The Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno already pursued to acquire its own theatre venue for its musical branches – musical and opera for a long time. The project of construction a Music - Drama Lab began with an acquisition of a clearance with a provisional building in the Orlí Street from the Moravian Gallery, which had a restoration workshop here. The site in the historic  core of the city emerged by bombing of  a block of flats during the Second World War.  The Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno announced a public, anonymous, architectural competition for a design of  space layout of a new building on 1^st October of 2003 according to the conditions in the regulatory plan of the municipal conservation area. 49 competing designs were submitted until  the deadline on 19^th December of 2003.  The jury awarded the first prize to the design by Ing. arch. Pavel Rada, Brno, Ing. arch. Milan Rak Ph.D. a Ing. arch. Alexander Skalický in January of 2004.  The Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno became the investor and the building was financed from the sources of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The construction was carried out by architects Milan Rak, Alena Režná (ARCHTEAM) and Pavel Rada (RadaArchitekti) from Brno.

The architects were already awarded for the project in 2007 by the International Architecture Award from the Museum of Architecture and Design in Chicago, and they were also awarded for realization by the first prize in the category Buildings of Civic Facilities in the competition Building of the South Moravia Region in 2012  and by the Grand Prix Award of Academia of Architects in the category of the New Building.

The intent of the investor was to project a modern functional theatre, accessible to public and a workplace for students and pedagogues of the JAMU at the same time. This program together with the regard to the location – densely built-up area in the city centre- influenced the concept of the building. The building is divided into two volumes: the street section, accessible to public, is lower, it proceeds from the scale of the street, in which mainly appear two story houses with horizontally arranged facades and saddle roofs. Architects endeavoured to connect it visually to the older buildings. The second, higher volume with a theatre hall and lecture halls is designed as a “block of nature”, which should be covered by vegetation in the course of time. In the present days, it is distinguished from the theatre not only by its higher volume, but deeper colouring that induces a feeling of a modern school building, which purpose  is first of all creativity.

The designers selected a steel-concrete skeleton for the load-bearing structure of the building. It is a special structure that is composed of steel elements with a concrete core and reinforcement, which was prefabricated in a factory and mounted as a building set on the construction site. This technology was selected in the first place for its lightness and dimensional efficiency. The basement is arranged as a ferro-concrete “white bath”. Lights, shutters, doors, stage technology, heating and air conditioning are controlled electronically from one centre. All the rooms in the building have an acoustic facing. The structure is designed in an energetically efficient regime. The oblong layout of the building is transparent, divided in the ground floor into three parts: an entrance to the theatre, a café and an entrance to the school with the theatre background.

The architects applied suspended, large scale panels to the side and front facade of the building. The street facade is composed of white panels from graphic concrete with usage of white cement, which are laid horizontally. The total horizontal articulation of the entrance sector was supported by an insertion of a continuous window interconnecting the theatre foyer with the street. The front facade is vivified by the name of the theatre and by a graphically depicted piano keyboard in the upper section that makes a reference to the musical use of the building. This lower white section is opened up to Orlí Street and serves primarily for communication purpose. The ground floor is designed as an outside vestibule that enables an entry into individual operational areas: theatre, cafe, school. It is possible to descend from the cafe into a wine bar, which is made of a renovated baroque cellar area. The vestibule enlarges the street and lighten the building with vistas and glass walls, it creates an access area to the theatre at the same time, serves to encounter of people before and after the performance or as a covered summer cafe. The theatre is accessible from a two storey foyer that is oriented into Orlí Street. The central area is located in the upper recessed sector of the building that is going to be overgrown by greenery. The facade is formed by concrete panels with black colour that is revived by coloured sheet metals in the shades of interiors. The chromatic interiors contrast with the ascetic black and white exterior – the designers of the structure intended to distinguish functions and facilitate communication in the space by colour differentiation. A spectator thus enters into a red foyer, the middle central sector (theatre hall, rehearsal rooms, cafe) is black and grey, the rear sector ( background of the building, dressing rooms) is articulated in ochre colour.

The theatre hall, accessible through a staircase (or lift) from the foyer in the second floor ( cloakrooms are located in the level of the first floor) is variable black box, intended to be a multi-purpose hall with a stage, orchestra pit and fly loft. It can be arranged as a classical proscenium stage as another space layout transforming the mutual relation of the stage and auditorium. The technology is adapted to this variability. The total surface of the hall is 21 x 12 m, height 6, 5 m, capacity circa 150 persons in dependence on arrangement. The auditorium rake is designed from light small parallel platforms – rostrums with the possibility of construction in different heights. The basic flat of the stage is 12 x 6 m, acting area 80 x 6 m, orchestra pit area  24m²  with the possibility of enlarging to 48 m². Apart of using for school activities, it is possible to hire the theatre area out to commercial purposes. There are three other floors above the theatre hall, in each one of them there is a rehearsal room and  respective rooms that are important for the operation of a music school and theatre ( dressing rooms, répétiteur, workshops, tailor shop, offices). The designer set a recording studio into the basement that is realized as a concrete block,  flexibly laid in two floors of the building. The studio has a plan that is acoustically convenient and some of the acoustic features are variable.

Sources:

http://divadlonaorli.jamu.cz/

http://www.archiweb.cz/buildings.php?action=show&id=3691

http://stavbaweb.dumabyt.cz/Stavby-a-projekty/Nove-Divadlo-na-Orli-v-Brne.html

http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divadlo_na_Orl%C3%AD

Author: Markéta Svobodová

Translator: Jan Purkert