Melbourne Theatre in All Its Digital Glory
Written by S. Kim Henson
A cultural mecca thrives where a ghetto used to barely get by. In Melbourne’s Southbank district, the traditionally rundown part of town, Ashton Raggatt McDougal (ARM) architects and builder Bovis Lend Lease looked beyond what was. They designed and constructed what the 2009 Victorian Architecture Medal winner. The Melbourne Recital Center and Melbourne Theater Company have won a number of other awards for public architecture, interior and urban design and more.
Melbourne Recital Centre and Melbourne Theatre Company
Inside the Melbourne Recital Center is this virtuoso 1000-seat Elisabeth Murdock Hall. Lined with timber that shows off its grain, wood panels make the space very much a reminder of a finely handcrafted instrument. Inside the hub that lies within a unique exterior of honeycomb shapes and imprints on the building are spaces for performing, rehearsal and public gathering alongside broadcast and recording studios. Acoustics and state-of-the-art technology support the excellence that was begun architecturally.
Melbourne Theatre Company is the oldest professional theater company in Australia and one of the largest English-speaking theatre companies in the world. And since this magnificent addition, plays of any size have a place to perform.
Winning the top honor in the 2009 Dulux Colour Awards, the interior of the center is artistically stimulated by the color choice and 70 illuminated quotes from plays on its Word Wall. Exceptionally planned (and even without upper seating), the audience can see and hear the performances from any chair in the house. The luminous steel against a dark milieu has encased the drama of the stage.
The block of architecturally poised and theatrically sound buildings rival even Utzon’s Opera House in Sydney. Melbourne’s design began with “the shoe-box, the shape that experts say guarantees/predicts acoustic perfection.” From there, they thought outside the shoebox, so to speak, and created a new space for music. And the Southbank Cultural Precinct Redevelopment has created a new space for culture within Melbourne.
Have your say below
BEST OF REMODELING BLOG
Odd but true remodels
