PROFILE: BEN VAN BERKEL


“Making buildings more healthy is defi nitely the future”


My love of theatre has developed. For me, it’s about stepping into a different reality, but whether you see it as a form of escapism or as an enrichment of your own reality, what matters to me is that richness. That’s what I like so much about designing theatres.


What insights can you share about theatre design from these two projects? In these two projects lots of ideas came together. Theatre de Stoep features a huge open foyer. The idea is to celebrate going out. The foyer – which is unobstructed by columns, and features a huge sculptural staircase – cel- ebrates the visitor as though he is an actor in a scene from a play. He can be seen from viewpoints on all different levels, so the foyer is


like a stage as he steps out of his everyday life. There are a lot of pragmatic consider- ations related to both theatres. Each has two auditoria, so you have to deal with the acoustics very carefully to stop sound from one travelling to the other. We created a ‘box within a box,’ so there’s no acoustic inter- ference between the two spaces. In another project, the Theatre Agora in Lelystad, the Netherlands, we had to split the foundations to make sure there were no vibrations moving from one auditorium to another. The latest request from clients is to factor in a 24-hour lifecycle for the theatre. Clients want the theatre to be used by the city and the public, for cultural and commercial activities – we have to make it more than just a theatre.


The architecture of the pavilion was designed to interact with the surrounding landscape


World Horticultural Expo Theme Pavilion


Qingdao, China 2014


UNStudio designed the Theme Pavilion for the World Horticultural Expo 2014 in Qingdao, China. The pavilion consisted of four buildings: the main expo hall, a performance hall, a conference centre and a media centre. Qingdao’s decision-makers have plans to develop tourism in the city, and UNStudio created the pavilion buildings with their


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potential future uses in mind. Ben van Berkel and his team created fl exible structures that can be turned into a hotel with conference and teaching facili- ties in the future. Foresight is needed to engi- neer buildings that are capable of this type of change in use while a respect for the language of the original design form is


maintained. “As part of the design process, the future use of the Theme Pavilion is incor- porated into the DNA of the design,” the studio says. The outline of the collection of four buildings references the Chinese Rose – the city fl ower of Qingdao – with each of the four buildings representing a petal. They are connected via walkways.


CLADmag 2015 ISSUE 1


©EDMON LEONG


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