The Unicamp’s Performing and Corporal Arts Laboratory Theater starts from the idea of understanding diverse departments as integrated elements of a singular school, done through a place of social meeting and exchange, capable of sheltering different uses without interfering in the specific need of each department. Through this initial intention, the school program unfolds itself into three buildings that delimit a patio among themselves, an open space slightly lowered which articulates all the different functions seen throughout the school, but also grants the public dimension required by the Theater. Therefore, the school’s somewhat public programs are leveled with this patio’s floor (97.00): secretariats, rest, socializing, library and theater’s foyer and café.
The practical and theoretical classes were allocated in two floors, seeking to organize the needed height ceilings for each activity. The student circulation was concentrated on a singular level (100.00). The need of a longitudinal circulation on the upper floor was overcomed by allocating the stair access between classrooms, granting the upper room’s two facades free landscape view and better access to natural illumination and ventilation conditions.
The Laboratory Theater program organizes itself in two clearly distinct parts, although resulting in a singular volume. A five level tower that shelters workshops and support services is coupled to the scenic box, a singular space with total height ceiling that grants flexibility to the audience layout, not only at stage level, but also vertically, accommodating the audience on upper walkways.
This arrangement suggests unexpected appropriations as it makes possible the opening of said scenic box to the exterior, revealing the patio, foyer, street and stage all at the same level. The choice of steel structure along with prefabricated concrete slabs and panels comes from the idealization of a rationalized and fast construction, corresponding to the institution’s needs.
