The Awlad Allam Theatre Company

The focus of the Awlad Allam Theatre Company is the collaboration and dialogue that occurs in the creative process of theatre. The building aims to remedy the existential dread the community faces due to the urban injustices they endure, and includes gaps of uncertainty, physical gaps that are left to be (re)occupied and (re)shaped by the users.

The theatre company harnesses the collaborative powers of theatre using polyvalency, a spatial concept that rejects rigid, pre-set user scenarios. The concept approach for creating polyvalent architecture is the allocation of gaps of uncertainty that are placed where activity overlaps are anticipated. This approach is directly borrowed from Cedric Price and Joan Littlewoods’ 1962 proposal for a cultural centre dubbed the Fun Palace, a civic space designed to accommodate new, yet-to-be-imagined user needs.\r\nIn the case of the Awlad Allam Theatre Company, gaps of uncertainty are defined as intentional physical gaps that are left to be (re)occupied and (re)shaped by the users. By creating an architectural system that anticipates and accommodates programmatic and spatial changes, the building can expand and retract in all three dimensions in an infinite number of scenarios. The gaps of uncertainty equip the theatre company users to collaborate, create dialogue, and express themselves to the largest extent possible. \r\nAn intricate space matrix was designed to map activity overlaps to create a logic for the placement of gaps of uncertainty. The components of the three program pillars were broken down into the smallest base constituencies, and their interactions were mapped. This approach is an extension of the design premise that theatre production is a fluid and collaborative process.\r\nThe exposed beams and girders that make up the anticipatory framework for the gaps of uncertainty provide a powerful visual reminder of the capacity for change that the building holds. The exposed structure is on full display, ready for the users to occupy with the help of the response and agility office and the wood fabrication staff that build requested changes using wood planks and beams.\r\nEach gap of uncertainty holds a multitude of possible scenarios. The strength of the Awlad Allam Theatre Company lies in the aggregate potential of its gaps of uncertainty, creating infinite possibilities from a single proposal.