Theatre Sala Beckett
The other selected offices for the second phase of the public competition were: Estudio Carme Pinós, Forgas Arquitectes, BAAS Jordi Badia and Mariné + Pardo Arquitectes.
The conclusion of the Jury was: “The proposal of the team Flores + Prats Achs has been the winner due to its adaptation to the programme elaborated by Sala Beckett, and for its architectonical quality and its insertion in the context”.
Sala Beckett / Obrador Internacional de Dramatùrgia is a place not just to perform contemporary theatre but dedicated to the formation of young dramaturges, giving them the possibility to put in scene their plays for the first time. Sala Beckett is also a place were the most renowned Catalan dramaturges have studied, and is constantly exchanging workshops and seminars with many other countries in Europe and America. Founded 20 years ago by Sanchis-Sinisterra as Teatro Fronterizo, is today a reference in the drama world in and outside the country.
The new building will maintain the spatial characteristics of the original building and will grow on top of it to give space to the new programme.
With this transformation of the existing building, old and new will work at the same time: it will be a place where one will find signs of previous occupations, but the whole building will be actualized for the new use.
The result is not a piling up of programme but something else: in its interior an enormous vestibule connecting the three levels, and outside, a big new roof that transforms the old “Cooperativa” into a big house: The New House for the Dramaturges.