Agora Theater Lelystad

In Lelystad Theater Agora, a project by Ben van Berkel (UNStudio), is a building which makes its shell its distinguishing feature, both because of its special shape and colour as well as because of the way in which this shell forms the interior spaces.

The flattened edges are opposed to plane surfaces which in some places are cantilevered and clad with glass and steel. The colours are kept in warm hues, they move between yellow and orange and round off the sharp cut of the sculpture-like shell. In an interview with the "Deutsche Brusseler Zeitung" the architect Van Berkel said that the "process of getting away from the drabness" was the task of his new theatre in the middle of Lelystad's greyness and murk.

"The aim of our architecture is to inspire and thereby to convince people simply to stay longer because it is congenial and beautiful," says Caroline Bos. The successor to the Agora, which was demolished after 26 years, can be called a crystalline box, a three-dimensional folded cover in which are two theatre auditoria and the 500 square metres stage. The spatial organisation of the rooms is interesting. Interior colour cascades of pink, violet and cherry follow the exterior red and yellow.

The huge stage "feeds" an auditorium which seems almost intimate although it has over 700 seats. This is provided by the red monochrome colouring of the horse-shoe shaped balcony together with the prismatic acoustic panels. There is also a small hall in the colour format yellow-black with a pre-assembled connection for draught beer – an important detail for Dutch events.

UFA Palace, Dresden