Scenic space in transformation, contemporary theatre design in Budapest

Details

Supervisors

Fontaine, Christine ; Ledent, Gérald ; Chanvillard, Cécile ; Olivier Bastin

Faculty

Faculté d'architecture, d'ingénierie architecturale, d'urbanisme

Degree label

Master [120] en architecture, à finalité spécialisée (Bruxelles)

Abstract

en“Architecture articulates space, giving it a particular feel. Staging a performance is about acting in architecture: it is a practice that demands we pay attention to distance, scale, style, person-to-volume ratio and the immaterial architectures of light, heat and sound” wrote Juliet Rufford in her book, Theatre and Architecture (Rufford 2015, n.p.). As a student of architecture and a frequent theatre-goer who grew up in the close vicinity of Budapest where over 30 performing spaces operate in the 2000s, I already experienced that the built performing space influenced the drama performed. I particularly felt this when I visited theatres that were located in unlikely venues: inside residential buildings, third floor apartments, with uniquely small stages or without any stage at all. Yet, these spaces effectively function as theatres, or in Michel Foucault’s terminology, heterotopias, where some unique transformation takes place, where “to get in one must have a certain permission and make certain gestures.” (Foucault 1967, n.p.) My research thus concerns site-specific stages, investigating how architecture articulates space, gives a particular feel, co-creates theatrical meanings.