spaces designed to embrace future change and support creativity. As one of America’s leading cultural organizations, housed within the world’s top research institution, the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance at Harvard University is well-placed to offer a model for the next generation of cultural architecture by encompassing the core principles of openness, artistic flexibility, collaboration and sustainability and regenerative design. Over the course of the design process, the building has undergone continuous refinement to dovetail the spatial and urban program with the existing Allston neighborhood, the emerging urban plan, and A.R.T.’s developing organizational vision to craft a sequence of spaces that are not only flexible, scalable, and technically sophisticated but also welcoming and democratic. This approach will empower A.R.T. to engage with the communities of Allston, Cambridge, Boston, and the broader networks of cultural research and theatrical production. The proposals have received urban design permitting, construction started on site Spring 2024 and is proposed to complete Autumn 2026.

ADDRESS BOSTON, UNITED STATES

CLIENT AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER & HARVARD UNIVERSITY

103

The Court Theatre, 2024

We are working with The Court Theatre and Christchurch City Council on a new venue in the city’s Performing Arts Precinct, part of the long urban rebuilding process after the terrible earthquake of 2011 . We have led the pubic consultation and concept design and are now collaborating with NZ architects Athfield to complete the design and construction of this keystone cultural building. The threestorey theatre is designed to be a welcoming, democratic and regenerative space, making maximum use of natural materials, ventilation and light. It will house two auditoria; a 365-seat main playhouse, and a 130-seat studio theatre, where children’s and family shows can be held. All aspects of a working theatre, including set-building, costume-making, rehearsals and administration, will be based on site, with plans to make these usually back-stage activities more visible to the public. The team are also working on the design for public space in the Performing Arts Precinct. A series of laneways will draw people to a central courtyard, which will be used for a range of outdoor performances. Our aim is to give the city a new cultural and communal heart. Construction began in 2022 and the theatre is due to open in 2024.

ADDRESS CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

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CLIENT CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL & THE COURT THEATRE

Edith Cowan University, 2025

We are working with Perth-based Edith Cowan University on their City Campus project. We are assisting Lyons, our Australian partners, with the strategic campus masterplan, and focusing on the new home for the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) within the City Campus. The new WAAPA will activate the northern block of the City Campus site, with a dynamic and welcoming entrance to draw in a diverse group of theatre patrons, visiting artists, university students and members of the community. The multi-level foyers incorporate new bars/cafes and catering facilities and have the infrastructure to facilitate impromptu performances and a provision for cross arts use combining student exhibition spaces within the ground floor foyer. Five new performance spaces of varying capacity and form will enable WAAPA to stage the full spectrum of their performing arts work in professional world class venues and develop an ambitious new artistic, research and educational programme. A series of teaching spaces, ranging from large rehearsal rooms and studios to ensemble and practice rooms, will support artistic development. Embedding WAAPA into the City Campus will ensure that a diverse range of ECU’s students and Perth’s wider community can experience both “front of house” aspects and “behind the scenes” glimpses of the extraordinary work that happens at this leading conservatoire.

ADDRESS PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

CLIENT WAAPA & EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

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Liverpool Playhouse, 2023

Haworth Tompkins is working with the Liverpool Playhouse on a Capital Refurbishment Feasibility Study that will safeguard the future of the 156-year-old theatre. We will be leading a multi-disciplinary team including Liverpool based architects MGMA, Charcoalblue as Theatre Consultants, Layer Studio as Landscape Architects, Local Engagement by Placed along with regular collaborators Skelly & Couch, Price & Myers and Gardiner & Theobald. Following on from our work with the Liverpool and Merseyside Theatre’s Trust on the Stirling Prize-winning Everyman, this Feasibility Study is looking at how a refurbishment of the Playhouse could be an exemplar for similar age theatres across the world, demonstrating that you can improve the environmental credentials of a listed building and its accessibility, while also acting as a catalyst for a cultural regeneration of its surrounding area. The team will begin work immediately, building on our existing knowledge of the theatres and the city region, with the report due in Spring 2023.

ADDRESS WILLIAMSON SQUARE, LIVERPOOL

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CLIENT LIVERPOOL & MERSEYSIDE THEATRES TRUST

The Old Vic, 2024

The Old Vic Annex is a new build six-storey extension to the rear of the famous Grade II* listed theatre in London’s Waterloo. The new building is designed to be a welcoming destination for the local community as well as a much-needed expansion of the theatre’s working and engagement spaces. The new accommodation will include a sunny, double height street café, a Clore Learning Centre for education and participation activities, a script library, a rooftop event space and a new green room. The works will also involve remodelling of the existing back of house spaces to achieve a fully accessible stage door, improved dressing rooms and staff offices and the refurbishment of the existing rehearsal room to include a studio theatre space. This will all support The Old Vic’s social mission as an accessible theatre for staff, artists, audience, students, and the wider local community. The principles of sustainability and regenerative design have informed the intelligent re-use of the existing building and the design of an exemplar low-carbon extension, incorporating a timber frame, natural ventilation and solar shading formed of repurposed theatre lighting components. The overall site works began in June 2022 with completion programmed for Spring 2024.

ADDRESS THE CUT, WATERLOO, LONDON

CLIENT THE OLD VIC

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Olympia Theatre, 2026

Haworth Tompkins are collaborating with Heatherwick Studios on a new theatre building in west London. When complete it will be the largest new permanent London theatre since the National Theatre in 1976. Operated by Trafalgar Entertainment Group, the theatre building will incorporate a number of other ancillary uses and is part of a wider redevelopment of the famous Olympia exhibition centre.

At the heart of the project is a new 1570 seat auditorium, a grand proscenium house in the classical tradition with three main seating levels, contained within sumptuously painted wall linings. Our aim is to achieve a level of contact and intimacy normally associated with much smaller capacity spaces. The principal foyer is arranged vertically on multiple levels, each with its own interval bar, around a dramatic central atrium with horseshoe balconies overlooking the lower levels and outward to the city beyond. Entrance and arrival spaces serve both the street level and a raised thoroughfare that forms the spine of the new development. The accommodation is completed by a full suite of dressing rooms and technical back of house spaces. This complex project is scheduled to complete in 2026.

ADDRESS OLYMPIA, LONDON

108

CLIENT TRAFALGAR ENTERTAINMENT

AUDITORIUM CAPACITY 1570

Pembroke College, Cambridge 2023

The light-touch conversion of the former Emmanuel United Reform Church to a flexible performance and lecture space forms part of the proposed expansion of Pembroke College within the Old Press Mill Lane site in central Cambridge. The church was built in 1874 to designs by Architect James Cubitt. The comprehensive refurbishment will retain the architectural primacy of the original fabric, form and finishes, while introducing new services and technical infrastructure to enhance the flexibility and acoustic characteristics of the space.

New bespoke seating will provide 160-170 seats for lectures and recitals and can be removed for exams, dances and other events. Flexible staging also allows for an expandable stage area to accommodate larger groups of musicians. New heating and ventilation and secondary glazing will substantially reduce the energy load of the new venue and enable the Church to connect to the site-wide fossil-fuel free services infrastructure. A new, timber framed foyer and study space connects the church to a new public courtyard and to Trumpington St via a new gate lodge and gallery space, incorporating an existing house. Works commenced on site in June 2021, and will complete in 2023.

ADDRESS MILL LANE, CAMBRIDGE

CLIENT PEMBROKE COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

109

Theatr Clwyd, 2024

Sited on a hillside above the town of Mold in North Wales, Theatr Clywd’s home is a mid-70s arts complex originally designed to house both theatre and TV production spaces. 50 years on, the red brick building is in urgent need of reconfiguration and upgrading. We have been working closely with Flintshire County Council and the Theatr Clywd team to open up the theatre more fully to its wonderful landscape, repurpose the existing fabric and replace only what is essential to enable the organisation to expand its role as Wales’ biggest producing house as well as the cultural centrepiece of the region. The client and design team spent many months in research, consultation and technical option studies to maximise the cultural capacity of the building at the practical minimum embodied and operational carbon cost. Once complete, the theatre will provide multiple possibilities for performance, music and community support uses throughout the day and throughout the year. With a programme of extensive tree planting, green walls, roof planting and extensive on-site PVs we aim to contribute to hitting a whole life zero carbon target and for this project to be an exemplar of 21st century cultural space.

ADDRESS RAIKES LANE, MOLD, WALES

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CLIENT THEATR CLWYD & FLINTSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

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Performing Arts Project Awards 2023-2000 RIBA London Award: Theatre Royal Drury Lane Georgian Group Award, Restoration of a Georgian Building in an Urban Setting: Theatre Royal Drury Lane Chicago Athenaeum, International Architecture Award: Theatre Royal Drury Lane Civic Trust AABC Conservation Award, Highly Commended: Theatre Royal Drury Lane The Stage Awards, Theatre Building of the Year: Theatre Royal Drury Lane The Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers: Roof Slating and Tiling Award: Battersea Arts Centre Civic Trust National Award, Highly Commended: Bristol Old Vic Civic Trust Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design, Highly Commended: Bristol Old Vic New London Architecture Awards, Overall Winner: Battersea Arts Centre New London Architecture Awards, Community Prize: Battersea Arts Centr New London Architecture Awards, Experiencing Culture: Battersea Arts Centre Chicago Athenaeum, International Architecture Award: Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre USITT Architecture Award: Bristol Old Vic Civic Trust AABC Conservation Award: Battersea Arts Centre Wood Award: Battersea Arts Centre Chicago Athenaeum, International Architecture Award: Battersea Arts Centre Chicago Athenaeum, International Architecture Award: Bristol Old Vic RIBA National Award: Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre RIBA National Award: Bristol Old Vic RIBA National Award: Battersea Arts Centre RICS South West Building Conservation Award: Bristol Old Vic RICS South West Project of the Year: Bristol Old Vic RIBA South West Conservation Award: Bristol Old Vic RIBA South West Building of the Year Award: Bristol Old Vic RIBA London Award: Battersea Arts Centre BD Refurbishment Architect of the Year: Bristol Old Vic, Battersea Arts Centre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane Bristol LABC Building Excellence Award, Best Commercial Project: Bristol Old Vic The Stage Awards, Theatre Building of the Year: Battersea Arts Centre RIBA London Award: The Bridge Theatre RICS London Award, Design through Innovation: The Bridge Theatre BD Public Building Architect of the Year: Bridge Theatre, Bush Theatre, Bristol Old Vic The Stage Awards, Theatre Building of the Year: Bridge Theatre Hammersmith Society Conservation Award: The Bush Theatre RICS National Award: National Theatre - NT Future Chicago Athenaeum, International Architectural Award: Chichester Festival Theatre Chicago Athenaeum, International Architectural Award: Everyman Theatre RICS London Award: National Theatre - NT Future The Stage Awards, Theatre Building of the Year - NT Future Civic Trust Award: National Theatre - NT Future CIBS Building Performance Champion: Everyman Theatre CIBS Project of the Year - Leisure: Everyman Theatre USITT Architecture Award: Everyman Theatre World Interior News Award: Everyman Theatre RIBA Client of the Year: National Theatre New London Award Public Building: National Theatre - NT Future New London Award Commissioning Excellence: National Theatre - NT Future RIBA National Award: National Theatre - NT Future RIBA London Award: National Theatre - NT Future RIBA London Award: Donmar Dryden Street RICS South East Conservation Highly Commended: Chichester Festival Theatre RIBA South East Building of the Year Award: Chichester Festival Theatre RIBA South East Award: Chichester Festival Theatre RIBA South East Project Architect of the Year Award RIBA South East Conservation Award: Chichester Festival Theatre RIBA South East Sustainability Award: Chichester Festival Theatre Civic Trust Award: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Civic Trust Commendation: Chichester Festival Theatre The Stage Theatre Building of the Year: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool RIBA Stirling Prize: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool RIBA London Architect of the Year Building Design Architect of the Year: Gold Award Building Design Architect of the Year: Public Building Building Design Architect of the Year: Refurbishment

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Chicago Athenaeum, International Architectural Award: NT Shed RIBA North West Building of the Year Award: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool RIBA National Award: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool RIBA London Award: NT Shed WAN International Performing Space Award: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Chicago Athenaeum, International Architectural Award: Young Vic Theatre AIA UK Award: NT Shed German Gold Design Award: NT Shed Civic Trust Pro Tem Special Award: NT Shed Civic Trust Award: NT Shed AIA UK Honorable Mention: Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Architizer A+ Award: NT Shed Civic Trust Commendation: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre New London Award: Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre New London Award: NT Shed Chicago Athenaeum, International Architectural Award: Snape Maltings Civic Trust Award: Snape Maltings RIBA Stirling Prize Midlist: Aldeburgh Music Creative Campus Quality of Place Award - Conservation: Aldeburgh Music Creative Campus RIBA East Award: Aldeburgh Music Creative Campus RICS East of England Conservation Award: Snape Maltings Architects Journal Small Project Award: Dovecote Studio British Construction Industry Building Award: Young Vic Theatre Chicago Athenaeum, International Architectural Award: Young Vic Theatre RIBA Stirling Prize Midlist: North Wall Performing Arts Centre RIBA National Award: North Wall Performing Arts Centre RIBA South Award: North Wall Performing Arts Centre RIBA South Conservation Award: North Wall Performing Arts Centre Prime Minister’s Public Building Award (Finalist): National Theatre Studio AIA/UK Award: Young Vic Theatre Civic Trust Award: Young Vic Theatre Civic Trust Award: North Wall Performing Arts Centre Building Award: Shortlisted Practice of the Year LEAF Public Building of the Year Award: Young Vic Theatre RIBA South Conservation Commendation: North Wall Performing Arts Centre Evening Standard Special Award for Innovative Theatre Architecture RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist: Young Vic Theatre RIBA London Award: Young Vic Theatre RIBA London Building of the Year: Young Vic Theatre RIBA National Award: Young Vic Theatre USITT Award with Honour: The Egg Theatre, Bath USITT Award with Merit: Young Vic Theatre Structural Steel Design Award Merit : Young Vic Theatre RIBA Stirling Prize Midlist: The Egg Theatre, Bath RIBA Wessex Award: The Egg Theatre, Bath B&NES Design Quality Award: The Egg Theatre, Bath ABTT Prague Quadrennial Gold Award for Theatre Design Time Out Live Awards - Most Inspiring Venue: Almeida Kings Cross Building Awards: Young Architect of The Year Outstanding Young UK Architect, Royal Fine Art Commission Awards IStructE Award: Royal Court Theatre RIBA London Award: Royal Court Theatre RBKC Conservation and Restoration Award: Royal Court Theatre USITT Award (USA): Royal Court Theatre

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Performance Project Clients

Image Credits

59 Productions Almeida Theatre Ambassador Theatre Group American Repertory Theater Battersea Arts Centre Bristol Old Vic Bush Theatre Chichester Festival Theatre Donmar Warehouse Edith Cowan University English Stage Company Etat for Utbygging, Bergen, Norway Everyman and Playhouse Theatres Harvard University King Edward’s School, Birmingham Lloyd Webber Theatres London Theatre Company MalmÖ Stadsteater MM! The Party National Theatre Nimax Theatres Pembroke College, University of Cambridge Punchdrunk Regent’s Park Theatre Royal Exchange Theatre Rugby School Snape Maltings St Edward’s School, Oxford St John’s Smith Square Tall Stories The Court Theatre, New Zealand The Old Vic The Perse School The Young Vic Company Theatr Clwyd Theatre Royal, Bath Theatre Royal Stratford East Trafalgar Entertainment Group

Jenny Baumgartner Helene Binet Alex Brenner Andy Chopping Manuel Harlan Fred Howarth David Jensen Danny Lane Åke E:son Lindman Chris Payne Philip Vile

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Everyman Theatre

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Almeida Kings Cross

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The Den

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National Theatre Studio

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The North Wall Arts Centre

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Snape Maltings

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Ustinov Theatre

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Bridge Theatre

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Royal Court Theatre Upstairs

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The Shed

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King Edwards School

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Battersea Arts Centre

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Donmar Warehouse

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National Theatre Dorfman Theatre

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Royal Court Theatre

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Donmar Dryden Street

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Chichester Festival Theatre

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Bush Theatre

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Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre

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Young Vic

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Almeida Gainsborough

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Bristol Old Vic

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Theatre Royal Drury Lane

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