a+t architecture publishers

The intervention in the Young Vic Theatre was done with the fluency of someone inviting friends over, with no pomp, no boasting, familiar with the likes and needs of its own and yet at the same time technically discreet and efficient.
No visitor to the Young Vic Theatre can leave with the doubt that it is, more than anything else, a living room with an intense artistic life. The modesty of the materials used in the enlargement made possible a kind of alloy with the temporary building, designed by Bill Howell in 1970 under the protection of the old butcher’s that survived bombing and to this day is used as a ticket office.
Haworth Tompkins’ project understands the building not from a clean slate, like John Pawson did when the previous management of the theatre hired him in the late 90s, but as a common space where memory is part of the future.

Photos taken by Javier Mozas, available under request.

Published in a+t 30 Civilities II pp 6-19

Haworth Tompkins
Young Vic Theatre, 2006
66 The Cut, Southbank, Londres