A stage!

Of course Zaha Hadid has already done the crazy moving stage circa 2002.






This is an example of what the lifts look like underneath a stage.
Aircraft carrier elevator and bay door? Perfect precedent research.

Hadid Performing Arts Center

I don't know what else to say again. Her work just speaks to me more than the boxes that most humans create.

Dynamic Architecture

This one isn't so new to us, we've seen and heard of it before: the tower in Dubai that moves, as demonstrated in the video below.

Mechanical Elephant!

Freakin' awesome!

http://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/english/index.html

Hyposurface wall!

http://www.hyposurface.org/

Not exactly what I had in mind but the fact that electronically controlled pistons can manipulate the surface of this wall is pertinent to my precedent research. I think theater and auditorium designers would love to have the ability to manipulate the surfaces along the ceiling, floors, and walls to accommodate for a specific type of performance. Maybe one could even use the technology to create openings in the envelope in the building, synergy-zing the interior and exterior environments, creating a whole new space for performances and lectures.

St. David's Hall, Cardiff

St. David's Hall is another example of the overlapping, odd angled audience seating. As shown in the plans, the stage and audience areas are the center mass while circulation via stairs and elevators are aplenty on the edge of this mass, both for audience members, stage hands and staff, and performers.

Plan at stage level

Plan at balcony level
Longitudinal Section (acoustic boundary of the hall is the roof, below that is an acoustically transparent ceiling)

Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, UK

As with the Symphony Garden example I posted a while back, this hall is smaller than most of the ones I've come across in the books I checked out of the library. If anything, I've been able to find precedents of smaller performance halls in gigantic "Performing Arts Centers" that have several stages varying in seating capacity, type of stage, and primary use (drama, opera, orchestral, etc). After chatting with T-RAV a bit, I feel a bit better about my approach to the design of the "auditorium" building. The main program areas I need to consider are: stage, audience, circulation (public/private), performance service both above the audience seating and below the stage. I'm contemplating a single stage, arena style, that will be at the center of the building. Buffer areas will serve their purpose while also providing access to the various seating tiers from surrounding circulation paths.  There will also be a secondary, smaller outdoor amphitheater. This will involve part of the building actually moving. Whether or not the outdoor performance theater becomes an extension of the indoor theater has yet to be determined. It should be an exciting project....

Christchurch Town Hall, Wellington, UK

While initially chosen for its acoustical response above the seating areas, the baffles actually serve as a visual wall for the service catwalks above. 

Ground Level

Gallery Level
Cross Section
Longitudinal Section

Orange County Performing Arts Center Theater, Costa Mesa, California

This theater was chosen particularly as a precedent for tiered seating. The angles and height differentials speak to the "architecture" (ha) of the building.

Arena Theater, International Garden Festival, Liverpool, UK

I think everyone knows I'm a fan of architectural membranes and pavilions so it is no surprise I liked what was done with this traditional amphitheater...

Plan

Section

Precedent Studies, is it a little late in the game?...haha

Symphony Garden
Location: Sakaiminato-City, Tottori
Building Area: 24,000 square feet
Main Use: concert
Capacity: 400
Audience/stage format: arena type

Vision Quest

Usually I'm mucking around in the swamp lands of low level inspiration and/or motivation in the latter part of the semester, stuck on a project. Then, granted I get enough sleep for a few days straight, I have vision quest(copyright Matt Jones). Dreams (subconscious) have a way of working problems out for you when you get enough sleep to actually have them, but usually you have to experience stress beforehand in order for it to actually work.

So far, I've been thinking of how I can design an auditorium/theater building with either multiple types of stages (varying uses, sizes) or a volume that could serve multiple uses.

Among other things, the melded images of the coliseum and Calatrava's Milwaukee art museum stood out in my dreams. The coliseum had an underground labyrinth with trap doors to the surface "stage" area. This is not uncommon to a smaller extent in some theater's and auditoriums today. The art museum's wing like "brise soleil" (ugh, I hate that phrase) moves and controls sun light and temperature. These are two completely different buildings but the mixture created an emotional feeling of tremendous movement and transition in my mind, the original form of the building seamlessly changing into another (without having any catastrophic affect on its occupants).




While a building that implies movement goes along with our ideas with the train passing through our building, I don't think implication is strong enough. It needs to actually happen. Sketches and models to follow soon.

Auditorium: graphic standard recommendations

The interior graphic standards book provided some initial stage designs and adjacency diagrams. I searched on the web for some more helpful, detailed books but everything costs $60+. I can't spend that money right now(I still owe Eric money for the hotel in Atlanta). 

The good news is the UNCG library had a fantastical stash of auditorium and theater design books. Floor plans, sections, elevations, details, acoustics, adjacencies, lighting, program elements, the list goes on, its all there in my 100 pound stack of books. If anyone else is designing an auditorium let me know and I might let you look at my stash. Maybe. There are plenty of others that I didn't pick up, basically because I had reached the weight capacity of my arms with the 4 I had acquired. 

This is going to be pretty exciting...