Auditoriums for the Arts

Auditoriums for the Arts -

A Typology of Theatre Buildings with Examples

In an auditorium, a larger or smaller audience follows events on a stage of larger or smaller proportions. The way in which these two elements are related to each Other constructionally and spatially can be seen in a wide range of solutions. The arc,hitecture has to meet

quite different requirements for each type of event, however. At the Bauhaus, Oskar Schlemmer explored theatrical and stage forms on a scientific basis. He saw theatre located somewhere between popular entertainment and religious cult enactment. The architecture itself occupies a shifting ground somewhere between an anonymous, temporary festive structure, like a booth or a tent, and the highest constructional achievements in the form of a temple or church. In a paper on theatre construction written in 1929, Walter Gropius, remarked that there were only three basic stage forms in the history of theatre architecture, namely the central circular arena stage, the Greek proscenium stage, and the picture-frame or proscenium-arch form. If one takes modern trends in theatre design as a fourth line of development - i.e. performing in a three-dimensional stage space - a typology can be drawn up to describe the relationship between audience and players.

Arena stage (theatre-in-the-round)

The arena is the most elementary theatrical situation. Spectators assemble in a closed ring around a flat piece of ground to witness some event. For larger gatherings, natural bowls in the landscape provided the rising ground that allowed all spectators a view.

In the Urubama valley in the Peruvian Andes, one finds a series of terraces. Located here are the five earth amphitheatres of Moray - a complex somewhere between open landscape forms and man-made cult sites. Shaped between prehistoric times and around AD 1500, these arenas provide space for approximately 60,000 persons. In the pre-Inca age, they were used for cult rites, festivals and...