The project is situated in Dalston Lane (Hackney), an area fully regenerated, with a new station built and a market that is becoming more and more popular. People living in the area are mostly part of the creative industry but even so the area is currently lacking the cultural activities one can find in central London and a new theatre is a very attractive and inspirational proposal. The existing building, although a library, is lacking the architectural aesthetic one could find stimulating and that is where the new proposal tries to intervene. Keeping parts of the original building but adding the monumentality one would expect from a theatre, this proposal is attempting to re-invent the identity of a tired building by giving it a substantial vertical presence and imposing its concept on the surrounding area. A parasitic structure attached to the building creates an anomaly to the norm of its verticality and plays with the spectator’s conception of architecture.
