As a result of the global financial crisis, the cultural sector is increasingly vulnerable to severe funding cuts. Local governments therefore seek cheaper and more efficient alternatives to maintain up-to-date cultural infrastructure at desired levels. At the same time, preservation of valuable but abandoned heritage sites becomes problematic. Public bodies everywhere in Europe are increasingly considering the possibilities of adaptive reuse. By giving new purpose to cultural industrial sites, local cultural heritages can be preserved, due to these sites’ new and relevant cultural functions.

 

Gaining insights into the processes guiding the re-appropriation of abandoned heritage sites by means of theatrical events is very relevant for the purpose of evaluating the (potential) roles performed by both heritage sites and theatrical experiences in society. Therefore it is useful to pay careful attention to the effects of adaptive reuse for the audience’s perception of both the varying conceptions of local heritage and the theatrical event. Further, as a result of the conversion, readapted buildings accentuate the aesthetic and cultural ‘experience’ in relation to the social domain in a public sphere.

What makes industrial heritage sites particularly interesting as a research subject is the marked contrast between their past and present uses. Industrial architecture sites, once the working environment for a large working class, are transformed into leisure environments.

 

As a result, very different, contrasting connotations can be connected to these converted structures. ‘Memory’ then becomes a central concept from which both the re-signification of notions of industrial heritage and the resulting theatre experience can be approached.

 

The project will pursue the following objectives:

 

# Developing a theoretical framework which conceives of the unique relationship between industrial architectural theatre spaces and the experience of theatrical events by theatre visitors in the post-industrial context;

# Gaining insight into the way that this relationship impacts the re-appropriation process;

# Conducting audience research in which the theoretical framework is applied;

# Testing the implications of the developed theoretical framework and the insights gained from audience research, for design strategies practiced by architects, by means of research through design.

Concept & Objectives