Royal Theater. Copenhagen.

Fecha:
2001
Localización:
Copenhagen.
Arquitectos:
Paul Basañez
Peru Mugica
Ibon Basañez
Fases:
Concurso

MEMORIA

The theatre location placed on the building site of Kvaesthusgade, straightening the Port Canal, and taking an advanced position to the eastward, joining or linking  it with  the pedestrian bridge towards Christiansholm.
Sankt Annae plads preserves its panoramic views to the harbour, reinforcing or strengthening it and taking up sea space. At the same time, leaving the Kvaesthusbroen pier and Kvaesthusgraven basin on its left  which could remain as recreational facilities areas for future town planning developments.

The bridge and playhouse on its right  side  could connect them with the future cultural centre.

The building outline sketch  is square  (100 metres x 100 metres). If we divide it in two triangles, one for the staff and one for the public, we could obtain  two independent  areas or organs,  with their own lifes and movements, but they  mix up vibrate and interrelate among them, at the same time in a complete way.

It has much flexibility  of movements in its exterior parts, bringing about them, as if they were an organic motor of the town, as well as the interior rooms, distributions, and possible combinations.

The accesses and distributions are easy, fast and clear. Both for the stage areas as for the workshops, ruling like a factory, which creates adaptability to different conditions and circumstances of the efficient rate of work. We avoid every kind of passages and closed spaces in the public areas. You could enter into the theatre across the foyer directly . One would go up to the second level over open ramps or pads to the open space.
The foyer ramps or pads create different levels inside the same plan, basically for the vision of the space,and most of all, to make it work from every place.
If you walk around the foyer on that great area opened to the light you could feel a sensation of floating or drifting before going into the  close area or theatre. It would be an apropriate place to expose art and feel or be art one self.

The foyer moves down into the auditorium, a closed space with two levels, surrounding the stage without  leaving empty areas. The spectator occupies the whole place embracing the stage.
The stages, auditorium and  foyer are taken as a whole for the enhancement  and enigmatic mystery of the theatre itself.

It does not pretend to be a building but an organ, which feels in its element inside the local urbanism.

The architecture gives a strong relation and energy  to its town and harbour, and with its forms obtains that the interior opens itself to the exterior, so the citizen finds open spaces or areas for the public without barriers for a freedom to move.
A walking pace, a meeting pace to mix up pedestrians or society with art, outside and inside  of the building, now and then, in its surroundings or on the bridge empty spaces for open air artistic demonstrations, sculpture, painting, music, dancing, performances, and so on.

The location is treated to get out plain interrelation between the play house and the open air areas.
The real idea is to build a transparent building, with translucent materials  to prevent it from being  heavy ,dull and dim.
We think that a building with such materials on the sea water would give the sensation of  weightlessness and absence of gravity, which is what we wish, and its shapes go with us in our thoughts. The outline and materials are the builders of the building in this case.

These  translucent materials are going to obtain that the building skin will transmit the natural light into the interiors, and the inside or artificial illumination go inside out as it if were a real lamp.
The skin opens  extensively to the outside light, which will give a strong expression to the port and  magic and glittering to the water.
The translucent cover shrouds the boxes of the three theatres, plays etc, from the west to the east of the whole building, converting it in the floor of the foyer and the roof of the ground floor,  impelling even more the sensation of buoyancy  or flotability.