Architect: Renato Rizzi, Venice
Local Architect: Q-Arch, Gdańsk
Location: Gdańsk
Client: Gdański Teatr Szekspirowski
Opening date: 19 September 2014
Photo: Rafal Malko
Renato Rizzi was born in Rovereto (Italy) in 1951. He graduated from the IUAV in Venice in 1977 and worked with Peter Eisenman from 1984-1992 (projects included Romeo and Juliette for the Venice Architecture Biennale, La Villette in Paris, the Tokyo Opera House, and the City of Fame in his birthplace Rovereto). Returning to Venice he dedicated himself to research and theory of architecture, teaching at the IUAV ever since. He has continued to contribute to international competitions.
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, English actors regularly visited the prospering harbour city of Gdańsk to stage plays, including dramas by a certain William Shakespeare. In the 1630s the city even built a theatre school to host them. Yet the tradition ended and the building was lost.
In the 1990s these traditions were resurrected, and in 2005 an international competition was held for a new Shakespeare theatre on the old site, by then a parking lot, in a project backed by 70 percent EU funding.. Outside, the new building is a grim and dark fortress of culture surrounded by its own city wall: windowless and almost six metres high, with only two gates granting access. Even the security cameras are painted black.
Yet inside a warm composition of rooms, white colours, stone handrails and lots of wood welcomes the audience. It’s a perfect theatre machine with moveable lighting, platforms and seating, able to accommodate almost every kind of play or event: a “Fun Palace”, surrounded by wooden galleries, and with a roof that can be spectacularly opened in two giant flaps. Even Prince Charles attended the opening, though what he thought of the design by Italian architect Renato Rizzi is not recorded. I (fh)
Gif: model by Renato Rizzi; Pro.Tec.O, Pool Engineering; panorama photo: Rafal Malko. Interior and exterior photos: Jakub Certowicz
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