The Big Shop
— a place to create arts and culture
Masters of Architecture project, 2008
““Choose what you want to do - or watch someone else doing it.
Learn how to handle tools, paint, babies, machinery, or just listen to your favourite tune. Dance, talk or be lifted up to where you can see how other people make things work. Sit out over space with a drink and tune in to what’s happening elsewhere in the city. Try starting a riot or beginning a painting - or just lie back and stare at the sky.””
Stratford, Ontario, was once a thriving industrial hub, with its "Big Shop" Grand Trunk Railway locomotive repair shops serving as one of the largest railway facilities on the continent and playing an integral role in Canada's economic livelihood. Declining in importance in the 1950s, the 7.7-hectare site fell into disuse and was formally closed in the early 60's, contributing to socioeconomic decline and creating a significant physical and social divide between downtown Stratford and its residential communities.
Around the same time, the Stratford Festival Theatre was established, catalyzing a partial transformation of the town's economy toward culture and tourism. Yet despite the Festival's success, this transformation remains incomplete. Like many arts organizations, the Festival has had to adapt to changing audience behaviours, rising costs, and competition for entertainment dollars. They've worked to diversify programming, embrace digital offerings, and attract younger audiences.
This proposal re-imagines the "Big Shop" as a cultural hub equal in significance to its industrial legacy. The vision encompasses theatre production at multiple scales, engaging professional thespians, arts students, researchers, sound and lighting technologists, and community members. Creators and visitors are invited to interact with a fluid framework of adaptable theatre infrastructure, moveable walls, platforms, floors, and technology that create backdrops, enclosures, seating, and soundscapes: resulting in a versatile and responsive platform for diverse forms of cultural engagement.
The site (pink) is directly adjacent to, and nearly half the size of, downtown Stratford (yellow): revitalizing the Big Shop would transform the downtown. The pink dot indicates the location of The Festival Theatre.
A continuous interior-exterior landscape composed of fragments of the original facilities enhanced with a diverse range of visual, acoustic, lighting, infrastructure, as well as adaptable seating and stage elements. The result is an interpretable framework that supports cultural interpretation by students, curators, actors, and the public.
Modifiable infrastructure: enclosure, seating, sound, light, and stage.
Various informal performance spaces can be found throughout the site, both on the interior and exterior.