ART GALLERY AND THEATRE
Experiencing Art Gallery and Theatre Buildings
Art Gallery and Museum
buildings have a significant role to play within the immediate site and
location. As an addition to a community, the cultural building not only offer exciting
new architectural design and creative, social and economic input to the
existing community, attracting visitors from near and far, but also forms a
close relationship to the individual visitor. Every glimpse, touch and movement
through a space records and connects on a sensory level.
The buildings and spaces we
move through, affect the way we see things, the way we feel and sense the world
around us, directly or indirectly. Visiting buildings where art is on show,
where we go to enjoy and experience art exhibitions or performances,
immediately allow for sensory experiences, connecting us to the space at that
very moment; creating a special place.
As visitors, we become part of
the building components, through our
very presence, as we interact and move through, responding to the site,
programme, theme, materiality and sensory qualities of the building.
In this article, the
featured Art Gallery and Theatre buildings will be studied and considered from
the point of view of the body; the visitor, inhabitant or passer-by. Ideas of
the experiential side of being in, interacting with and addressing buildings
from within and from a distance will be the main focus.
The buildings covered:
The Jean-Claude Carrière Theatre in Montpellier, France, by A+ Architecture, the Wuhzen Theatre, in Zhejiang, China by Artech Architects, the Auckland Art Gallery by FJMT (Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp), the Tree Art Museum in Beijing, China by Daipu Architects, the Mizuta Museum of Art, Sakado, Japan, by Studio SUMO, the Artful Teshima Yokoo House, in Teshima, Japan, by Yuko Nagayama, the Museum for Architecture Drawings, in Berlin by Tchoban & Kuznetsov and SPEECH Bureau, the Ptuj Performance Centre in Ptuj, Slovenia by ENOTA Architects and The House of the Arts / Future Architecture Thinking, in Miranda do Corvo, Portugal.
“I enter a building, I see a room, and in the fraction of a second –
have a feeling about it”.1 Peter Zumthor
How does a
building of art and performance interact with the body moving through it? How,
indeed, does a building move and affect us through its structure, programme or
ambience?
As a
visitor to creative spaces; art galleries, museums and performance venues, the act
of entering such an establishment forms the initial point of immediate
interaction with the building. We may visit a building for the purpose of viewing
art or to experience a performance, whilst we might not be directly familiar
with the theatre, gallery or museum building itself, nor might we be quite prepared
for the reaction and power the building hosting the art may have on us.
Directly or
indirectly, we become part of the building as we maneuver through it and its
myriad of interior spaces, viewpoints and glimpses. The interaction goes
further than seeing and moving through the space, to the actual physical point
of contact. Hints of materiality, ambience and scents we come across as we
travel through the building trigger our inner memory space, connecting memory to place and events occurred or
imagined.
We form a
sensory connection to the building, a secret link between our personal space
and that of the public realm within the building we visit for different reasons;
an exhibit, a social moment in the theatre courtyard or an evening performance.
How is this
architectural and spatial experience successfully integrated into the design?
As the first impressions meet us at the entrance, how do we, the recipients,
respond? How do the first glimpse into the foyer, over the stairwell, into the
depth of the building affect us? What is the imaginative or experiential
response to the building?
The way we
spend time in public arts buildings, and the way in which we participate
responsively to the particular architecture, whether we inhabit the building
momentarily, as visitors, performers or by daily observations from the outside,
as local residents, we connect the building through ourselves to the landscape.
Creating a sensory link between the building, its immediate community and the individual
body, all adding a layer of responsibility to the success and communication of
the building’s programme and use.
Close up,
touching the door handle or bannister or whilst sitting in the theatre
auditorium, we inevitably create a personal stance to place. “The body knows and remembers. Architectural meaning
derives from archaic responses and reactions remembered by the body and the
senses”.2
The Jean-Claude
Carrière Theatre in Montpellier, France, by A+ Architecture, shows a
striking visual narrative. The fabric, materials and circulation of use, all
perform together, between this intricate diamond shaped lattice façade, merging
between outer skin and interior pattern and consequent shadow. This abstract reference
to the Harlequin, set against the red façade, draws the visitor in. Glimpses of
the outside are seen referenced in the interior, in screens and details such as
light fittings, whilst along some pathways, the lighting remains bare, hinting
at various moods and transitions, narrating and illuminating the space for the
visitor.
In a contrasting
setting and at a different scale, the Wuhzen Theatre, in Zhejiang, China,
locally identified as the twin lotus,
is as dramatic as the plays and festivals it stages. In a beautifully poetic
setting, surrounded by tranquil water, the steel framed, reinforced concrete
structure rises above the traditional rooftops as a dragon from the water it
appears to float on. Its dual performance spaces – one solid opaque, one
transparent, take turns to tease each other and the audience with light,
shadows and reflection. The smaller space is designed for flexible use,
appreciated by multi-disciplinary practitioners.
Entrances
and exit points are located around the building and the audience can view
performances from inside as well as from the outside foyer space, experiencing
the performance from interesting viewpoints in different seasonal and lighting
conditions.
Like all the featured buildings, the Auckland Art Gallery by FJMT (Francis-Jones
Morehen Thorp), is no exception to aspiring
to interact with the user, and its community. The architects have made
connections to the heritage through the tangible narrative of the complex set
of spaces, new and old, all with an individual use, yet coming together as one.
Details mirroring the landscape play with notions of opposites and refer to
natural structures in a nearby park, connecting visitors and events to the neighbouring
community.
In the Tree
Art Museum by Daipu Architects, with its prime urban location in Song
Zhuang, Beijing, China, the curves and fluidity of the forms have a significant
role in the setting. Decisive, sweeping walkways and differentiated levels
guide yet allow for surprise. The play with form on the plan connect the site,
through use of the water outside, allowing the visitor to take a moment to
reflect, particularly effective at night when the site illuminates.
This building connects the space with its user,
through the events, exhibitions and theatre productions – but also between the
lines, through the simple flirting across the space from the public areas to
the more intimate in-between spaces of corridors and stairways. These
experiences between the functional spaces further add to the intriguing,
curious and accidental.
Set amidst Japanese elms and cherry trees, the Mizuta Museum of Art, Sakado, Japan, by
Studio SUMO or Ukiyo-e museum (translates as “Pictures of the Floating World”, Japanese woodcuts), sits
complimentary within its immediate surrounding, blending into the different
seasons of the landscape, forming a prominent statement. Within the interior,
part of a university campus, there are walkway and gallery spaces showcasing,
enticing and educating the visitor.
The building takes into account the environment
and its elements, using concrete, sheltering from and retaining heat. Glass appears
as a lighter surface allowing daylight to penetrate the open spaces. Other areas,
in contrast, are deliberately dark, for the art to be seen in its purest form.
These sensory details, add a delicate emotional narrative to the visitor
experience.
Manipulation of light in the walkways and the
linearity that make up the concrete ramps, allow a playful amount of light and
movement into the corridor-like passages, also seen from the outside, through
cuts into the fabric. The architects explain that this “animate and aerate
the passages, placing the viewer in the space of the print, within the floating
world”.
The Artful
Yokoo House, located in Teshima, Japan, has an overlapping identity between
the architecture and the art of project founder Tadanori Yokoo,
combining 2D and 3D disciplines as one idea for the building.
With a largely ageing local population, a direct
connection to the community was an important requirement from the client to the
architects. The relationship between building and community is encouraged
through activities, interactions and hands-on events, genuinely uniting the
community closer to the use and circulation of the building.
The starting point for the project was a series
of traditional wooden houses, remodelled into new use. Extending, and adding
interesting chromatic ‘collages’ of detail such as glass and mirror to the
route through the building, allowing the inside and outside to meet and reflect
the art on show. Strong use of colour, placement of art pieces and distortion
of hues of the landscape inside and out, through the glass and view points
celebrate the stages of life and death; juxtaposing the ‘ordinary with the
extraordinary’. This sense of playful surprise, yet familiarity, is evident
throughout the building.
A
statement feature in Berlin, the Museum for Architecture Drawings,
by Tchoban & Kuznetsov and
SPEECH Bureau is positioned into the site in the cultural quarters of Prenzlauer Berg. With its tiered concrete surface, the façade protrudes out of the
otherwise relatively traditional street elevation, showing off the intricate
detailing of architectural drawings that was the initial idea for the museum.
The detailing carries through the buildings exterior into the interior and is
echoed as subtle details also in the handrails.
The
architects had a challenge to accommodate the smaller drawings, often
intricate, necessitating close up viewing, into a series of compartment like
rooms suitable for viewing the exhibits from a comfortable distance.
This,
together with the smaller exhibition spaces, or ‘cabinets’, means that visitor
numbers are limited at any one time, adding intimacy to the experience. Waiting
to view the collections at busy times is a comfortable experience, in the first
floor lobby library.
The competition winning performance centre Ptuj
Performance Centre in Ptuj,
Slovenia by ENOTA Architects has a rich architectural history and use, tracing
back to Romanesque, Baroque and Gothic influences and inhabitation.
From this ancient background, the architects
introduced the contemporary additions with care and consideration, creating an identity alongside the
clear traces of the past, in the fabric of the building throughout the interior
and exterior. Not without challenges though, the project being a complex and
continuing restoration project. Future and on-going conservation and
restoration work and potential further archaeological finds are allowed for
within the building programme.
The visitor can certainly feel being part of an
ethereal unfolding process and the continued development of the building and historical
site.
The House of the Arts / Future Architecture Thinking, Casa das Artes,
located in Miranda do Corvo, Portugal, was planned by the architects as a
multifunctional art building, “celebrating the
place where people meet, where culture and art happens, a space capable of
promoting and stimulating creative activity, increasing the population’s
quality of life”.
There is an immediate
impact on the landscape – this large, red form; connecting but also appearing
to gracefully collide in agreement between the main interior spaces; the
theatre stage area, the foyer and the cafeteria. The circulation and sheer
volume of the varying heights, evoke further opportunities. “The
project was conceived by creating versatile spaces, technically suitable for
different kinds of events, in order to serve all segments of the population”, the architects
state.
As a visitor, the experience
can be anything from an architectural playing field of spaces inviting
daydreaming to a serious destination for cultural exchange.
Conclusion
“The timeless task of architecture is to create
embodied and lived existential metaphors that concretise and structure our
being in the world”.4
Buildings
extend connections to nature and landscape, and whilst our bodies’ move through
these considered, designed and developed architectural topographies, we are
reminded of the need for spaces allowing multi sensory experiences. 3
We get
closer to a building where the design has fully considered the sensory side of
the visitor experience and expectations. We become closer involved if we allow
the building to communicate with us and show us the way, to the extent that the
building starts to act as a comfort and refuge from the ordinary, and takes us
on a journey into the imagination and wonder of architecture, where we can hope
to be met by function, intrigue and surprise.
Elements of
this notion can be found in the Performance Centre and the Artful
Tashima House. Two very different buildings, one hosting performance and
the other an art gallery. Both inviting a playful approach from the visitor,
expecting the visitor to add and interact to the experience.
With
elderly people taking part in hands-on workshops where traditional aspects of
craft and making techniques are encouraged and then allowed into the final
design scheme as an immediate reference to the welcoming and trusting local connection.
Whilst in the Wuzhen Theatre, the architectural language is more formal, inviting
a range of major events, international theatre festivals and a hefty stance to
materiality and programme. Similarly, the visitor is met at the Tree Art Museum, by its sweeping curves
and solid materials setting the backdrop for the creative activities. The Jean-Claude Carrière
Theatre where enjoyment and education is not just taking place inside the
theatre, but the experience starts some distance away and continues throughout
the surrounding site, as the eye catches the jewel like lattice façade in the
horizon.
Characteristics
of form, tactile materiality and overall architectural choreography is seen in
the Mizuta
Museum of Art and the
Museum for Architecture Drawings, including arrangements of pattern, scale and geometry. In
the Auckland Art Gallery the theme of
honouring the past, is positively seen in the choice of material and form and in
the use of natural references to the immediate site. The House of
the Arts sits as a massive landmark
on its site, not just as an architectural form, but also as a landmark signalling
the importance of public art and performance buildings to connect and invite participation
from all.
To conclude, the design, technology, scale and
proportion and indeed the way an Art Gallery and Theatre building with its
programming talks to us about the possible experiences of the architecture, opens
up a healthy discussion, where the visitor becomes a vital part of the building
and its overall sensory performance.
1 Zumthor, P (2006). Atmospheres: Architectural Environments - Surrounding Objects.
Basel: Birkhauser. p 13.
2 Pallasmaa, J (2005), Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses.
John Wiley & Sons. p 60.
3 Ibid, p. 41
4 Ibid, p. 71
