krft   United Kingdom   Brick and flint in gray tones clad this performing arts center built for Brighton College as part of a masterplan to revamp the British campus that includes OMA’s School for Sports and Science. The Dutch firm krft designed the building in collaborati

Níall McLaughlin Architects   United Kingdom   Founded in 1861 by Henry Wilde within St James’s Hall as a school of music and oratory, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) integrated institutions of different arts during the 20th century, becoming one of the most prestigious drama

OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture Ellen van Loon   United Kingdom   In more than 13,000 square meters, the new cultural venue for Factory International – the institution that  organizes the Manchester International Festival every two years – is designed to accommodate all kinds of performing arts. 

Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos   France   The deep meaning of the concept of ‘building the city’ lies in the ability to generate public space. While the public nature of a place is essentially a consequence of its citizens’ activity, the architect’s responsibility is to create the conditions

OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture Ellen van Loon   United Kingdom   The new headquarters of Factory International, organizer of the Manchester International Festival (MIF), has been completed. A work of OMA / Ellen van Loon, it responds to an eclectic environment – amid industrial brick constructions, towers, housing

Barclay & Crousse Arquitectos   Peru   The starting design decision was to separate the spaces for the performing arts – with specific dimensional, acoustic, and formal requirements – from other more generic spaces common to other schools.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro   United States   This performing arts center in the city of Worcester, 66 kilometers west of Boston, is named in honor of Cornelius B. Prior, an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross, a private institution on whose campus it stands, and lead donor for its construc

Mailitis Architects J. Pogas Birojs   Latvia   Every five years the city of Riga is the venue of one of the largest song festivals in the world, held since 1873 and able to bring in a colossal choir of 20,000 members. Such congregations were a delight for Soviet leaders, who in 1955 transferred

Sancho-Madridejos   Egypt   In the pharaonic city that is going up to decongest chaotic Cairo, different performance spaces are arranged around a public square with the intention of creating a new cultural hub. Wrapped in a skin of translucent onyx, the Grand Theater building i

OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture   China   Construction of this cultural building kicked off in 2012, in accordance with a project led by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten that constituted a typological revision of traditional auditoriums. It is programmed to officially open to the public in t

Studio Zhu Pei   China   Beijing-based Studio Zhu-Pei has built this performing arts center for the city of Dali, an important tourist destination and a significant stop on the Silk Road, in China’s Yunnan province. Curves on the huge, cantilevering rectangular roof are mode

Diller Scofidio + Renfro   United States   The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts was built in the 1960s as part of an urban renewal program for the Upper West Side, with buildings by architects like Gordon Bunshaft, Eero Saarinen, Wallace Harrison, and Philip Johnson. After forty years i

Emilio Tuñón   Spain   After refurbishing the old Casa Grande – a building from the early 20th century that contained the houses of two brothers – and converting it into the Helga de Alvear Foundation Center for the Audiovisual Arts, the team of Emilio Tuñón is close to co

Steven Holl   United States   With new studios and rehearsal spaces on the banks of the Potomac River, the Kennedy Center ensures itself a place at the forefront of the federal capital’s cultural scene. Striking a contrast with the bold building designed by Edward Durell Stone, t

Sergison Bates architects   Belgium   On a former hospital site, next to a monastery and a church, the proposal reinterprets the buildings and public spaces in the medieval city center, gathering the new and the existing elements in an ‘open house’ under a great roof... [+]

Mecanoo   Taiwan  

Harquitectes   Spain   This public facility houses an adult education center, a language standardization consortium, and a hotel on a triangular plot in the Les Corts district. Two of the three sides of the site are defined by the heritage-listed frontage of the former Pla

Steven Holl   United States   The expansion, of 6,000 square meters, consists of three pavilions, one of them with a walkway connecting the center to the river, an idea from the initial concept of 1959. The terraced design favors light and ventilation in the building, most of whi

OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture   China   The Taipei Performing Arts Center takes on an innovative role as cultural container for big events. While the world of theater and the performing arts has evolved a lot over the last century, the design of performing centers maintains the traditional

Snøhetta   Canada   The new Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen’s University in Kingston is located on the northeastern coast of Lake Ontario, and takes the historic Morton Brewery site as point of departure for the new design. Here, Snøhetta worked closely with Que

Brasil Arquitetura   Brazil   This new performing arts center in São Paulo is situated on Praça das Artes, a place which gets its character through two representative historical buildings: the Dramatic and Musical Conservatory on the one hand, and the Cairo Cinema on the other. B

Meritxell Inaraja   Spain   The Catalan word ‘seca’ (in Spanish ‘ceca’) comes from the Arab word sekka and means ‘place where coins are made’. In Barcelona, La Seca was the name given to the Real Casa de la Moneda (Royal Mint) of Aragón, where coins were minted from the 15th to

Jean Nouvel MDW Architecture   Belgium   The proposal includes the extension of the current gendarmerie, located in two 19th- century stables, and the refurbishment of the small villa of the Belgian dance company Charleroi. The scheme proposes demolishing some of the current buildings to ge

On the campus of Brown University, the New York studio REX – with Joshua Ramus, a former partner at OMA, at the helm – has completed a versatile performing arts center that addresses the requirements of a renowned full student symphony orchestra and