Studio Banana TV interviews the acclaimed Spanish architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg talking about his project Teatro del Canal in Madrid.
CANAL THEATER – DESCRIPTION
Many requests converge in this project. First, the intrinsic nature of its program calls for the creation of an illusionary space, a fantasy world, that is, for the imaginary as the substance of the project. Second, the exceptionality of the characteristic function of a building that invokes that imaginary world and is located in somewhat nondescript and neglected urban area, demands a bold and formally rich response, whose intrinsic vitality will breathe life into the intersection of Bravo Murillo and Cea Bermúdez Streets and make it stand out. Third, theater activity requires both integration and segregation simultaneously. Urban life should be attracted to it, but there must also be a separation, a discontinuity to protect the core of the virtual world created within, which by its very nature is unconnected to the surrounding urban reality.
The latter dual and divergent demand translates into an integration and continuity of the street on the ground floor level and a segregation achieved by elevating the rest of the program to the top floor, placing the theater and dance halls above the entrance halls on the lower floor. The ground floors, with large entrance halls, the store and the cafeteria, are transparent and visible from the street, thus incorporating their activity into the city and inviting participation. The adjacent green areas of the Canal also leave their mark on the project at the street level, with grass surfaces that penetrate into the lot until the sunken and glass-free perimeter that encloses the entrance halls or cafeteria, thus incorporating the building into the nearby green areas.
Above this ground floor, which is the threshold between the building and the street, a lively interplay of volumes is created which is perceived as a zigzagging unfolding of forms in the air that encourages contrasting sensations of the concave and the convex, resembling flags waving in the wind. The group of buildings is experienced in complementary perceptions: swelling or shrinking and revealing or concealing the interior from view from the street.
The skin enveloping these floating volumes is like paper; it takes in the light and reflects it back with softened glare. All this conforms to a deliberate constructional notion, intelligible as an ideal “mask” for the character of theater and dance, and which translates into the prominent value given to pure appearances and the lively interplay of forms. The skin that unfolds in the space consists of a glass surface that is partly opaque and partly translucent and transparent. The opaque glass panes are black, red and silver and have a velvety mat finish due to a special surface coating that softens their color and reduces their surface gloss. Color is treated as a basic construction substance, like something that is cut with scissors or sculpted directly from rough masses. The treatment of this chromatic substance is reminiscent of the Matisse’s cutouts in which painting acquires a sculptural nature. The stage houses of both theaters in the interior are like the pit of a fruit, the intimate cell that is fixed within these inflated textile volumes. These houses also serve as the main support because they are the basis from which the physical structure of the building is organized. The entrances to the frontal experimental theater are located on a higher level (+9.00), as previously mentioned, and they are accessed via rolling stairs. The cafeteria opens onto the street and an open-air sidewalk café placed on the patio in the southwest corner, linking it to the domestic and tranquil nature of the area of dwellings on the inner part of the block.
The areas of theater services and the loading and unloading area are accessed from Bravo Murillo Street. Along the southern rear part of the building separated by the dividing walls, all the connections are made between the stages and the stage houses. A slit for light along the dividing walls on the southern edge illuminates these connecting spaces between the stages and the dressing rooms. This overhead entry of natural light prevents sordid spaces being created in these places far from the public. The dance halls are arranged around an elongated patio on the western side. This patio provides the halls with abundant natural light without diminishing their conditions of privacy. A large ramp connects the different floors integrating them into an entrance hall that closes on one side the large cleft of the main entrance from the street to the theaters. As can be seen on the plans, the connection is made between these halls, the dance halls, and the stages of the two theaters without giving rise to any conflict between this private circulation and public circulation.
Interview by Studio Banana TV. Translation by Harold Ortiz.
