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A Building like a Diamond
15 February, 2008
Lelystad, located in the Netherlands in the vicinity of Lake Ijssel, came to being as a planned city in the 1960s. Since that time, its residents have had to live with its reputation as a “retort city without its own character.” All the same, that image has been slowly changing in recent years.
To support and advance that process, Lelystad municipal managers sought to send a strong signal through the construction of the Agora Theatre. Not surprisingly, the specifications they posed to the architects were quite demanding. The building was to be designed in a modern style embodying the flourishing cultural and social life of the city. The result: an almost futuristic structure practically free of right angles, using innovative structure to capture the gaze.
In his designs, Bernd van Berkel, the lead architect, sought to capture the interplay between the representative characteristics of a theatre and the expressivity of a building. In doing so, he left behind the path of conventional functionality. “Just like a member of the theatre’s audience, the viewer of this theatre building never has a feeling of certainty about what is real and what is not,” van Berkel wrote of his intentions. He gladly wields the metaphor of the kaleidoscope here as an allegory for diversity and variety, and stuck to those same principles in his design.
The building gives the impression of being pulled together from individual, multi-surface geometrical building blocks. It rises from the rear ever more strongly in the direction of the entrance. Another section rises up perpendicular to the whole, positioned above the large stage area and housing the theatre’s technology, including fly lofts. The dominant vertical shapes also proceed from the interior of the 7,000 square meter building. The large stairwell is in the centre, with two halls, a multifunctional room, restaurant and bar grouped around it.
Visitors are quite consciously encouraged to conduct dialogues not just within this building, but with the structure itself. They are not just intended to engage in consideration of the happenings on the stage, but rather are to form their own reference to the form of the theatre. This effect is buttressed by orthogonal and free shapes, and the cladding of the façade, consisting partially of glass and aluminium. In all, these elements help the structure almost resemble a polished diamond. And precisely like a precious stone, the colour of the building shifts based on the angle of view and the incidence of light, sometimes trending yellow and other times orange.
This effect is created through the special façade cladding, through the special folds in the aluminium material and through the shadowing effect created by those elements. To achieve this, van Berkel used coil-coated aluminium sheets from Reynolux® Building, from Alcoa Architectural Products. Wall, window and door profiles from Alcoa Architectural Products sister company, Kawneer were also incorporated into the project.
Reynolux® Building was processed by Corus Building Systems, specialists of innovative aluminium roof and wall cladding systems. In selecting his materials for the clearly structured wall and roofing design, the architect chose a product outstandingly well suited for all applications on the building. Weather-resistant and environmentally friendly, Reynolux® Building can be processed perfectly allowing for various design options. Corus Building Systems used it to create a special Kalzip® profile endowing the Agora Theatre of an attractive and resilient shell.
Reynobond® Building from Alcoa Architectural Products and its large selection of coatings and colours continue to grow into an universal product of choice for more and more architects when it comes time to design their buildings.
Facts & Figures:
Project: Agora Theatre
Address: Agoraweg 2, Lelystad, the Netherlands
Architects: UN-Studio - van Berkel&Bos -
united net for architecture, Amsterdam
Material: 7.8 Tons of coil-coated aluminium sheets from
Reynolux® Building in various shades of orange
Alcoa Architectural Products in Merxheim/France is a subsidiary of the aluminium world leader ALCOA. 123,000 employees in 44 countries produce and distribute products ranging from composite panels to household foils.
Further information available from:
Thomas Weinekoetter
team:penta GmbH & Co. KG
Communication
Seibertzweg 2
44141 Dortmund
Phone: +49 (0) 231 – 55 69 52 62
E-Mail: t.weinekoetter@teampenta.de
Agora Theater
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