![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3150/28ba/0d0e/f000/054a/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582749)
Text description provided by the architects. Deciding what is essential in a given programme for a given place should be the primary objective of every single architecture project – and nothing else. This may be even more valid when a public building is concerned, as it involves a strong and vibrant interaction with the city as “work in progress”.
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Windows, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/311e/28ba/0d0e/f000/0540/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582761)
The building should be as simple as possible, playing a distinctive role as catalyst and support for artistic activities and events, and contributing to social interaction. It should have a clear, strong but discreet presence and image in the city, conveying information about its own content that can be read at different levels.
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3125/28ba/0d0e/f000/0541/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582765)
As Simple as Possible
The limestone platform open to the public ensures a spatial continuity with the city and a material homogeneity with the surroundings. Slightly suspended above it lie the parallelepiped volumes of the building, covered with white matt glass. This double skin – concrete/glass – was the only “luxury” we indulged in, for it works as a medium and allows mutations in the building exterior – of color, light, image… on the inside, the possibility of communication.
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Windows, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3119/28ba/0d0e/f000/053f/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582758)
The Auditorium
Designing a hall exclusively dedicated to music contributed to an optimal acoustic and architectural result.
The typological shape of the hall is that of a shoebox, a large rectangular space with a flat seating area. This model – a typology inherited from 19th century theatres that is an almost forgotten option nowadays, with the growing popularity of multipurpose halls – guarantees the quality and homogeneity of musical performance, as its shape suppresses primary and fragmented sound absorption (usually caused by sloping seating areas).
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Chair](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/314c/28ba/0d0e/f000/0549/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582787)
On the interior, leaning walls made of wood are detached from the container’s surface, producing a unitary space that incorporates both stage and orchestra. Their slightly round shape, dictated by acoustics, and their bright texture create a structure that contrasts with the container’s darker and more rigid forms.
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Table, Chair](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/313b/28ba/0d0e/f000/0545/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582774)
As a result, the delicate textured surfaces that diffuse the sound provide acoustic perfection and a feeling of sensory well-being for performers and audience alike.
Hall and foyer communicate through pivoted doors disguised in the side walls. Once closed, the continuity of the wood texture guarantees a homogeneous reading of the spatial container.
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Handrail, Beam, Deck](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3140/28ba/0d0e/f000/0546/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582777)
The Theatre
The theatre hall was meant to be extremely versatile and “performant”, in order to allow different kinds of productions and events to take place.
![Theatre and Auditorium in Poitiers / JLCG Arquitectos - Stairs, Handrail](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3135/28ba/0d0e/f000/0544/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582771)
We have tried to meet both the technical demands of the “theatre machine” and the requirements of intimacy, well-being, visual and acoustic optimization of the audience space in a balanced and flexible way.
The audience space is totally configured by gypsum fibre plates that produce a unitary shape, a dark, neutral, monochromatic “cocoon” with no edges, only punctuated by the doors, control room and VIP galleries. Its homogeneous shape and materials ensures acoustic effectiveness, its simplicity emphasises the stage performance.
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5013/3156/28ba/0d0e/f000/054b/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414582790)