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Concert Halls • Theatres • Convention Centres • Cinemas • Arenas
Auditoria
13
May 2007
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Concert Halls • Theatres • Convention Centres • Cinemas • Arenas
Miami Carnival Center
Children’s theatres
Portland goes green
New US PACs
Published by UKIP Media and Events
House of fun
London’s Roundhouse reopened and reborn
CHildren’s tHeatres
aNNa doWNiNG
Main pic: Children explore the Egg
theatre in Bath
Below: Some of the ‘Young Consultants’,
who helped develop London’s new
Unicorn Theatre
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auditoria l MaY 2007
Barnes
CHildren’s tHeatres
K
ids today, eh? When they’re not
yabbering into their mobile
phones, they’re either glued to
their Playstations or feverishly
surfing the net – leaving little
time for more traditional, cultural pursuits such
as a visit to a museum, let alone a trip to the theatre.
However, London’s Unicorn Theatre and the
Egg in Bath offer frustrated parents a refreshing
change when it comes to their children’s
entertainment, as well as their education.
What differentiates these theatres from other
children’s venues is that the children themselves
played an active role in designing them. As a
result, the theatres are not only tailored to their
specific desires, but the children and the schools
involved in the projects continue to enjoy a
special relationship with each venue, encouraging
them to become much more interested in the arts.
auditoria l MaY 2007
31
Make believe
32
auditoria l MAY 2007
Clockwise from top left: The
Unicorn Theatre; the 350-seat
Weston Theatre; the ‘Grand
Stair’ leads to the main
auditorium; transparent areas
allow the public to see inside
Hélène Binet
The Unicorn Theatre was founded by Caryl
Jenner in 1947, with its first permanent residency
taken within the Arts Theatre in London in 1961.
“We named the theatre after a unicorn because
he is an exciting figure of legend, a thing
intangible and uncatchable; he exists only if you
believe in him, and we feel this is a stimulating
idea for children,” explained Jenner, before her
passing in 1973. By 2005, Jenner’s dream of
building a purpose-designed theatre for children
in the heart of London was finally realised, when
the new £13 million Unicorn Theatre opened its
doors on a dedicated site on Tooley Street, just
minutes away from London Bridge.
When designing the new venue, the theatre
and its chosen architect, Keith Williams
Architects, chose to involve 30 eight-year-old
children from a local school, in a consultation
process that lasted over three years. Dubbed the
‘Young Consultants’, the kids provided firsthand feedback on how they experience theatre,
Hélène Binet
Hélène Binet
Hélène Binet
Hélène Binet
CHildren’s theatres
ensuring their thoughts were taken into account
at every stage of the project.
The consultation also provided unparalleled
learning experiences for the pupils, including 38
interactive sessions at the school with the Unicorn
team; and the production of ‘Transformations’ – a
film about their work. The children also worked
with a range of artists to create art, poems and
stories about theatre and the Unicorn; and had
their artwork displayed on the hoardings around
the construction site. They also visited London’s
Design Museum and various theatres across
London for inspiration. Finally, they worked with
architecture students from South Bank University
to create 3D models of the Unicorn’s foyer.
“We spoke with the children to find out what
they felt made up an exciting building,” explains
Raj Patel, principal consultant at Arup, the
acoustics, structural and services consulting firm
for the project. “A large-scale model was produced
by the architects and was displayed for the
children to assess. As a design team, we stood on
children’s theatres
the periphery listening to what they were saying
about the spaces, and which vantage points they
were looking at it from, and used what we heard to
feed back into the process.”
However, The Unicorn doesn’t look as
you would expect a children’s venue to look,
especially one with such raw input from the
kids: “The Unicorn Theatre eschews the brightly
coloured blobs and wonky shapes more normally
associated with designing for children,” explains
Keith Williams from Keith Williams Architects.
“Instead what has been created is a grown-up
building for children .”
Tony Graham, artistic director at the Unicorn
Theatre, believes that the children’s participation
was hugely beneficial for all involved: “For many
of the children working with us, it was their
first exposure to theatre and they were hugely
enthusiastic. We were able to harness their
energy and sense of wonder through dialogue
and creative activities that linked in with
schoolwork and directly helped us in forming the
designs for the new Unicorn Theatre.”
As for the kids, Dominique, a Unicorn Young
Consultant, sums up the benefits of such close
involvement: “Now we’ve got the confidence in our
own ideas, and the confidence to express them.”
Listen carefully
The acoustic design of children’s venues is a particular challenge.
“Acoustically, the primary consideration was to ensure very high
speech intelligibility,” says Arup’s Raj Patel, referring to the Unicorn
Theatre. “The way we listen and understand speech is related directly
to the strength of sound from the source, in this case the actors and the
timing of reflections received by the audience. The ear uses sound
reflections received within 50 milliseconds (ms) positively – they help
with our understanding of the original sounds. Reflections received
later than this reduce our understanding of the words. The room shape
and form was developed to maximise the reflections from any point on
the stage to get to the audience within 50ms. Every surface is located or
shaped to ensure that this occurs. The
surfaces materials are sound reflecting so
that even the quietest sounds can be
heard, and their location pinpointed on
the stage even in very low dramatic
lighting situations. The intention was to
maximise the potential for dramatic effect
and ensure effortless engagement of the
audience. All this is integrated seamlessly
within the architectural form.”
Little things for little people
The Unicorn is comprised of two theatre spaces:
the 340-seat main auditorium called the Weston
Theatre; and the 120-seat Clore Theatre. The
building is rich in child-scale detail: the stages,
balconies, seating, and in particular the form of
the main auditorium, were all designed with
special consideration of children. “The building
includes details specifically for children, such as a
second handrail at low height on the main
staircase. Also, the auditorium seating is bench
style, with low backs to allow sight lines to work
for small people,” explains Williams.
“Another example is the toilets – unless you
keep the children in mind, you will be using a 6ft
average height instead of a more accurate 3.5 to
4ft height,” adds Petrus Bertschinger, planning
and operations director at the Unicorn.
“Also, where do you set your signage?”
continues Bertschinger. “Who are you speaking
to with these signs? You can set them up where
the adults can see them, but will the kids see
them as well?”
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children’s theatres
Above all, the overall design for the building
needed to excite and capture the imagination
of younger audiences, which was something
that was considered from the very outset: “The
architecture and planning reflects this, providing
platforms to view the open public spaces from
many vantage points, while the shape of the
lobby spaces and use of full- and partial-height
glass gives these spaces a different relationship
to the street, spaces and views outside,” says
Arup’s Patel. “The idea was to create change
from the arrival point in the building, through
the lobby, to more intimate, well-controlled and
quiet spaces, corridors and walkways leading
to the theatres themselves, so arrival at the final
space has dramatic theatrical impact – to give the
children that real sense of awe and excitement in
the performance they are about to experience.”
Hatching an idea
Clockwise from top: The Egg in the heart of Bath; individually coloured seats; stage
Below: Staggered seat heights so all ages can feel comfortable addressing the room
The Egg theatre in Bath, UK, is a part of the
Theatre Royal Bath, which was built in 1805
and is one of the oldest working theatres in the
country. The Egg, a new 125-seat children and
young persons’ theatre, puts on productions
by and for children, as well as workshops for
budding young actors and actresses. Its building
was a culmination of a successful £2.25 million
capital appeal to turn the old Robins Cinema,
situated next door to the Theatre Royal, into a
dedicated theatre for children and young people.
The Egg was designed in response to a brief
drawn up by a group of 20 kids aged nine to 18,
ensuring that it met the needs of the very people
it was intended to serve.
Where the Unicorn puts on performances solely
by adults, the Egg also has children in its casts. This
was an important consideration in designing the
theatre, as the child actors needed to feel confident
in front of the audience, which meant getting the
right sense of command over the audience from
the stage. Anne Minors, principal designer of Anne
Minors Performance Consultants (AMPC), which
was theatre consultant on the refurbishment of the
Theatre Royal Bath in 1998-99, and was retained
as theatre consultant for the Egg, came up with
the ideal seating arrangement for children, both
as actors and as audience. She designed the stalls
floor and stalls seating with a vertical change in
audience eye level from the front to the back of
auditoria l MAY 2007
35
CHildren’s theatres
the stalls of 1m, but with a change in floor level of
only 450mm. This puts the eyes of the front row of
the audience at toddler level on stage and the back
row at teenager eye level, so that any age would feel
comfortable addressing the room.
AMPC held a workshop with children from
the theatre to find out their priorities for the seats.
Comfort ranked highly, as did individuality and
a sense of cohesion of design. Also, the children
liked to make the seats seem bigger than they
actually were. Stacking chairs, removable covers
with individual designs, lightweight benches, and
a sofa bench were among their ideas. In response,
Minors and her colleagues developed a variety of
benches and sofas for the seating on the floor and
tip-up benches on the balcony.
The architects, Haworth Tompkins, wanted to
identify individual places and create a more playful
and dynamic environment. The design team used
horizontal panels of different colour reds with
vertical divisions between the cushions. AMPC
made models of the seats to test out the finished
look with the architect and client. Leather arms
and backs were preferred by the theatre to survive
the wear and tear of moving the seats. Both stalls
sofas and gallery seats were made by Steeldeck and
upholstered by Kirwin and Simpson.
Teen screen
The seating workshop where the children
created mock-ups of their ideal seats
Staying true to the name of the theatre,
the engineers Buro Happold came up with an
innovative structural solution that inserted a
tightly fitting elliptical 125-seat auditorium
into the rectangular shell. The raking steel
structure avoids the existing historic building’s
foundations and respects its original fabric,
while forming the auditorium’s distinctive and
intimate egg shape.
The seating well is expressed in the ceiling as
an oval yolk of an egg, padded with yellow felt
and surrounded on all sides by a reflective ceiling
finish, giving apparent height to a low space.
Door handles, glazing panels and toilets were
all designed to be as user-friendly for a fouryear-old as for an adult. Above the theatre is a
rehearsal room for workshops with panoramic
views of Bath, again visible by a young person.
Since opening in 2005, both the Unicorn and
the Egg have proved a surefire hit with the kids.
A comment from one of the Young Consultants
says it all: “Just go there – it’s a lot better than
sitting in front of the TV. ” n
Author
Anna Downing is Assistant Editor of
Auditoria magazine
36
auditoria l MAY 2007
The Leiria, a New Lineo
Cinemas multiplex in
Portugal, boasts a total
of eight halls, including
a ‘Kids room’ outfitted
with Tango seating
from Figueras, which is
upholstered with
children’s motifs from
Disney. Other halls
include the ‘Romantic
Room’, which is
furnished with the
Loveseat Kasandra – a
seat with fold-down
armrests; and ‘scary
rooms’, where the seats
are upholstered with
horror motifs, and have
built-in speakers.
Together with
customised seating, the
décor of each hall also
contributes to its
unique, thematic
atmosphere.