Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2019 - Public - 48

A bird's eye view of the Centre and the surrounding community. Photo © Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects.

able to accommodate staged performances of opera, ballet, or other events, along
with the capability to present classical
music and symphony concerts. The brief
also required a second, smaller theatre
and ancillary spaces for rehearsal and opera production and to support the performance spaces.
Toyo Ito's winning design for the
new Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre
provided a creative solution to the city's
artistic needs and the geographical constraints. The identified venue site was
adjacent to the old civic hall. Between
the hall and the street there was a small
square and an old pond. However, the initial site was not large enough and it was a
very odd shape. The site is more than 200
meters long and around 30 meters wide
and is further constrained by a huge old
tree that public pressure demanded be
retained.
Theatres and opera houses have traditionally been symmetrical, axial buildings. The front entrance was typically
set in the centre of the front facade. Foyers were often symmetrically arranged
around a grand staircase. The foyers and
staircase then gave access symmetrically
to the auditorium which, with the stage,
sat resolutely on the axial centre line. Post
war theatres in Asia, the Americas, and

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Europe have largely moved away from
this symmetrical and axial approach.
The site virtually precluded such
a rigid axial arrangement, and Toyo Ito
seized the opportunity to create a unique
route into and through the building. In
his initial draft, the design concept proposed lifting a large floor slab to create
a new landform below the slab. He was
planning to use that rolling landform to
create the auditorium and other spaces
where people would gather for various
purposes. This multi-layered public space
presented numerous performance opportunities: Any spot could become a theatre. The big upper slab would be a flat
roof garden open to the sky, and the small
lower ground would be full of variety and
linked with the town.
The eventual concept created a sequence of design elements: A staircase
from the entrance rises to an intermediate level where a wide square called Theatre Park is open to the public for daily
use. Usually, this is a quiet contemplative
spot. During festivals or other special
events, shops in the town open stalls,
and events like street performances are
held here. It is used in various ways as if
it were a square in front of a church. The
small hall is also located on this level. The
stair continues to rise, passes the stage,

and enters the foyers and thence to the
main auditorium. The main auditorium
and stage effectively turn their backs on
the public entrance. The staircase continues to a large roof garden and a rehearsal
room, which can be used for small-scale
performances. The rehearsal room has
an openable wall allowing it to link to the
roof garden, and events can be presented
in both spaces.
The audience route into the auditorium is a journey through the building unlike the linear approach of many theatres.
The staircase follows the curving wall of
the building around the stage and side
stage to the theatre foyer from where audiences can enter the auditorium.
The logic of public circulation in this
theatre is similar to that in the Sydney
Opera House. The stage is located on
the approach side so that audiences pass
around the stage and stage side and make
a detour around the auditorium to the foyer, which is found after walking up gentle
stairs. Both theatres conceal from visitors
the bulk and blank walls of the stages as
they pass around and into the foyers. The
buildings' organization are markedly different. The stage in Sydney is set about
10 meters higher than the ground level,
and the rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms,
etc., are arranged below the stage level. In
Matsumoto (MPAC), the stage and dressing rooms are arranged on the ground
level and the rehearsal rooms are located
above the side stage. The location of spaces in the Sydney Opera House is severely
limited by the external shapes, "sails,"
which taper and reduce in size as the
building rises. Matsumoto has limited site
dimensions but greater freedom in the
placement of support spaces. By lifting
the public circulation above the backstage
spaces, Matsumoto solves the conflict between the two differing activities-public
and stage.
The auditorium and stage return
to the more conventional architectural
language used in an interesting manner.
They are symmetrical and axial, and the
auditorium has a large stalls section with
a series of narrow galleries stacked above
at both the rear and down the sides of
the room. The auditorium and stage are
planned to accommodate a wide range
of performances; not only opera, ballet,
musicals, and concerts but also Japanese
Kabuki theatre.
Spatial relationships in a venue are
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