NAVE / Smiljan Radic

Curated by ArchDaily

Architects: Smiljan Radic
Year: 2015
Photographs:Nico Saieh, Maria Gonzalez
Manufacturers: Quattro

The design for this experimental performing arts hall proposed an “emptying operation,” for which we used to our advantage the same municipal rules that had previously immobilized the building’s renovation leading to its state of disrepair.

The building’s façade is the only structure that remained partially in place following several fires and the earthquake in 2010. These events opened the interior, destroying any remnants of the households that used to occupy the space.

This project completely emptied the property, recreating the original façade in its entirety, and making it into a sort of friendly disguise. Through its openings, the city appears on the inside, forming part of the backdrop of some of the shows.

Few structural elements touch the ground on the first floor: the elevator, stairs, and the support wall for the movable stands. The public walkway throughout the space hangs from a central master beam and culminates on the roof terrace in the middle of the city’s natural landscape where a circus tent can be installed. Everything seems measured from above. The circus was one of the first shows imagined, the most primitive and austere. Above the building the tent will appear every once and a while like a strange object, distant from its natural ground. It will generate a certain type of joy throughout the neighborhood.

The rehearsal rooms, offices and other services occupy other spaces within the same building, converting it into a new organism interconnected from within.

Description of the Main Spaces

- Black Room (main space)

750 sqm
Dance floor
It has retractable bleachers with seating for 146 spectators
Technical equipment including lighting and sound
Versatile space, with no fixed stage

- White Room

130 sqm
Equipped with sound and natural light
Dance floor, equipped with a professional dance floor that was made exclusively for NAVE; natural light enters through skylights
Connected to the central space (the Black Room) by a sliding door, the White Room is reserved only for research, workshops, practices and exhibitions

- Spacious dressing rooms connect the White and Black rooms

- Practice Rooms

Room 1

65m2 white room
The original moldings and parquet floor have been restored
Equipped with a sound system and natural light

Room 2

50m2 white room
The original moldings and parquet floor have been restored; equipped with a sound system

- Residence

The space is designed especially to accommodate artist residency projects
It can host up to 10 artists simultaneously
It has four rooms with individual beds, a living room, kitchen, dining room and bathrooms