Bridge Theatre wins RIBA and RICS architecture prizes
© Philip Vile
The theatre – a new venture by former National Theatre bosses Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr – confirmed this morning that it had been honoured with the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors Award for Design through Innovation and the RIBA London Award.
Massive congratulations to our architects @haworthtompkins, who have this week won not one but two awards for their work on The Bridge: the @RICSnews Award for Design through Innovation (London) and the @RIBA Award.
We're so glad to see their fantastic designs being rewarded. pic.twitter.com/RLOisOMpyg
— Bridge Theatre (@_bridgetheatre) May 17, 2018
In their announcement, RIBA said: "The Bridge Theatre is London's first commercial theatre of scale for 80 years.
"This was a challenging project that was accomplished by a collaboration of experts who inventively resolved obstacles to produce a successful intimate new theatre."
© Philip Vile
The obstacles it referred to included fitting the theatre into an existing space under a housing development and overcoming the fact the theatre has no fly-tower – with a dynamic moveable floor system, invented specifically for this project.
The Bridge reunited Hytner and Starr with Haworth Tompkins after their collaboration on The Shed, a temporary structure situated at the front of the National between 2013 and 2017 while the Dorfman was renovated. Other theatres in the organisation's portfolio include the Liverpool Everyman, the Young Vic, Chichester Festival Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Court and Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.
The Shaftesbury Theatre has also been announced as one of this year's RIBA London Award winners for their brand new fly tower which RIBA claims is a 'powerfully dramatic addition to the skyline of London's West End'.
