ARTH 355 Studies in Architecture: Performance Spaces

• Instructor: Sydney Guy

From theatres and art centres to stadiums and university auditoriums – as well as found or public spaces – performance spaces reveal how societies envision the relationship between art, audience and community. This course will explore the architecture of performance spaces as a means of understanding modern and contemporary culture. Starting with ancient Greek amphitheatres, we will consider a variety of venues and their enduring influence on spatial design and audience experience, namely, we will cover Renaissance playhouses, Wagner’s groundbreaking Bayreuth Festspielhaus, and the Bauhaus movement’s pursuit of a more egalitarian theatre space, among others. We will also investigate how these spaces continue to shape contemporary performance architecture, analyzing venues that have embraced and reinterpreted these revolutionary ideas.