Sun 8 Sept 16.30 – 18.00
The Willow Theatre
The Sustainable Theatre competition winner will showcase their winning designs.
World Stage Design 2013 opened up a unique opportunity to design a temporal alternative sustainable theatre. The competition was open to professionals and emerging practitioners from across all related disciplines and received over 100 entries from 26 countries.
The Willow Theatre, designed by architect Tim Lai and theatre designer Brad Steinmetz, both of Columbus, Ohio, USA was voted as the winning design and has been built for the event.
Ian Evans, WSD2013’s technical director and a senior lecturer at RWCMD, said: “The design brief was a tough one. We asked for a venue that was eco-conscious, could seat up to 150 people, host a variety of events and be self-built, all for an outlay of less than £20,000. Yet the response has been magnificent, many using highly original approaches and suggesting a wide variety of materials, including hay bales, cardboard boxes and packing crates. The entry from Brad and Tim was everyone’s favourite, though, because as well as meeting the technical brief, it is going to look and feel very interesting – an innovative blueprint that can be copied for other settings.â€
The building’s strength will come from hired and returnable industrial scaffolding while the decorative fronds and interior walls will be made from UK-produced horticultural fleece, a re-usable material which can also be recycled to make more of the same fabric.
Internal fittings, including the floor and wooden seating will also be re-usable, recyclable and/or reclaimed and the roof will be retractable to take advantage of natural light and ventilation.
Volunteers will build the temporary venue in time for a full programme of events which will see a series of talks, workshops, debates and shows exploring environmental sustainability and the arts. The programme is titled People, Profit, Planet and you can read about it in full here.
You can follow the build of the theatre with the live webcam here.