Theatre Architecture and Urban Culture: Project ‘A Theatre in Rio de Janeiro’

Abstract

Social mission of theatre ceased to be limited only to theatre spectacles. Its integral elements are now becoming other events that are to gather, activize, concentrate inhabitants of the city. Aims of theatre as a social event based on the need of building community on direct, real contact of spectators with actors and spectators with themselves, pose new tasks for the architecture of theatres. Architecture could regain the power to create spaces adequate for theatre through realisation of the need of common space in the city. It is a quest for architectural solutions which may reflect the meaning of theatre, express contemporary ideas, or even create the meaning of theatre in our age, quite like it was once done by a box set in the illusionary theatre. Space surrounding a theatre is mostly a broadly accessible space of cultural character. These are squares, streets, parks. One may discern three basic models of shaping relations of theatre space and external public space in a theatrical place: emanation, isolation and interference. In contemporary theatre architecture there are examples which are inscribed into the trend of building the relation of interference. These are structures introducing spatial and functional architectural solutions which give a chance to a special exchange of theatrical and social life. Direct connection of the stage with exterior plaza is a modernist idea of Le Corbusier, used by Oscar Niemayer in his architectural masterpieces. Teatro Popular in Niteroi and Teatro Raul Cortez in Duque de Caxias became an inspiration for the students’ project ‘A Theatre in Rio de Janeiro’. The aim of the project was to show, that dynamic relation of theatre and public spaces could introduce a special value both for the art of theatre and a particular place for an urban community.