Extended run

The newly rebuilt Young Vic theatre is difficult to read from the exterior. Like a great play it’s a clash of personalities and a combination of styles coming together to create an exciting whole. The potential car crash of building façades takes its lead from the Young Vic’s history and sets the tone of the rest of the project, both architecturally and in terms of its haphazard progress and ultimately successful completion.

Central to the site in south London is a three storey pre-World War II brick building with a butchers shop at its base; this is the theatre foyer. To the left, a two storey glazed element with a terrace is the double height bar area and beyond that is a brick clad studio space. To the right of the butchers shop, the metal clad bulk of the main auditorium looms large, and then finally, a lower breeze block clad studio building completes the set. Built originally as a temporary space in 1970, the theatre was never meant to last more than five years. So, some 20 years later in the 1990s it was really beginning to come apart at the seams. John Pawson was commissioned to redesign the theatre. He produced a £25m scheme that called for its complete demolition and the construction of a minimalist shrine to theatre. Thankfully, the costs were prohibitive and the scheme shelved.

In 2002 a new architectural competition was held and Haworth Tompkins won with a design that echoed the original adhoc approach. It retained important elements and in doing so captured the gritty spirit of the Young Vic for future generations. Davis Langdon advised the client during the costing of the architectural competition submissions and continued to cost manage the project throughout its four year life. Playing down the size of the achievement somewhat , partner Paul Davis says: “The Young Vic is a very economical building, coming in at well below the benchmark cost for theatres. It is real value for money.” On a budget that would make many a shoe string look like a mooring rope, the project team has transformed the original decrepit theatre into a stunning new building that includes not only the main auditorium but also a second studio theatre, teaching/performance space, a new two storey bar, an admin hub and extra circulation and technical access areas around the auditorium. At a total cost of £12.45m (construction cost £7.66m), the Young Vic comes in at around £2,100 per square metre. This is £900 per square metre less than any other theatre recently built in the UK.

Built on the site of a World War II bombing raid, exploratory excavations first had to ensure that no unexploded weapons or bodies remained

How did they do it? Haworth Tompkins’ design called for the auditorium and butchers shop to be retained and reused. “This gave the team’s bid an advantage from the outset and this initial cost saving was also the architect’s symbolic gesture that captured the original essence of the Young Vic, retaining elements of its built fabric and also, hopefully, its soul,” says Davis. “We then got a very keen tender from the contractor, which actually came in under our budget. This gave us leeway and the project has been expertly managed to keep within our original estimates.”

Project manager Buro Four joined the scheme in February 2003. Project director at the firm Martin Pitt says: “We had to ensure that money was best spent on what was required – a form of positive financial control.” This involved satisfying not only the client but also the planners and public. “It is easy to spend all of the money for a theatre on the inside, where it is best used from an artistic perspective,” says Pitt, “but the project had to have an external presence that would show public funding was being used to good effect, not just for theatre goers but also for the wider community.”

From its inception the theatre has had a turbulent history. Built on the site of a World War II bombing raid, exploratory excavations were needed to ensure no unexploded weapons or bodies remained. The retention of the butchers shop, the only building untouched by the bombing, and the lower sections of the 1970s auditorium also provided challenges, but the design team pooled their knowledge.

This construction cost was £900 per square metre less than any other theatre recently built in the UK

Work on site started in September 2004. The old theatre was demolished apart from the ‘kept’ elements and piling and steel work went ahead. The roof of the original auditorium was not high enough to accommodate a fly-tower or modern lighting rigs and so this was removed and the space extended upwards. Early on in the project, setbacks, including several piling failures, forced the team to eat into its £1m contingency. In addition main contractor Verry had not tackled a theatre project before and was inexperienced in the myriad complexities of a theatre build. Pitt says: “Hospitals are perceived as complex projects due to the huge service requirement but at least they have a lot of repetition in design. In a theatre almost every room is different: there is no room for mistakes, no opportunity to make up lost time.” Buro Four advised Verry on procuring the more technical elements of the contract. This way the project manager got who it wanted and the contractor got the best technical system suppliers available. “We took away their purchasing risk in this area and left them to concentrate on their established supply chain,” says Pitt.

“The project ran well because all of the funding was in place and money never became an issue. We were left to concentrate on how to build the theatre, rather than it becoming an exercise in how to manage dwindling cash flow.” Even though unplanned events eat into the contingency, the financial control kept the job on an even keel. Layered financial planning meant that at key stages the costs would be assessed and then the team could predict the way forward, embracing extra works or not depending on the available contingency funds.

The resulting theatre is being lauded as an intuitive design that both retains links with the gritty building and dramatic ethos of the 1970s and aspires to excite a new generation of theatre goers. The production staged to create this new piece of London’s theatrical history will soon be forgotten by all but those who played parts in it. But, hopefully, the fact that it was delivered on time and on budget will instil confidence in those who see so many publicly funded projects mired in chaos and overspending.