performance architecture

architecture of absence

2013 masters studio

with jan casimir

architecture of absence is a design project that combines the high technical requirements of contemporary theatre design with the social and environmental implications of building a high-rise in the already dense cultural district of west kowloon, hong kong. two theatres, a black-box and a reconfigurable performance space, form the base and apex of a towering void. framing the absence, the project subverts and critiques the traditional typology of a skyscraper. through scale, density and transparency, the design of building and theatre are pushed to new limits questioning and reversing the roles of performer, spectator, architecture and bystander.

two rooms house performances: one is floating, one is buried. they engage in an intense dialogue. the black-box theatre serves as a public event in and of itself, while the reconfigurable theatre serves as a private event both intimate and grand; each space discovered through architectural procession. from the depths of the harbour, from the heights of the skyline, there emerges an architecture of absence.