RIBA Regional Awards 2014: North West
Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
Haworth Tompkins for The Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust
Contract £13.3m. GIA 4,300m2
Working with the client for years to gain an understanding of its needs, Haworth Tompkins has created a new 400-seat theatre, rehearsal rooms, public foyer and cafe area along with administrative offices on the site of the original 19th century building.
The whole has been fitted out not only with the firm’s trademark tactility, but with materials salvaged from the original site – not least 25000 stock bricks from the site’s Hope Hall chapel. With a facade of 105 ‘Everymen’ portraits etched on its external aluminium shutters, a singlemindedness of intent manifests itself from inside to out. Details such as stairs, handrails, rough sawn floorboards and lighting have been meticulously considered and executed to give depth and cohesion to all the spaces.
A sense of material and spatial continuity is rare in any modern building, but here there is a sense that it reaches back into the very history of the building itself. As such, the Everyman deserves its standing ovation.