Londrina Theatre
Awarded national competition
architectural design
Londrina, Brazil
2007
Overview
The Londrina Theatre project was designed for a National Architecture Competition and awarded with the 5th place over more than 200 applications. The project blends innovative design with urban integration, creating a versatile and sustainable cultural space that harmonises functionality, aesthetics and acoustics excellence.
It focuses on enhancing the site’s characteristics, leveraging topography to meet usage demands and creating open spaces that emphasise its public and monumental nature. The design integrates the theatre with urban space, allowing for large outdoor events on a sloped plaza facing the main access road, while also facilitating everyday interactions with future developments.
Access and flow are meticulously organised, distinguishing between public areas (lobby, café, ticket office, and exhibition spaces on the ground floor), semi-public areas (foyer and performance halls), and private, restricted areas (stage and technical spaces).
The project emphasises the quality of all spaces, ensuring aesthetic and functional preeminence from public reception areas to technical and educational spaces. A detailed study of scenography supports diverse uses and combinations of spaces, while acoustic quality is prioritised in all environments, particularly in performance spaces, with design choices aimed at optimising sound without excessive material use.
The structural design differentiates between performance spaces (for integrity and acoustic insulation) and technical/public spaces (with a mixed system for cost-effectiveness). The project also incorporates energy-efficient systems and resource-saving measures throughout the building’s construction and lifecycle.
Gelson Veloso, Bruno Berg, Carlos Alberto Maciel, Marco Antonio Vecchi (Acoustics), Rafael Borges, Wanderson Ferreira.
Overview of the complex at daytime
Foyer and Café
Site and accesses
The project opens the entire public frontage of the site to ensure seamless integration with the urban space, using the grassy plaza to invite public access, while parking is strategically placed on the eastern side and below ground to minimise visual impact and preserve the landscape.
Pedestrians are welcomed by a graceful ramp
that begins at the iconic preserved chimney, while a striking second entrance beneath the theatre’s incline adds a touch of intrigue. These dynamic access points flow into the lobby, sparking energy and movement across its length, with inclined planes and multi-level spaces creating an exciting, social hub where theatre-goers connect and engage.
Overview of the complex at night
Public entrance underneath the plaza
View of the complex from the parking lot
Site plan
Spatial-Functional Integration
The project is organised into two primary levels, ensuring clear, and independent flows for the public, artists, and technicians. This layout allows spaces requiring controlled access to be distinct without disrupting the open, fluid nature of the public lobby, which spans the complex and connects to educational and training areas on the ground floor.
Centralising all amenities—such as toilets, café, and vertical circulation—into a single utility block separates the lobby from the main hall and segments the three foyers on the upper level. This design allows for the integration of foyers into one large space when needed, optimising infrastructure investment and ensuring economic viability by serving all areas with a single, two-level café.
Ground Floor Foyer
Foyer and access to the exhibition rooms
Ground Floor Plan: Lobby and public areas/administration/teaching rooms/indoors parking
First Floor Plan: Foyer/stage and audience spaces, supporting rooms
Technical Conditioning and Geometry of Exhibition rooms
Main Theatre
The technical design and geometry of the large hall have been meticulously planned to enhance both audience experience and theatrical performance. The audience seating adopts a 19° angle to bring spectators closer to the stage, while asymmetrical circulation paths respond naturally to entry and exit flows, reducing foyer size and costs. The seating offers optimal visibility with varied inclines, improving acoustics and sightlines, especially in the rear rows. The upper balcony features only three rows to avoid obstructed views, and a centralised sound, translation, and control booths ensures excellent visibility and acoustics.
Accessibility is prioritised with dedicated seating for wheelchair users, individuals with overweight, and those with mobility issues, alongside full access to the stage and backstage areas. The stage itself is designed with advanced technical specifications, including a future orchestra lift and acoustic. Overall, the hall combines functionality, comfort, and monumental grandeur, supporting diverse performances from orchestral concerts to experimental theatre.
Main Theatre stage, audience seats and acoustics panels
Main Theatre
Main Theatre Section showing audience, stage and orchestra areas, parking, backstage and supporting rooms
Voice Theatre
The design of the auditorium prioritises intimacy and reduces the separation between actors and audience. The seating is divided into two distinct sectors, with an arched arrangement near the stage and a linear arrangement at the rear. The inclination varies, being gentle near the stage and steeper at the back, enhancing both visibility and acoustic performance. The use of angled acoustic reflectors near the stage and a neutral black finish in the rear reinforces focus on the performance. Lateral walkways connect the stage with the front seating, integrating the audience into the performance. The stage height and dimensions meet the specified requirements, ensuring flexibility in staging. The auditorium accommodates 498 people, with provisions for users with mobility issues. The overall design with adjustable scenic elements emphasises the interaction between actors and audience, making the stage the central focus of the space.
Voice Theatre audience seating sections
Voice Theatre Stage
Voice Theatre Section showing stage, slopped plaza, parking, foyer, backstage and supporting rooms
Black Box
Located at the centre, the Black Box is designed to emphasises flexibility and adaptability, featuring a high ceiling to seamlessly integrate with other performance spaces. Lateral balconies accessible by stairs enhance technical support areas, allowing diverse stage configurations without a fixed audience orientation. The adjustable overhead grid can be set at various heights, from the lower balcony to a maximum of 18 metres, enabling versatile staging. The rectangular space of 17.50 x 20.50 metres, with a total height of 24.50 metres, offers 358 m² of usable area. The interior is designed with neutral acoustics to maintain its versatile character, allowing for varied and innovative performances.
Black Box multiple stage configurations
Construction and Responsible Use of Natural Resources
The project prioritises sustainability and efficient construction by distinguishing between different types of spaces, allowing tailored construction solutions to meet specific needs while reducing material and resource waste.
The design uses metallic structures with advanced acoustic and thermal insulation to minimise energy consumption. The building’s green spaces and strategic use of natural ventilation and lighting reduce the use of air artificial light and air conditioning, enhancing energy efficiency and environmentally responsible use of natural resources. Additionally, the project incorporates rainwater harvesting for irrigation and sanitary use, reducing clean water demand. Solar panels heat water in specific areas, further minimising energy consumption. Electrical systems include photovoltaic substations and generators ensuring operational efficiency.
The reflecting pool filled helps controlling air humidity and cooling the building down
South Façade
East Façade
North Façade
West Façade
Final considerations
Overall, this project aims to create a highly expressive, timeless architectural complex that symbolises the resilience and modernity of its people. The design minimises built elements by concealing public areas beneath a grassy roof, ensuring harmony between constructed volumes and open spaces. The project emphasises the monumentality and iconic nature of the two main structures—the stage areas and the grand performance hall—using natural materials like copper and zinc that evolve over time, reducing maintenance needs. The grand hall, with its distinctive trunck-pyramidal geometry and copper cladding, stands out against the dark
backdrop of the stage areas and grassy base. The layout contrasts the grand hall to the west with a preserved chimney to the east, symbolising the blend of industrial heritage and future cultural creation. Light is a key architectural element, with natural light shaping interiors through sheds and skylights, and artificial light at night highlighting the structures’ forms and construction logic.
Ultimately, the project integrates building and plaza to create an open, democratic monumentality that invites public engagement.
Complex overview at night
See also
