Smart Factory City:
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Action Theatre
BA (Hons) Year 2, Experimental 14 in Architectural Association, 2018-19
Tutor: Aristide Antonas, Georgios Eftaxiopoulos
Since 2008, Athens has undergone severe economic recession, which also resulted in the highest unemployment rate in Europe. Young Greeks who seek to offer alternative narratives to the economic recession have fostered a thriving theatre scene.
The number of theatres in Athens grew by
153% from 2000 to 2014, while 70% of theatres were found after the
recession.
However, the recession also drove people to put their houses in Airbnb for a stable extra income, which objectively caused the renting price raising in central Athens. It could be harmful for the flourishing theatre scenes.
Therefore, I would like to propose an actor school where people could live and learn acting skills, and finally be certificated to be a real actor in Athens.
The project could be part of the programs of the national theatre, and it will support the learning process and further professional career of the students.
Every other floor is a separate stage. All the original façades are taken off and replaced with glass and curtains covering the whole building. The curtain opens in the morning and closes in the night, making the whole building acts as visible performance to its neighbors.
View from The Neighbor Building
In terms of the interpretation of theatricality, I was greatly inspired by the modern version of the Magic Flute, performed at London Coliseum in 2019. All the scenography here is only a big board.
The significance of a single space shifts radically over time, just with the board in different states—rotated, lifted, and folded, with facilities attached on the board. And the more irrelevant states the shift makes, the more dramatic the space will be.
The Kitchen Level:
The kitchen consists of boards in different height, which is controlled by the building administrator at certain time.
Plan of the Kitchen Level
When used as kitchen, the board where refrigerator and cupboard stick are lifted to 2.1m level for the height needed for cooking. Then part of the board goes down to lift dishes.
Elevation of the Kitchen
The board of 2.1m high become the dining table at the same time and people have to climb to the 1.8m high bench—also part of the board, to have meals. All the pieces of board are hung by strings which emphasizes the role of gravity, helps student to learn to balance their bodies against gravity.
The lifting machine is powered by a motor and driven by four gears which work simultaneously to lift the string, with pulleys to keep the string straight. They are hidden inside the ceiling.
In other time, all pieces come to the same level that enables the space to be a teaching or social space.
Cross-programming in the Kitchen Level
The steps of the kitchen stairs are also a set of screens. When used as ladder, people step at the back side of the screen.
In the morning, ladders could be put to the boards, lifted up and hold a small lecture and movie watching. In the night, it is changed into a club where people could dance together, totally forgetting that they are dancing in kitchen.
The Sleeping Level:
The Sleeping Level consists of the extended beds with a screen and wheels.
Plan of the Sleeping Level
The 3.2m long bed could electronically transform into different modes to suit different activities. The battery is set to provide electricity for one day. So in the night, it will be parked exactly to the charging panel.
During the daytime, this floor could be transformed into a teaching space. The bed could serve as table and chair for group discussion, a podium for speech and a little theatre for leisure.
Therefore, the perception of bedroom vanishes during daytime. Bed is no longer our last back stage and people will keep performing until the last moment before falling sleep.
Cross-programming in the Sleeping Level
The Bathing Level:
In term of the bathing space, bath tubs are integrated into a single board, which is also controlled by the administrator as well.
Plan of the Bathing Level
Cross-programming in the Bathing Level
During the time of bathing, people change to their bathrobes in the fitting room level, and the room is gradually filled with steam to provide a kind of privacy.
The students climb to the
1.2m high board, and put bathrobe and bath towels on the handrail.
When rotated vertically, bath tubs become seats where people could communicate. The bathroom space could be nothing to do with bath.
The hot and cold water pipes go inside these columns. The rotating part enables the water to flow freely however the bathtub rotates.
The Fitting Level:
This is the place for clothes storage, fitting and making up.
Plan of the Fitting Level
Every part belongs to an individual and could be rotated electronically by users. Every part could rotate independently.
The board is 1800mm high and there is a step inside of 200mm, so that the passerby could only see their heads with privacy guaranteed.
After changing clothes, they could step outside and making up at the opposite side.
Cross-programming in the Fitting Level
In general, Action Theatre serves both as a school and as a residential place that provides an alternative for the young people in Greece to work as actors and not bothered by the rising renting price.
Daily Life in Action Theatre
The furniture inside is regarded as scenography that interacts with people and choreographs people’s behavior, which makes their lives here also a theatricalized performance.