Name that theatre

Courtesy of London Open House:

It’s as if [the architect] is evoking some archetypal architectural experience: a ruined castle, where you clamber around, discovering new spaces and places, or a bombed building, its exterior blown away but its staircases intact. You can stand, deep in shadow but looking toward the light, or move from level to level on enclosed staircases broken here and there by views out. It’s a sensual, playful and almost abstract architectural aesthetic underscored everywhere by the use of concrete.

It’s the National, stupid.

Lasdun buries his conept within a deeply moody ambience of light and shoadow. To linger in his foyer is (or was?) to engage in a drama of the architect’s own making – a prelude to any drama on the stages themselves. The terraces which project from the building to offer wonderful views over the river are cut through, offering interval views between them. Movement is by lifts or – more interestingly – via Lasdun’s enclosed concrete stairs.

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