6 April 2011
I was once asked if I thought architecture was really just theatre in disguise.
It was at an interview for an architecture school when I was about 18. I never really answered the question properly at the time, but it’s one of those (many) things that has been echoing around in my head ever since.
A recent trip to watch FAR, a piece of contemporary dance at the Laban Centre, brought back some of the conflicted responses I had to the question at the time.
Yes architecture can create drama and suspense in the way it reveals itself to the ‘audience’ but it’s not as temporary or as fleeting as the act of a play. And yes, set design can definitely be ‘architectural’ but it’s not as three-dimensional an experience as a building. Or is it?
A recent trip to watch FAR, a piece of contemporary dance at the Laban Centre, brought back some of the conflicted responses I had to the question at the time.
Yes architecture can create drama and suspense in the way it reveals itself to the ‘audience’ but it’s not as temporary or as fleeting as the act of a play. And yes, set design can definitely be ‘architectural’ but it’s not as three-dimensional an experience as a building. Or is it?
Trailer for Far by Wayne McGregor
FAR: choreography: Wayne McGregor, set design: rAndom International, lighting design: Lucy Carter
FAR places 10 dancers on a distinctly simple stage against a dynamic backdrop; a large, landscape format, white alucabond panel comprising 100 metal rods incorporating 3,200 LEDs. The light sources rotate, producing infinite light movements and subsequently cast shadows on the neighbouring rods to dramatic effect. The lighting algorithm responds to the music as well as the dancers’ movement. The whole panel itself moves up and down, creating different atmospheres and spaces for the dancers to respond to; sometimes blasting them with light, turning them into silhouette, sometimes dimmed to almost imperceptible levels.
Designers rAndom International and Lucy Carter are not architects but the intent is distinctly architectural.
FAR places 10 dancers on a distinctly simple stage against a dynamic backdrop; a large, landscape format, white alucabond panel comprising 100 metal rods incorporating 3,200 LEDs. The light sources rotate, producing infinite light movements and subsequently cast shadows on the neighbouring rods to dramatic effect. The lighting algorithm responds to the music as well as the dancers’ movement. The whole panel itself moves up and down, creating different atmospheres and spaces for the dancers to respond to; sometimes blasting them with light, turning them into silhouette, sometimes dimmed to almost imperceptible levels.
Designers rAndom International and Lucy Carter are not architects but the intent is distinctly architectural.
So what happens when architects design stage sets?
“Chroma2: Choreography: Wayne McGregor, Set Design: John Pawson Lighting Design: Lucy Carter
John Pawson collaborated with Wayne McGregor in 2006 for Chroma at the Royal Opera House. A typically minimal set design creates giant openings and plays on the architectural motifs of openings - entrances/exits and offers up an overtly austere framework to be disrupted by the dancers’ movement.
Herzog & de Meuron designed the set for The Met’s 2010 production of Verdi’s Atilla, involving ghostly scenery floating above the chorus, and some rather deconstructivist-looking ruins.
John Pawson collaborated with Wayne McGregor in 2006 for Chroma at the Royal Opera House. A typically minimal set design creates giant openings and plays on the architectural motifs of openings - entrances/exits and offers up an overtly austere framework to be disrupted by the dancers’ movement.
Herzog & de Meuron designed the set for The Met’s 2010 production of Verdi’s Atilla, involving ghostly scenery floating above the chorus, and some rather deconstructivist-looking ruins.
Atilla, set design: Herzog & de Meuron
In 2009 the New York City Ballet actually dedicated an entire season to exploring the “Architecture of Dance”, commissioning Santiago Calatrava to create five scenic designs for a series of world premiere productions in the company’s spring season.
In 2009 the New York City Ballet actually dedicated an entire season to exploring the “Architecture of Dance”, commissioning Santiago Calatrava to create five scenic designs for a series of world premiere productions in the company’s spring season.
Mirage, set design: Santiago Calatrava
Echoing some of the filigree work (from some of his better architectural work) the stage set for ‘Mirage’ comprises a fan-like structure but and this is perhaps where stage set design can take over from the built environment, the structure changes form, opening and closing, rising and lowering, expanding and contracting to create the space within which the dance takes place.
Also 2009, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas designed the sets for the dramatic season of the National Institute of Ancient Drama, Syracuse Italy. The scenography involved a giant mirror reflecting the Greek emblems (and the actors) on the stage, back at the audience.
Echoing some of the filigree work (from some of his better architectural work) the stage set for ‘Mirage’ comprises a fan-like structure but and this is perhaps where stage set design can take over from the built environment, the structure changes form, opening and closing, rising and lowering, expanding and contracting to create the space within which the dance takes place.
Also 2009, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas designed the sets for the dramatic season of the National Institute of Ancient Drama, Syracuse Italy. The scenography involved a giant mirror reflecting the Greek emblems (and the actors) on the stage, back at the audience.
Medea and Edipo a Colono, set design Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas
Metapolis II, 2007, a collaborative work by choreographer Frédéric Flamand and Zaha Hadid, sees the dancers scrambling over languid limbs of architectural artifice.
Metapolis II, 2007, a collaborative work by choreographer Frédéric Flamand and Zaha Hadid, sees the dancers scrambling over languid limbs of architectural artifice.
Metapolis II, set design: Zaha Hadid
I still struggle to answer that question that was put to me over 15 years ago. It gets awfully complicated when you start talking about architecture and artifice. But there is something about the idea of subtle deception which, dare we admit it, is what excites us about the drama to be found in the best examples of architecture.
I still struggle to answer that question that was put to me over 15 years ago. It gets awfully complicated when you start talking about architecture and artifice. But there is something about the idea of subtle deception which, dare we admit it, is what excites us about the drama to be found in the best examples of architecture.
Read more: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/when-architecture-treads-the-boards/5016275.blog#ixzz1ImKHG57s
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