Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Laban Dance Centre

The Laban dance Centre in South London designed by Herzog & de Meuron

Largest school of contemporary dance in the world.

Image by Margherita Spiluttini

The most striking thing about the building for me is the facade and use of light, the building is clad in semi translucent polycarbonate panels from the company Rodeca. The colours were decided with the guidance of visual artist Michael Craig-Martin. The translucent polycarbonates give the building a lightness. The material also give the building a essence of movement as the appearance changes as it reacts to light. 




Image by Merlin Hendy, hughpearman.com. Laban at Twilight. [Online Image] 29 July 2007.www.hughpearman.com/articles4/laban.htm
At night the building is illuminated and bathes the surrounding area in magically light. The translucent materials means that the shadows of the dancers inside can be seen on the outside again adding a sense of movement and lightness to the facade.


Image by Audun Hellemo

The material also changes the interior lighting and appearance each studio has a unique colour and light is used to give a identity to the space. The interior light had to be carefully considered so that there was enough natural lighting but that the lighting was not to strong as to distract the dancers.

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