between town squares and monasteries
N. Ewen (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. De Vocht – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
J.S. Zeinstra – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Pietsch – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
M. Parravicini – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
D.J. Rosbottom – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
This graduation project examines how a contemporary theatre in Delft can operate not only as a place for performance, but also as part of the city’s public and social fabric. Situated between the ideas of the “town square” and the “monastery,” this proposal investigates how theatre architecture can combine openness and public inclusion with more enclosed and atmospheric qualities needed for performance and production.
The project responds to Theater de Veste’s ambitions for a larger, more publicly embedded institution, while questioning the tendency of contemporary cultural buildings to become generic multi-purpose buildings.
The proposal focuses on the transformation of the urban block around the former HEMA in Delft’s southern city center into a theatre complex that combines both receiving and producing theatre. The project works through selective interventions, retaining most of the current building fabric and compromising the existing main structure only where required by the program. It addresses a current environmental discourse to design and transform buildings to suit current and future programs.
The methodology is based on precedent analysis, theatre visits, model studies, and the research focuses on thresholds and sequences of spaces. The final design is organized around a public “theatre alley,” which serves simultaneously as a circulation route, an infrastructural spine, and a performative public space.