The Tom Patterson Theatre (TPT) at Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada has won the Honour Award for Architecture from the US Institute of Theatre Technology. The 600-seat riverside venue was designed by Siamak Hariri.
“We sought to create an emotional experience through architecture to complement the magic of theatrical performance,” said Hariri, founding partner of Hariri Pontarini Architects.
The TPT features a sequence of public rooms defined by a curtain wall that ebbs and flows with the river, designed to dissolve the line between indoors and out. The wood-lined auditorium was designed to create great intimacy and acoustic excellence with an elongated thrust stage where no patron is more than 8.5m (28ft) from the stage.
The designers collaborated closely with the festival’s artistic director, Antoni Cimolino, and set and technical designers, to optimise the versatile performance space to meet the demand of a repertory schedule where different shows can run on the same day.
“We developed a close partnership with Siamak Hariri and his team,” said Cimolino. “From this collaboration came a venue that is not only visually stunning and supportive of every artistic endeavour, but also timeless in design and at the forefront of modern technology.”
The TPT previously was awarded the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture, the UK’s Civic Trust Award, the Architecture MasterPrize – Best of the Best Award for Cultural Architecture, the Ontario Association of Architects Design Excellence Award, as well as its People’s Choice Award, and the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award.
