UNA barbara e valentim

Theater Laboratory, Performing Arts School and Dance School of Campinas University

Theater Laboratory, Performing Arts School and Dance School of Campinas University

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“All the things I talk about are in the city between heaven and earth.”

Ferreira Gullar

 

The design of the “Theater Laboratory, Performing Arts School and Dance School of the University of Campinas” has won national architecture competition, and is already in construction. University of Campinas, UNICAMP, is one of the largest and most prestigious public universities in Brazil, and its main campus is located in Campinas, city far about 100 km from Sao Paulo.

 

The project aim is to integrate the theater and the both faculties with the Music and Fine Arts schools. The proposal for the project is to give a new unity to the Art Institute as an integrated complex.

 

The project site plan defines a new linking axis between the diverse buildings – a “promenade”. The Theater Laboratory occupies a central position on site; at this point the “promenade” gains the proportions of a square, shifting it to the urban scale. The idea is that of the city scale inside the campus as a condition for the extension of the schools activities into external space.

 

The main point of access is marked by the long and narrow Laboratory building that houses the schools of Performing Arts and Dance. A new parking area is provided by widening the road that crosses the site. A spacious veranda under the long Laboratory building marks the beginning of the axis that connects the original Art Institute buildings and the separate entrances of Performing Arts and Dance schools.

 

The schools were developed formally perpendicular to the promenade axis, so as to engage the Theaters square. The programs that require greater height are grouped on the highest level of the Laboratory building, in a metal superstructure with an internal height of 10m. These spaces, each conceived as a separate shed, have a small opening in the north face, revealing a view to the lake. An opening in the south face allows diffused light and ventilation to cross the spaces. A raised technical gallery allows for easy of lighting and manipulation of scenery during day-to-day studies. The circulation space is formed by a gallery, that also functions as a resting space for students and professors. A covered bridge connects the gallery to the mezzanine in the theater building, where the schools two biggest rooms are. These spaces can be also used for public performances: the hall for large dance groups and the laboratory for circus performance.

 

The Theater Laboratory building was developed as a school; a building open to the street, where the level of stage corresponds to the level of the square. The veranda entrance is an extension of the cafeteria. The waiting hall has natural lighting from above, which reaches the lower level where the workshops are. A metallic staircase cross this hall, and its form indicates a continuous passage that extends to the school building. The public can access the theater from the ground floor and from the mezzanine, via the entrances located at the sides of the theatre. The theatres circulation system allows for the entrance and exit from scene from any side and at any level.

 

The side street functions as passage and the square as a meeting point – they are thought of as exterior spaces that are extensions of the theater- scenes of diverse activities such as dance, music, art, theatrical and corporal arts.

 

The theatre typology adopted for this project is that of multiple-use. This option was chosen because it fits the requirements of the functions, characteristics and concept of “experimental theater”. The alteration of each scenes topography and the auditoriums format extends the reach of the theatre space beyond one of a room of spectacles” and points towards a route in which all of the formal possibilities of the theater can be explored: to learn with the tradition of the Greek theater, to research the history of the Elizabethan theater or to uncover the contemporary vanguards of Total theater.

 

The physical form of the theatre discloses as much the concepts of the theater explored by the students as the ones observed by the public. All brought together in the same space. The possibilities of masking the stage through the technical resources allows for the assembly of a frontal stage (an Italian style “traditional theater” stage), organized clearly by an axle determined by the form of the building and the circulation. This theatre building is a box which, turned on its back, tries to contain not only the spectacle in the meeting with its public, but also its mirror – revealing, in the interstices of its spaces, all the dimensions of the Theater.

Place

Campinas, SP

Project start date

2002 (contest) . 2009 (project)

Project Coordination

UNICAMP | NGPO- Eng. Eduardo Jamal e Arq. Flávia Gardoggini

Architecture

UNA arquitetos: Cristiane Muniz, Fabio Valentim, Fernanda Barbara, Fernando Viégas + Clóvis Cunha

Collaborators

André Ciampi, Carolina Nobre, Gustavo Pimentel, Márcio Wanderley, (competition team). Ana Paula Castro, Carolina Klocker, Gabriela Gurgel, Fabiana W. Cyon, Jimmy Liendo, José Carlos Silveira Jr., Miguel Muralha, Sílio Almeida

Theater

Theater Area

5.668,73 m²

Project Coordination

JCH Gerenciamento de Projetos e Obras

Structure

Grifa Engenharia - Marcelo Facchini e Tarsis Travassos

Installations

JCH Gerenciamento de Projetos e Obras

Acoustics

Acústica e Sônica - J.A. Nepomuceno

Stagecraft Technician

Espaço Cenográfico - Gustavo Lanfranchi

Lighting Design

Ponto Elétrico - Ricardo Heder e Juliana Pongitor

Departments Area

Project Coordination

Prado & Oliveira Engenharia e Construção

Structure | Installations

Prado & Oliveira Engenharia e Construção

Acoustics

Acústica e Sônica - J.A. Nepomuceno

Stagecraft Technician

Espaço Cenográfico - Gustavo Lanfranchi

Lighting Design

Ponto Elétrico - Ricardo Heder e Juliana Pongitor