Theatre for Dance

Situated in Halifax’s historic downtown waterfront, the design for this dance theatre responds to diagrammatic studies of traffic patterns surrounding the small yet dynamic site. With busy one-way streets pushing against the site on each site, the main feature of the design are a series of concrete walls that defoliate as they flex inwards to the centre of the site. Balancing on each other, these walls support the mass of the theatre as it floats above the lobby. The belly of the theatre squeezes down before expanding to frame a room that extends outside into a courtyard under the layered stone and brick rear wall of the historic Morse’s Tea building. Stairs, elevators, and second level hallways to access the theatre are attached in the voids between the perimeter walls.