TESTING IDEAS TO MAKE THEM STRONGERInitial ideas for developing the
building were not polished, there
were no clear plans for what we were
going to do and how we were going
to do it. In 2006 we established the
idea of applying the process we use
to develop theatre, ‘Scratch’, to an
architectural design and building
process. We took ideas from local
people, artists and professionals and
in direct collaboration with the
architects we tested them through
low-cost investment. We call this
concept and process
‘Playgrounding’. |
HOW DID PLAYGROUNDING DEVELOP?The first and most ambitious
playground project was The Masque
of the Red Death in collaboration with
Punchdrunk. It enabled Battersea Arts
Centre to reconsider its relationship
with the Town Hall and view the
entire footprint of its one-acre site as
valid creative space. |
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![]() Steve TompkinsSteve Tompkins is the Director of Haworth Tompkins Architects. |
![]() David JubbDavid Jubb is Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre. |
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![]() POP UP BEDROOMS, RIO OCCUPATIONIn 2012 the Playgrounding project was extended to a second phase in connection
with The Rio Occupation, an exchange of 30 Brazilian artists who came to London
for 30 days as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Festival. Throughout the
30 days of the Occupation, the artists hosted a panorama of Rio’s contemporary
creative scene in some of London’s most prominent and revered arts venues,
including The Roundhouse, Southbank Centre, Somerset House, Victoria and
Albert Museum and Barbican.
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Welcome Area Images
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![]() WELCOME AREAIn 2012, we ran a playground project which extend the café into foyer. We aimed to
develop a feeling of community and inclusion as soon as you walk in the door; a
place to eat, meet and share with each other. This built on the ‘Home’ principal
embodied by the bedrooms project and extended it to everyone who comes
through the doors. The Welcome Area playground project allowed us to discover
and start to overcome the challenges presented by a building designed for a purely
formal civic function and to help maximise the area as a potential revenue
generator. |
Key LearningThe Welcome Area Playground Project was managed and delivered in house by a Battersea Arts Centre team. Managing lighter construction phases in-house with theatre artists and the production team can be a lot more cost effective than handing everything over to a contractor – the in-house team take more ownership of the project and a theatre production team understands the value of every penny and critical factor of opening the show on time. |
Jude KellyJude Kelly was the first Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre (1980 - 1985). She is currently Artistic Director of Southbank Centre. |
Council Chamber Images
Emma RiceEmma Rice is the Joint-Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Cornish theatre makers Kneehigh. |
![]() COUNCIL CHAMBERThe Council Chamber has always been one of Battersea Arts Centre’s main
performance spaces. Until February 2011 it was a black box space, with a
permanent seating rake. In March 2011 Kneehigh returned to Battersea Arts Centre with their award
winning show The Red Shoes which had originally been staged in the Council Chamber. We used that opportunity to return the space to its original form, the
idea being that artists should be able to use and respond to it, almost casting it as a
character in their productions. The black paint was stripped; the permanent rake
was taken out and replaced with a flexible system which could be used throughout
the building.
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![]() THE RED SHOESOne of Kneehigh’s best loved and award winning shows, The Red Shoes is a passionate, funny, bloody and surreal re-imagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy-tale about a girl possessed by a pair of red shoes who can’t stop dancing. In trademark Kneehigh style, the production fused dance, live music, striking visuals and compelling story telling to bring the tale to life. 'This is intensely charismatic theatre about what it is to be alive' Full review available here |
Lower Hall Images
“Due to the high number of commercial enquires Battersea Arts Centre was receiving, it became clear that there was a real demand for a space that local residents and organisations could use as a regular class venue.”Freddie Huntington, Events Manager |
![]() THE LOWER HALLThe Lower Hall was originally created for community uses and served this purpose both as a Town Hall and as an Arts Centre. In 2012 a series of Playgrounding works were undertaken and as a result the Lower Hall has become a versatile, flexible and vibrant space suitable for our current regular hires, and fulfilling the requirements that our new clients were asking for, such as an easier to use sound system, dance mirrors and better storage facilities. The Lower Hall now provides an essential and affordable service to the local community and also helps improve Battersea Arts Centre’s awareness and relationships with its neighbours. This work was an early scratch of this side of the building to improve the space in advance of the major works in 2014/15. Further improvements to the lobby areas, toilets and accompanying offices have been written into the masterplan to enable the space to reach its full potential. |