Kerry Hill Architects, Singapore

Authors:
Kerry Hill, Justin Hill
Employees and Student Trainees:
Patrick Kosky, Cheng Ling Tan, Ken Lim, David Gowty, Bernard Lee, Chee Hong Lim, Duncan Payne, Alessandro Perinelli, Lidya Koes
Experts:
Acoustic Consultant: Marshall Day Acoustics, Melbourne/Australia Landscape Architect: Tierra Design, Nedlands Western Australia
Lighting Designer: The Flaming Beacon, Melbourne/Australia
ESD Consultant: Arup, Singapore

Explanatory report (abstract)
The building is to be a stage for the performance, creation and education of performing arts in Jordan - a building which welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds, that respects a rich architectural past, and aspires to innovate for the future.
This proposal for Darat King Abdullah II is designed as a building clearly identified through place, purpose and material. It proclaims "pride in the present without overwhelming the quiet history of the past". The building aims to be a stage for the performance, creation and education of performing arts in Jordan.
As a new landscape it signals the entry to the GAM cultural zone for vehicle traffic, and guides pedestrians approaching the Centre towards the entrance. By night, this landscape comes alive: glowing digitized cylinders advertise performing arts events.
A street footpath draws visitors deeply into the centre of the site, creating a spacious, street level public plaza in front of the venue. The large setback from the street creates an important civic space that generously accommodates the arrival and departure of large audiences. The plaza draws upward, and manifests, at its deepest points, in two courtyards that structure the building program. The main courtyard is the central public space, imparting a sense of openness and accessibility, and presenting opportunities of interaction, celebration, and performance. This courtyard becomes a key orientating device within the building, enabling deep views through the foyer spaces of the two theatres, which open onto it.
The second courtyard in the eastern part of the site is a more private, contemplative court for performers and venue staff. This may also be the scene for quiet outdoor rehearsal, some performance, or social functions for the users of the venue.
A punctured stone podium encloses the majority of the building program. In Amman, stone is a material that fundamentally connects the past with the present. In this building, the stone connects this new intervention inextricably with the powerful architectural fabric of the city, which surrounds and embraces it.

Remarks by the jury
The jury welcomed the design for its modesty and simplicity, which leads not only to a well composed structure but also to a highly efficient and economic solution. The scheme comes closest to the given budget by adopting simple construction methods and geometries, which seem to have been developed from the box typology of the Amman house.
Compositionally the project offers a classically modern arrangement of volumes of different height, size and surface finish that form a variety of exterior spaces.
Functionally the jury criticized the difficult delivery for trucks via turntable and lift, the not very grand entrances that are also wide open for possible terrorist attack, the half hidden shops, the insufficient size of the auditoria, whereas the theatres were well developed. The doubling of the small theater as a rehearsal room was not fully convincing.
The stairs leading up the hill are very good; unfortunately the connection does not attractively continue to the GAM Strip.
The proposed building speaks a solid architectural language with a certain poetic night appearance with the two urban lanterns; however, the jury misses a more iconic expression for the aspirations of the Darat King Abdullah II.