All around the building, landscape has
been redesigned in collaboration with
Edinburgh-based landscape architects
Gross.Max to provide a more consistent
setting for the NT. The Bank of America
Merrill Lynch Terrace has been planted as
a garden for the use of local residents as
well as audiences. Signage, lighting and
furniture have all been transformed.
A project as complex as NT Future has
required Haworth Tompkins to develop a
range of different architectural responses,
from best-practice conservation of
concrete (researched with the help of
the Twentieth Century Society), through
keyhole surgery to improve functionality
and adjacencies, to development of
an architectural language for new
work both sensitive enough to respect
Lasdun’s building, and robust enough to
stand alongside it. These changes have
been carried out within an intellectual
framework that safeguards the NT’s
precious primary fabric, while finding
room for the NT’s own dynamism and
freshness to be reflected in its public
spaces.
Haworth Tompkins said: “Denys Lasdun’s
National Theatre is one of the great
buildings of the Twentieth Century. We
set out to build on Lasdun’s vision of
public openness so as to reveal it to new
audiences and a changing context. NT
Future will keep the National at the top
of world theatre. With the South Bank
coming to life, we hope our changes
will help a new generation celebrate the
extraordinary quality of its architecture.”
Lisa Burger, Executive Director of the
National Theatre, said: “We’ve worked
with Haworth Tompkins for many years
to bring NT Future to fruition. It’s been an
immensely collaborative and rewarding
process, and we are thrilled with the
results, which will open up Lasdun’s
wonderful building to the audiences and
theatre practitioners of the future.”
Architects: Haworth Tompkins
Photographs: Philip Vile
www.philipvile.com
[Page 95] Archetech - Issue 20
The National Theatre’s main entrance,
much changed in the 1990s, has been
remodelled to improve the connection
with the river walk, aid wayfinding,
particularly from the eastern approach,
and restore the original 45-degree axial
entry to the building. The riverside
bookshop has been relocated to create
life at the heart of the foyers. The main
foyers have themselves been refurbished,
with signage based on the original design,
restored joinery and finishes, and a more
transient layer of furniture and lighting to
reflect the National Theatre’s own warmth
and openness.