Royal Opera House 'Open up'

The Royal Opera House ‘Open Up’ Location London, UK Client Royal Opera House Size 3,862 sqm (GIA) Budget £50.7 million Completion September 2018 The Vision This reinvigoration of the Royal Opera House delivers new world-class performance and public facilities that enhance the experience for public, staff and performers alike. In doing so, this prestigious project delivers the Royal Opera House ‘Open Up’ mission to create a welcoming and inclusive cultural hub that attracts new audiences for ballet and opera while respecting its renowned heritage. The result is a revitalised venue that encourages increased public engagement through greater street presence and transparency. New world-class performance and public facilities enhance the experience for visitors, staff and performers alike, while extending the life of the building outside of performance hours. The Design The design represents a physical manifestation of cultural change at the Royal Opera House. The architects’ key move has been to extensively reconfigure the previously introverted ground floor by providing substantially more foyer space together with redesigned Bow Street and Covent Garden piazza entrances. Finely crafted from a limited palette of traditional materials including Crema Marfil marble and patinated brass, these foyers create an elegant, all-day setting for new public activities such as cafes, bars, retail, exhibitions and informal performances. In doing so, these new public spaces allow the Royal Opera House to reveal more of the magic that is usually confined to its stages. At the heart of the project is the new Linbury theatre. Lined in American black walnut, this auditorium delivers an exemplary, 400-seat second public performance space that also operates as an artistic laboratory for the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet companies. Other interventions provide further interaction with the Covent Garden streetscape. These include a new public terrace above the redesigned Bow Street entrance and a refurbished Amphitheatre Terrace that has been partially enclosed to form an all-year winter garden overlooking the piazza. Both are accessible without performance tickets. The Making In this logistically highly complex project, Stanton Williams worked closely with the Royal Opera House and construction manager Rise to ensure that the venue remained fully operational throughout the three-year construction programme. The project enabled the Opera House to remain operational throughout, allowing for 996 uninterrupted performances. Client endorsement The ‘Stanton Williams’ design has transformed our Covent Garden home. They have balanced bold spatial reconfiguration with beautifully refined design detail, creating a new suite of spaces for our public staff and performers alike, uniting 19th century grandeur with 21st century elegance. This complex project balances the desire to attract new audiences for ballet and opera with the need to respect the Royal Opera House’s heritage, listed status and unique central London Covent Garden location. Since re-opening its doors, the Royal Opera House has seen a 72% increase in visitors which represents a 1,200% increase on our target. The Royal Opera House is now more than ever a part of the vibrant and diverse fabric of London and the cultural life of the country, setting the agenda for what a performing arts institution should aspire to be in the 21st century. ‘ Alex Beard, Chief executive, Royal Opera House.