Sadlers Wells Theatre,
northeast London, UK
1998
RHWL with Nicholas Hare Architects
For: Sadler's Wells Trust
Cost: £32m
Opened: October 1998
photographs © Nick Weall
Sadler's Wells Theatre : Building PR from RHWL Architects:
The new Sadler's Wells is designed to attract international dance companies,
create an arts training centre and provide community and education facilities.
It features a 1,560 seat auditorium with a 15m by 15m stage and 80 seat
orchestra pit. The auditorium is lined with metal gauze panels that take
dramatically transforming light and image projection, uniting audience
and performers. There are three foyer galleries with bars, plus rehearsal
and teaching spaces.
Built on a site with a long history of theatre buildings, the new one
fronts the main thoroughfare, as its predecessor did. Behind is the refurbished
Lilian Bayliss Theatre, now the focus for the new Community & Education
Centre.
Working with Nicholas Hare Architects, we developed the idea of using
two enclosing walls as protection from the external environment. They
are separated by a sheer glass pane on the front facade. The various elements
that project from the structure are aligned with the axis of the auditorium
within.
The main foyer is a single large tapering space containing a series of
floating galleries. A row of columns at each level symbolizes the movement
from outer more public areas to inner more intimate ones. Natural light
floods the rear wall afternoons and evenings, making the front façade
transparent.
photos by Nicolas Kane, received from RHWL Architects
5 Sep 2006
In the auditorium, good sightlines to all four corners of the stage and
the need to accommodate the acoustic demands of both live orchestral sound
and recorded music were major requirements.
The resulting space is a steeply raked, multi-tiered end-on auditorium
with a 15m by 15m stage and 80 seat orchestra pit. Usually seating 1,560,
it can be reconfigured to seat from 1,000 to 1,800. The stalls area can
accommodate promenade or flat floor set-ups.
One of the most exciting things about the new auditorium is the possibility
it provides for directors and designers to completely (and continually)
change the ambience of the space through light and image projection onto
the metal gauze panels that line the walls. This also enables the physical
expansion of a production, uniting performers and audience in one space.
For even more flexibility, the screens are demountable and reveal gallery
platforms usable either as staging or to provide boxes for an audience.
Other flexible elements include hinged panels in the wall screens for
lighting, concealed acoustic devices adjustable to suit different types
of music, an adjustable height proscenium and stalls seating rows moveable
on air pallets.
Sadlers Wells Photos: Nicolas Kane
Sadlers Wells theatre - architects:
RHWL
Sadler's Wells Theatre - Facts:
total seating capacity ... 1,560
seating arrangement ... steeply raked, 3 levels, 2 boxes, 3 levels of
side gallery, stalls seating demountable on rostra for promenade, can
be configured to seat between 1,000 and 1,800
stage type ... end on / proscenium
stage details ... flat demountable stage, dance area 15m by 15m, stage
depth 16m, adjustable height proscenium to 10m, full power flying, 80
seat orchestra pit
construction time ... 25 months
consultant architect ... Nicholas Hare Architects
theatre consultant ... Ian Albery
structural engineer ... whitbybird
services engineer ... Battle McCarthy
acoustics ... Arup Acoustics
lighting ... Lighting Design Partnership
theatre systems consultant ... Carr & Angier
quantity surveyor ... Bucknall Austin plc
main contractor ... Bovis Construction Ltd
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welch / isabelle lomholt