Main Architecture and Design Everyman Theatre - for All and Everyone

Everyman Theatre - for All and Everyone

The new Everyman Theatre in Liverpool by Haworth Tompkins has won the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize 2014 for the best building of the year. Now in its 19th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize.

It is given to the architect of the building thought to be the most significant of the year for the evolution of architecture and the built environment. The RIBA Stirling Prize is judged on a range of criteria including design vision, innovation and originality, capacity to stimulate engage and delight occupants and visitors, accessibility and sustainability, how fit the building is for its purpose and the level of client satisfaction.

The old Everyman Theatre in Liverpool opened in 1964 in the shell of a nineteenth century chapel on one of Liverpool’s main streets. Although a much-loved institution, the building itself was in a state of disrepair. The decision to pull the theatre down and replace it with a new one has been a nine-year project for the architects Haworth Tompkins. They have expertly met a difficult challenge: that of creating an entirely new and sustainable building, whilst retaining and revitalising the best-loved features of its predecessor. The architects were tasked with ensuring that the soul of the old Everyman, one of informality and community ownership – the ‘theatre of the people’ was carried into the new building. The result is a new building with a striking exterior and elegant interior, all with exceptional attention to detail and sustainability credentials.

The most discussed (and locally loved) feature of the new Everyman is the etched metal brises soleil on the facade featuring 105 full-length cutout figures based on photographs of Liverpudlians. Anywhere else this might be seen as patronising but this is Liverpool which loves to wear its heart on its sleeve. This is a building that will age gracefully, continually enriched by the patina of daily use. It will both reassure and delight its loyal audience and those discovering this gem for the first time.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Liverpool Everyman is a new theatre for an internationally regarded producing company. The scope of work includes a 400 seat adaptable auditorium, a studio for youth, education and community activities, a large rehearsal room, public foyers, catering and bar facilities, along with supporting offices, workshops and ancillary spaces. The entire façade is a large, collaborative work of public art.

The Everyman holds an important place in Liverpool culture. The original theatre had served the city well as a centre of creativity, conviviality and dissent (often centred in its subterranean Bistro) but by the new millennium the building was in need of complete replacement to serve a rapidly expanding production and participation programme. The design team’s brief was to design a technically advanced and highly adaptable new theatre that would retain the friendly, demotic accessibility of the old building, project the organization’s values of cultural inclusion, community engagement and local creativity, and encapsulate the collective identity of the people of Liverpool.

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