Unmasked: A Different Kind of Theatre
Project
This project rebels against the exclusion of those who experience the world differently. It doesn’t just accommodate difference; it centres it. Designed for the overlooked—the sensitive, anxious, and autistic—it rejects rigid walls and uniformity, embracing curvature and softness. Built on a former Steiner school site, it carries forward a spirit of individual respect. Traditional theatres have often excluded many, but this one offers freedom through layered circulation and varied spaces. Audiences aren’t told how to be; they are supported to be themselves in a space that challenges control with fluidity.
Materials like cork and coppiced hazel provide ecological and sensory benefits and invite ongoing care and local stewardship. The theatre listens to its environment, using timber from the site and featuring a green roof and water body. Woven hazel structures blend it into the landscape, avoiding dominance over nature. The space values sensory clarity and comfort over spectacle or capacity. It offers a gentle refuge, a place to pause and feel. This is architecture as advocacy and reparative justice—starting with a theatre that truly listens.
