search.noResults

search.searching

saml.title
dataCollection.invalidEmail
note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
054 BRIEF ENCOUNTERS


to the pupils’ growth. Te large timber frame that fronts on to the ‘town square’ also has that enticing, unfinished quality: a frame over which to drape banners advertising individual productions, or to be used as a projection screen or whatever the pupil’s might desire. It is immensely appealing – and rare – to sit in such an effective, high-quality performance space and be able to look out of the windows, engaging with shifts in weather or seasons, or through the glazed side door at the life of the school. Tese glimpses beyond the theatre seem like a wise and benign strategy to calm the distracted young listener. And the pupils seem to have absorbed and adopted this new civic space, incorporating it into their daily routines, gathering around the informal outdoor amphitheatre (a few benches overlooking the fields to the south), or around the new town square at break times.


Making a theatre and performance space the most architecturally significant structure on the campus is a gesture that will have strong practical, educational and cultural ramifications. Tollit was convinced that a proper performance space – rather than the sports hall, where assemblies and events were previously held – would be massively beneficial to the pupils’ oratory skills and, above all, their confidence. But it was Tuckey’s understanding of the micro and macro contexts of the design that helped them to win the invited competition in 2016.


Above The auditorium seats 160 people, with a stage close enough to remain intimate for assemblies and performances


Below The exterior timber frame, on which can be draped advertisements for productions or a white canvas for video projection


Made from cross laminated timber (CLT), prefabricated in Austria, it is clad in russet- toned wood fibre panels – their hues entirely sympathetic to the natural setting and the adjacent red-brick classroom blocks – to create a richer, more three-dimensional appearance, and also allow for passive ventilation via both mechanised and openable windows. Erected in four days over the summer holidays of 2020 by four carpenters, with the inside also hand-built by the same team, it’s no wonder the theatre feels like a piece of finely crafted, bespoke, inhabitable furniture. Te 160-seat auditorium and performance space is dominated by a large proscenium stage, big enough to hold 120 pupils, but close enough to the bench seating for headmaster Giles Tollit to feel an easy connection with the audience when giving assemblies, or when their roster of visiting speakers are onstage; curtains can collapse or expand the stage as required. Tuckey’s team worked closely with theatre specialists Charcoalblue to get the right configuration of stage and seating, including a large technical balcony big enough for teaching small groups how to use the A/V and lighting technology.


Te acoustics are excellent, thanks to a combination of deep blue undulating ceiling panels and grey acoustic wall panels. Little, if any, amplification will be required, making the space feel even more friendly and welcoming – two characteristics Tollit felt were essential to this space. Tere is also a charmingly unfinished quality to the interior, thanks to the untreated CLT frame, which is left exposed, and the robust benches (CNC-cut larch, to JTD’s designs and assembled on-site). It feels like a working, evolutionary building integral


It was a leap of faith for both parties, however. As Tuckey says, ‘We had never done anything in education at that time, and had never done a theatre. We hadn’t done a new building. But we thought, “Let’s have a go and see what we come up with.” Something about our proposal ignited their enthusiasm. We had this notion early on that it wasn’t just going to be a theatre.’ He saw the school as a town, and the theatre as its centre.


Tuckey – who studied social anthropology before design – understood Tollit’s view of the role that the performing arts can play in the health of a community. ‘He’s a former classics scholar,’ says Tuckey. ‘He felt that theatre has such an important role in the life of a community. Here, you can act out all the things you are not permitted to do in public life – fall in love with the wrong person, kill someone to avenge your family, etc. In a pupil’s education that’s really important. Boarding school is such a closed community, so having that sort of release is really important.’


Tollit is clearly delighted with this new space and the way it reflects the school’s values. ‘Drama and performance has always been a big thing at Horris Hill,’ he says, ‘yet there was nothing to demonstrate that commitment.’ But there are also immediate impacts on behaviour, ‘From my perspective, the way the boys are as an audience has completely changed. In the sports hall they had to sit on the floor, and found it hard not to be distracted. Here, the focus and the quality of the interaction between them and our guests has been brilliant.’


NICK DEARDEN


JIM STEPHENSON


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117