Standing out among the array of cultural programs, the opera and theater typology is often understood as encompassing the luxurious and elitist spirit of a bourgeois society focused on entertainment. Across the Soviet Union, this represented the opposite of the principles to be promoted. However, despite the opposition of the political class, the program remained widely popular. As the historical structures, symbols of the previous regime could no longer be promoted, the search began for a new image of the Opera House, one aligned with Socialist ideals and the concept of "art belonging to the masses."
This is the case of Soviet Lithuania, which, in the 1940s, began the process of developing a new Opera and Ballet Theater in Vilnius to replace the theatre in Pohulianka. The process resulted in an unusual commission, as young architect Elena Nijolė Bučiūtė won the 1960s competition for architectural design, turning the initial socialist realist proposals into a welcoming and expressive design, blending elements of early and late modernism. This also represents a surprising accomplishment for a young architect who was a woman and not a member of the Communist Party. The project is featured in the program of Open House Vilnius, focused on the theme "People who create the city."
From 1977 to 1983, the National Theatre in Prague underwent a major transformation with the opening of Nová Scéna, a modern counterpart to the traditional Neo-Renaissance theatre. For many years, Nová Scéna hosted the renowned Laterna Magika, the world’s first multimedia theatre. This groundbreaking performance style combined classical theatre with computer-generated visual effects, creating a unique dramatic experience. The striking glass building, a symbol of the communist era, became an iconic representation of the political power of the time.
Robert Wilson embodies the roles of director, set designer, scenographer, lighting designer, and architect in a single figure. Internationally celebrated as a pioneer of stage lighting and honored with numerous prestigious awards, including the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale and the Praemium Imperiale, Wilson, now in his eighties, continues to travel the world, staging remarkable productions. His use of light and color is marked by precision and minimalism, creating scenes that skillfully oscillate between stillness and drama. During rehearsals at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, he elaborates on the interplay between stage and architecture, his creative process, and the profound impact of light on darkness.
Architecture group BIG has unveiled the new stage design for the world tour of the Danish band WhoMadeWho. With visuals developed in collaboration with flora&faunavisions, EyeMix Studio, and Christopher Mulligan, the design features an inflatable sphere created to become a canvas for the three-dimensional video projections that contribute to the concert experience. The tour kicked off on November 2023 and will reach several cities around the world, including Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Istanbul, New York City, Los Angeles, Santiago de Chile, London as well as the band’s hometown, Copenhagen.
After Yang is a science fiction film written, directed, and edited by Kogonada - a South Korean-born American filmmaker known for his video essays on audiovisual content analysis. The main plot of the film follows the story of a family trying to repair their damaged artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic world connected by technology and nature.
Alexandra Schaller, in charge of production design and the appearance of the sets, imagined a future that translates these considerations: From the family house that recovers the original design by Joseph Eichler of the 1960s, going through the importance of outdoor space and vegetation, to each of the materials that had to be non-disposable, renewable or biodegradable.
Fotografías de la escenografía en la serie Gordita Chronicles. Image Cortesía de Amy Wheeler
Amy Lee Wheeler is the production designer for "Gordita Chronicles", an HBO series that tells the story of a girl and her family from the Dominican Republic who immigrates to Miami in 1985, after the country's political and economic instability. Upon arrival, the "American dream" brings them an unpleasant surprise after discovering a materialistic city concerned about social status.
How was the home where she lived and the school where she studied? How was the office where her father worked? These were some of the spaces that Amy Lee Wheeler had to design and set with furniture and colors of iconic vintage styles, drawing inspiration not only from old movies, books, and catalogs but also from personal photographs. The construction of the set in Puerto Rico and the ongoing pandemic presented unique and unprecedented challenges, so ArchDaily interviewed her to learn about the work process behind the scenes.
One of the elements of most affinity between architecture and cinema is the scenographic project. The set designer, like the architect, starts from a concept to create spaces with a purpose. The architect designs spaces for living and the set designer designs spaces for storytelling. Many architects work with scenography because of the affinity between the activities.
Architecture education is not only about learning how to design and construct buildings but it gives a whole new perspective on our built environment and on how design can contribute to create quality spaces and experiences. Moreover, a big percentage of this design thinking can be used by professional architects as a resource to create other spatial configurations that vary from the traditional building, opening up to a diverse world of possibilities in terms of spatiality and materials.
Continuing its long-lasting collaboration with Prada, OMA’S research and design branch AMO created a cinematic scenography for the brand’s 2022 Fall Winter Menswear show. Yellow carpeting envelops the hall of Deposito at Fondazione Prada, reimagined as a theatrical setting with olive-green theatre chairs and stage lighting. In juxtaposition, sci-fi looking metal-clad tunnels bathed in neon lights emphasize “the uncanny relationship between the theatrical and technological atmospheres”.
If you haven't seen Respect, I highly recommend it. The Liesl Tommy-directed biographical film based on the life of American singer Aretha Franklin visually takes us back to the 1960s through a successful set work. Here, Production Designer, Ina Mayhew had the job of creating a series of locations where color palettes undoubtedly evoke more than emotions: Her suburban home from her childhood in Detroit, the sassy jazz clubs of New York City, her luxurious Upper West Side apartment, and finally her ultramodern home in Los Angeles.
Chilean architect Smiljan Radic has designed and installed a perfectly transparent dome for Alexander McQueen's Spring / Summer 2022 fashion show earlier this week in London.
Responding to the challenge of designing a space for the launch of the Prada FW Menswear 2021 Collection by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, Rem Koolhaas and AMO have designed four connected geometric rooms that allow for the continuous circulation of the models showcasing their different garments. The general theme of the design centers sensory stimulation. Like the designs presented, the materials used and their distribution throughout the space speak of a more intimate connection with our surroundings, reminding us that fashion and architecture are more than just a functional container; they are an opportunity to actively excite and provoke our senses.
Stefano Boeri has released a short movie, directed by Stefano Santamato and produced by Paolo Soravia, highlighting the journey of 400 fir logs, from being downed by the storm Vaia to being part of the scenography of the Greek Theater in Syracuse. The film, dedicated to the second life of fir trees has won the Venice Architecture Short Film Festival 2020.
Creativity must be at the origin of the concept, present at the initial moment where we give answer to the question we are asked, and should be shared by all Scenography creates ephemeral spaces that due to their short life must express, without concessions to doubt, an intention, an idea. Space expresses, in short, a way of understanding a human story.
The International Workshop RCR is born of a way of understanding Architecture and Landscape from a humanistic spirit. The coexistence in a space and time of different creative disciplines creates synergies for mutual enrichment between the parties.
The workshop is designed following four main ideas that articulate the program:
- Competition Format: Closed exercises that condense a complex process within a specific time frame - Transversality: An integrative interdisciplinary approach - Sharing: Shared creativity fostering the capacity for dialogue - Experience: Understanding derived from observation, participation and experience
The Program consists in
- Creative Atelier. The workshop offers a brief approach to the elements that surround scenography:
Theatre Projects consultants, together with the architectural office Studio KO, have designed a multipurpose auditorium of 115 seats, with the aim of hosting conferences, screenings, concerts, theater, and cinema.
The auditorium is part of the new Museum Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech, and incorporates a series of elements and technologies that allow for high-quality sound and lighting, as well as ensuring total flexibility of the room to adapt to all required uses.
