Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Client: RADA
Cost: £17m (Arts Council of England Lottery Funded)
Status: Completed 2000

RADA, arguably Britain's most prestigious drama school, celebrated its centenary year with the completion of a new award winning, state of the art building. It contains workshops, rehearsal rooms and other support facilities, plus three new theatres and a foyer / bar where, for the first time at RADA, the public can meet the future stars of stage and screen.

The public foyers have been used to create a link at ground level between the public entrance in Malet Street and the private academy entrance in Gower Street. Each has quite a different character and are separated by a vertical shaft of space known as the 'cleft'. This brings a glimpse of daylight deep into the building and even into the basements via a glass floor in the foyer.

Undoubtedly the greatest challenge of the project was to compress the full range of facilities that a modern drama school like RADA requires into such a very constrained urban site. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the design of the principle auditorium, the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre. There, just over 200 seats have been fitted into an auditorium on three levels, in a width of only 10.5m. Glass walls with black out, hydraulic floors and multiple hinged flaps combine to make the auditorium a truly multi-purpose space.

Download the Architectural Review article (372Kb) or the RADA Magazine celebrating the royal opening (856Kb).

"Defined by the curves of the backs of the Jerwood Vanbrugh, and the new black-box John Gielgud Studio Theatre, the cleft is one of the most spectacular new small spaces in London, Soanian in intensity."

Peter Davey, The Architectural Review, March 2001.

"The contemporary zeitgeist clamours for transparency and openness. This issue has been spectacularly endorsed in recent months by the British Museum with its Great Court and now by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), its architect - Avery Associates."

Keith Williams, The Architects' Journal, May 2001.

"Avery's scheme shows just how much an ingenious architect can achieve on an awkward site - it's like Swiss watch-making, fitting everything into a plot 55 meters long and just 15 meters wide."

Marcus Binney, The Times, November 29, 2000.

"You see the mix of past and present at its best in the new Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre. The result is a small theatre that feels grand and ennobling for both actors and audience."

Jonathan Glancey, The Guardian, December 4, 2000.

"The biggest theatrical hit in London's West End."

Bill Hagerty, The Evening Standard, November 23, 2000.

"RADA's Chairman and Council, together with the Principal, wish to acknowledge their immense gratitude to architects Bryan Avery and John Dawson of Avery Associates whose remarkable vision and energy has resulted in the creation of a new building of which everyone at the Academy can be truly proud."

Lord Attenborough, Chairman, The RADA Council.

education projects : return to homepage : contact us