Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

The original theatre was founded in 1933. A new building opened in 1970 and Nicoll Russell Studios completed the current Byre Theatre in 2002. photos from Nicoll Russell Studios Opening in June 2001, this competition-winning, lottery-funded Theatre creates a contemporary theatre within a historically sensitive context. The £4m theatre building includes a 220 seat auditorium and stage with full flying capability, 'back of house' accommodation, conference facilities, fully flexible studio theatre, and foyer / restaurant spaces which respond to the existing urban fabric by forging a new link between the differing public realms to the 'front' and 'rear' of the site. St Andrews is an architecturally and historically rich town, with unique charms where its fabric and buildings sometimes take on an almost museum like quality. The Byre sits in exactly such an area and fronts one of the principle routes through the town, surrounded by a variety of scales from the five storey St Leonard's public school to the east, traditional two and a half storey terraced houses along Abbey Street to the north and south, and stone built garden walls and narrow vennels to the west. The Byre of course had its own homespun charms, having grown steadily since its humble beginnings in a cattle shed in 1933, which we felt we should embrace. photos from Nicoll Russell Studios The essence of the whole project was therefore to somehow respond to those challenges whilst squeezing a fully functioning theatre, with all its support accommodation, into the assembled site, which was only made up of two domestic feus, whilst creating a sophisticated architectural response and maintaining the spirit of the Byre itself. Our response was borne by a sensitivity to the site as well as our passion for the arts, which allowed us to surgically graft these state of the art facilities, including a two hundred and twenty seat auditorium with a full fly tower, seamlessly into the site and to negotiate the many planning and conservation challenges to eventually realise the building. The Theatre grows from the existing town's fabric and houses its oval concrete auditorium under a 'barn' roof, with the public functions situated in a glazed vennel linking Abbey Street and a captured garden to the west, on one side of the auditorium, and all the support accommodation located on the other side. The sensitivity of the massing of the building is continued in its appropriate use of natural materials and robust detailing to physically ground it on the site and with its history. Byre Theatre images / information from Nicoll Russell Studios Byre Theatre - photo © adrian welch New Theatre, St Andrews Architect: Nicoll Russell Studios Client: The Byre Theatre of St. Andrews Ltd Completed: May 2001 Project cost: £3.77m No larger image, apologies: Building image © keith hunter from RSA Jun 05 The competition brief in 1995 demanded the creation of “The Best Small Theatre in Scotland”. Increase in audience capacity, vast improvements in technical and production capabilities were sought while retaining an intimacy for which the performance space of the ‘old’ Byre were well known. Summary of judges’ comments: An alternative rethinking of the Old Byre Theatre, cleverly inserted in the town fabric. A very comfortable building on a demanding site. The interlinking and interpretations of space provides coherence to the concept. A strong presence and an enhancement of a well used facility. RIAS information - 27 Sep 2002