My design is for a dance theatre and metro station in Barcelona. This unusual combination of duties is intended to enliven the station and give the theatre exposure in the public domain. The project additionally taps into the rampant urbanization and the resulting increase in mobility. The new modes of transport developed to accommodate these changes in turn feed the urban dynamics. The brief of this design is to improve this mobility but also to enrich its possibilities.¹ My metro station is one of the 14 new stations for the new metro line 'Linia 9'. I seek to integrate architecture and infrastructure in my design. The metro can act as a stage for the theatre and at the same time serve as a meeting place in the city. The station is located at Placa de Maragall, a square in the Sant Andreu district. This is a hub of cultural activity, yet it has few theatres compared with other districts. By combining the theatre and the metro in a single design, the metro station can profit from the spatial qualities the theatre can offer. Conversely, the dancers double as a 'living advertisement'; their expressive movements can seduce travellers in to see the entire evening's performance. The challenge here is to make dance, an activity branded as 'elitist', accessible to a wider audience.

The meshing of theatre and metro aspired to in the design is given shape by the complex's sophisticated spatiality. The theatre activities that have no need of daylight, the two auditoria for example, are set below ground. From here, travellers have direct access to the theatre from the metro. The building's footprint is minimized by lifting the above-ground volume into space, returning the freed public space to the city. The sunken square beneath the volume is a continuation of this public space that includes the entrance to the restaurant and the metro in its urban elevations. Uniquely sited with regard to its context, the building can lend identity to theatre and metro alike. The entrance is marked by the hovering volume of the theatre, with the auditorium and the fly tower at its core. Thrusting up through the ground plane, this tower additionally functions as the entrance to the theatre and the supporting structure of the elevated volume. The second, aluminium skin opens up at the dance studios and workshops so that the dancers can be seen from the street and the square. This forges a relationship between theatre activities and urban life.

Stacking the programmes creates a vertical foyer, a route designed as a vertical spatial sequence. Leaving the sunken square, you enter the theatre from above, to then descend between the two auditoria into 'the underworld'. The theatre can also be accessed underground from the main concourse of the metro, so that this vertical spatial sequence can be experienced in reverse. From the foyer you can see the activity in the sunken square as well as people accessing or leaving the metro. With its escalators stabbing through the foyer, visitors to the theatre are periodically confronted with people using the metro. Conversely, the metro traveller's journey is enriched by the activities in the foyer and the varied spatial experiences to be had from the theatre.

1 - Georges Amar, 'Le service et la mobilité à l'ère du virtuel', in: E. Heurgon and N. Stathopoulos (eds), Cerisy - Les métiers de la ville, Paris: Éditions de l'Aube, 1999, p. 234; Harm Tilman, 'Snelwegarchitectuur', de Architect (October 1999), p. 34.

Place of education: TU Eindhoven
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: René van Zuuk, Maarten Willems, Frans van Herwijnen