bridge

2022

Performing Arts Hub

Academic // ARCH 292

Supervised by Eric Haldenby

Kitchener, Canada

Bridge is an adaptive reuse performance arts facility. It replaces the Waterloo Region Police Central Division Station. The building leaves the form of the old station relatively untouched, carving space for two theatre spaces and flexible community programming. Two floors are added, following the structure of the existing building, but creating a new formal language driven by a curved connection between the adjacent Registry Theatre and Kitchener Public Library. This theatre seeks to decolonize theatre design by celebrating the process of creation and creating nonprescriptive rehearsal and performance halls. This top addition is a suspended performing artist hub. It reclaims and reapportions space, focusing on the production of the arts and providing local artists with the facilities they need to create.