A visit at Laban Centre
Last Friday I went for a guided architecture tour of the Laban Centre. My visit started by a 10 minutes wait in the beautiful café of Laban. In this ‘hip’ space completely open to the peculiar landscape made of artificial small valleys. The vision was surreal: everyone in the place was wearing jogging pans with styles while walking on tiptoe and with their back straight.
Then, our guide arrive and explain that the Laban Centre is an institution for dance artists (undergraduate, Master and PhD) and as well as a venue for contemporary dance. It was founded in 1948 by Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), an Austro-Hungarian choreographer and a dance / movement theoretician. Situated in South East London (Near Greenwich), the new Laban Centre was built in 2000-2003 by the Swiss star architects Herzog & de Meuron. The exterior of this building is made of polycarbonate in semitransparent shades of lime, turquoise and magenta a material that was previously used by Herzog & de Meuron at the Tate Modern in London). Also, large reflexives windows are contributing to the building’s integration to its surroundings. The Theatre is situated in the heart of the building (to emphasis the importance of the performance space for the dancers). The dance studios are all of different dimensions, shapes, heights, and colours. They are open by large windows in order to use the students to public’s gaze. The studios, offices, and other utilities are distributed lighted up by natural light, thanks to large openings at both ends. The Centre also has a dance specialized library. Two beautiful black spiral-shaped stairways are connecting the different floors. Very colourful, the rest of the building is pink, acid green, and turquoise.
Although a little far from the centre of London, this building is worth the detour. The one-hour long guided architecture tour is a good way of getting to know a little more about the building and contemporary architecture in general. Unfortunately, the morning of my visit, it was impossible to see the theatre as they were doing some special rehearsal in it.
For schedule of the next guided tours look at:
http://www.laban.org/building/guided_tours.phtml
Tours are £10 per person with a £7 concession for students and senior citizens
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