精东影视

鈥淲hatever ideas you have about dance being free, fluid, expressive and free-form, you just have to put those out of your mind,鈥� John Tuomey tells 精东影视, half shouting over the heavy winds blowing across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Sadlers Wells East is Tuomey + O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 (T+O) first ever dance theatre scheme, but its opening last night was more than just a landmark for the Irish practice. It also marked an important point in the development of East Bank, a new arts quarter backed by the mayor of London鈥檚 biggest ever cultural investment which aims to drag the cultural centre of gravity in the capital eastwards.

T+O co-founder Sheila O鈥橠onnell describes the building as an 鈥渆nd terrace鈥�, alluding to its location as the last in a row of four buildings being developed at East Bank. Positioned opposite the London Aquatic Centre, at the edge of the bridge between West Ham United鈥檚 stadium and Westfield/Stratford station, there is a lot of pressure on the building to provide a warm enough welcome onto the East Bank promenade. 

Clearly the architects and the dance company were aware of this responsibility 鈥� both entrances to the theatre are emblazoned with neon signs reading 鈥漎OU ARE WELCOME鈥� 鈥� but how do you create a building with the charisma to draw new visitors in, while meeting the technical requirements of a specialist arts venue and fitting into the deep-set infrastructure of the Olympic Park.

These constraints meant a lot of decisions were made before the architects鈥� pencils were put to paper, according to O鈥橠onnell. 鈥淭he fixed shapes of stage and studios determine the dimensions of everything else,鈥� she says, with the separation of levels for pedestrians and vehicles in the Olympic Park providing another limiting factor. This eight-metre difference lent itself to a particular configuration, with the stage at the level of service access on Carpenters Road, and the public foyer at the pedestrian level facing onto the waterfront. 

鈥淚t sort of simplified the organisation of how this building works,鈥� she says, 鈥渋n that the public arrives at the highest point in the auditorium.鈥�

The auditorium itself, which is the fourth Sadler鈥檚 Wells venue, adding to the original theatre on Roseberry Avenue in Islington, the Lilian Baylis Studio and the Peacock Theatre, was designed in consultation with Charcoal Blue and occupies almost half the volume of the building. It is a flexible space with a single rake of 550 seats, some of which can be removed and retracted to expand the stage area. O鈥橠onnell and Tuomey worked with engineers Buro Happold to ensure acoustic and vibration separation across the auditorium and all other performance and rehearsal spaces. 

The stage itself has been designed to be identical in dimension to the theatre in Islington, enabling productions to transfer seamlessly between venues. This stress on continuity and predictability is something that was stressed to the architects as they visited dance studios across Europe in advance of designing the building.

When a dancer takes off into a pirouette, they want to know where the corner is

John Tuomey, Tuomey + O鈥橠onnell

鈥淎ny dance studio we saw that was not rectilinear, you know, where the architects had made something fluid, the choreographers had repartitioned those spaces to rectilinearity,鈥� Tuomey says, giving the example of the 鈥渂eautiful鈥� Herzog and de Meuron Laban Dance Centre in Deptford. 鈥淲hat dancers insist on, for their rehearsal and indeed their performance, are fixed points of reference,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o, when a dancer takes off into a pirouette, they want to know where the corner is.鈥� 

Tuomey says such insights are part of the benefit of working with an organisation that already runs buildings of their own: they know exactly what they want. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unusual to have such a close connection between the users of the building and the architects of the building,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that that means that [while] of course we will have made mistakes, we won鈥檛 make the same mistakes that other people made, there鈥檒l be whole new mistakes.鈥�

Advice from American choreographer William Forsythe on how to approach lighting the spaces led them to a two-stage lighting solution, with all bulbs occluded to create an 鈥渁lmost daylight鈥� effect. Most of the studios will have direct access to terrace spaces with views over the park, where they can take breaks (often for a smoke, O鈥橠onnell tells 精东影视). 

In all, Sadlers Wells East includes six studios spread across the upper floors of the building, with the largest located above the auditorium, separated by a storey-height acoustic insulation zone. The spaces will help the theatre in its role as a major education and training centre, hosting the new Rose Choreographic School and Academy Breakin鈥� Convention.

Tuomey says they have done their best to add small touches to make Sadlers Wells鈥� dancers feel at home in the new location. 鈥淚f you walk around Rosebury Avenue, backstage it鈥檚 all made in this kind of nice 1970s, carefully laid concrete block pattern,鈥� he says. In the corridors between the studios in Sadlers Wells East, the architects have used the same material. 

鈥淪o, inside this brick box, there鈥檚 a bit of concrete block going on for sentimental reasons,鈥� Tuomey laughs. 鈥淚magine using concrete block for sentimental reasons!鈥�

The technical requirements of the studios created further constraints for the foyer downstairs. The need for acoustic separation creates a lot of structure, but so does the impact of the dancing itself. 

鈥淲hat you might be surprised about on the inside is how much structure it takes to support dancers, because featherweight dancers can create their own standing wave of reverberation,鈥� says Tuomey. This means the public level of the building has been built around some pretty large concrete beams.

鈥淚n a way, designing the foyer and this level was almost like working within an existing building,鈥� says O鈥橠onnell, explaining that they tried to use the structural elements to give the space a 鈥渒ind of rhythm鈥�.

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 鈥淚t was a bit like saying 鈥極K, we鈥檒l work with this set of very strong concrete beams, and they give a kind of rhythm to the space鈥�. And we were very interested in the concept of rhythm being a building for dance.鈥� 

Given the chunkiness of the building, along with the requirement for all buildings in the area to use blast-proof windows (which have darker glass), the foyer has a surprisingly bright, airy feel 鈥� perhaps owing to the elegant lighting design of Aideen Malone and the generous double-height space, adorned with two Eva Rothschild tapestries.

It鈥檚 a nice space to be in and work in as well as pass through on the way to a show, which was apparently part of the brief given by Alistair Spalding, artistic director of the theatre. 鈥淭he aspiration of Sadlers Wells, which was expressed to us very strongly, is to make a building that feels welcoming,鈥� says O鈥橠onnell. 

鈥淭he foyer is seen as a sort of living room. It鈥檚 a room that people will meet in and move through and have coffee and have drinks, but also pick up their kids from the class.鈥�

The L-shaped space, which will be open throughout the day, hosts a cafe and two bars, as well as a community dance floor comprised of many individual tiles, each of which can be raised or dropped independently to create unique performance spaces for community groups, schools and guest artists. A fully glazed facade will allow views onto these performances from Stratford Walk, onto which the foyer opens out.

Sadlers Wells shares the waterfront with three other buildings. Startford Walk is the main component of East Bank (which also includes UCL East across the bridge). According to the press, 鈥渢he four institutions have been designed in a collaborative process, the masterplan working to define the role of each building in the ensemble, their footprint and scale, their materiality, their relationship to each other鈥�. 

There are further outside performance spaces and amphitheatre-style seating built into the walk, and East Bank appointed a director, Tamsin Ace, in 2023 to develop a creative activity to join up the area.

Despite this, one doesn鈥檛 get much sense of cohesion across the buildings beyond the shared streetscape. Tuomey makes an effort to stress their commonalities 鈥� 鈥渨hat they all have in common, despite their different personalities, is a foyer that opens to the public realm鈥� 鈥� but, from the other side of the river, the row looks like a slightly drabber version of Barcelona鈥檚 鈥渂lock of discord鈥�. Its not hard to see the difference in authorship between the spunky, angular and expressive Tuomey + O鈥橠onnell designs which bookend the row, and the two more conventional exteriors in the middle, both designed by Allies and Morrison.

By O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 telling, it sounds like early efforts to maintain a strong relationship between the buildings ultimately turned out to be impossible. 鈥淎t one point we were trying to keep a soft spot that could be opened straight into the BBC foyer, but somehow it didn鈥檛 quite work out,鈥� she says. 

鈥淪ome people said, 鈥榳hy didn鈥檛 you make it all one big building?鈥� But actually, each of the cultural institutions had such particular requirements. They kind of already wanted their own entrances. And actually the requirements are so different.鈥�

Sadlers Wells East holds its own in its corner position on Stratford Walk, with its ruddy brickwork, which links back to the area鈥檚 industrial heritage, giving it a handsome solidity. 鈥淲e wanted the building to feel solid,鈥� says O鈥橠onnell.

 It seemed important that this building would have a different ethos, that it would have a different character

Sheila O鈥橠onnell, Tuomey + O鈥橠onnell

鈥淚t鈥檚 a civic building, and all buildings around it 鈥� most people probably approach from Westfield [from] very much commercial buildings, kind of steel frame and lots of glass. And it seemed important that this building would have a different ethos, that it would have a different character.鈥� 

According to Tuomey, buildings have canopies for 鈥渢he same reason that humans have eyebrows鈥�, to allow for expression and protection, and Sadlers Wells鈥� saw-tooth roof does the job in adding some personality and variety to its form. 鈥淭he three faces are all very different,鈥� says O鈥橠onnell. 鈥滶ach face has something to say.鈥�

The opening weeks of Sadlers Wells East will give an early indication of how much demand there is for a grand new cultural district in east London. A lot is riding on it. Approximately 17,000 sq m of brownfield land has been used for its construction and 拢600m has been committed by Sadiq Khan. UAL and UCL East have already opened their campuses, and V&A East will open its facilities progressively between this May and spring 2026, before BBC Music Studios completes the set in early 2027.

Whether East Bank can transform the Olympic Park from an eerie-if-impressive theme park into a genuinely thriving cultural and sporting district remains to be seen. But, with their design for Sadlers Wells East, Tuomey and O鈥橠onnell can feel content that they have played their part.