Donmar Dryden Street, 2013

Having acquired a small 19th Century warehouse building in London’s Covent Garden, the Donmar Warehouse theatre asked Haworth Tompkins to convert it for rehearsal, education and support facilities. The challenge was to design a convivial working environment within the constraints of a limited budget and a tightly enclosed site. By removing existing floors, extending the roof space and replanning the circulation routes, the new project yields a double height rehearsal room of a similar size to the main Donmar stage, a street fronting green room, administration offices, a large education studio in the roof rafters and a new attic apartment for visiting artists. Stripped back and partially demolished walls and ceilings have been left raw as a suitably theatrical backdrop to the Donmar’s working life, with a new polychromatic staircase, hand painted by regular collaborating artist Antoni Malinowski, as the warm heart of the building. The personality of the historic architecture has been allowed to set the tone, with a provisional, loose-fit language of new additions setting up a fluid, adaptable relationship of new and old. Materials added have been simple and straightforward complement the richly patinated texture of the found surfaces. The aim is very much for a benign occupation rather than an obliteration of the original fabric.

ADDRESS

DRYDEN STREET, LONDON

“Dryden Street has had an immediate, transformative effect on the life of the Donmar. The warm, adventurous and pragmatic spirit of the building has changed our working lives. There is a generous and familial spirit to the rooms, and the building is a great invitation to creativity and communication. Everyone goes into work that bit happier, and artists working in the building have - in our first month - been overjoyed with the atmosphere.”

Josie Rourke