DANCE PALACE

Dance Palace St. Petersburg Design Team

Engineering: ARUP
Theatre consultant: theater advies bv, Amsterdam
Client: OOO Petersburg City
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Building surface: 21,000 m2
Building height: 28 m
Status: 1st prize competition entry

Dance Palace in the historic centre of St. Petersburg,

following the success of the design competition in July last
year. The project is a 24,000 m2 dance theatre, housing The
Eifman Ballet, headed by the prolific choreographer Boris
Eifman. The Dance Palace forms part of the European
Embankment city quarter master plan for a new urban square
in St. Petersburg.

The Dance Palace in St. Petersburg embraces the rich history of the
world renowned Russian Modern Ballet within the historic setting of St.
Petersburg. The signing of the contract is a milestone for the
international and St. Petersburg teams. According to Ben van Berkel,
The ambition of the city of St. Petersburg and of our client to proceed
with this project is a wonderful example of perseverance. To set up a
team with international specialists alongside specialists from St.
Petersburg has been quite a challenge, particularly as alongside all
the technical challenges we have to address the challenges of
affordability and sustainability, or what I like to call attainability.

UNStudiodesign hasbeen selected in the competition for a 21,000 square meter dance
theatre in the historic centre of St. Petersburg. The new complex houses The Eifman Ballet of
St. Petersburg, headed by the prolific choreographer Boris Eifman. From the four projects
presented (Jean Nouvel (FR), UNStudio (NL), Snhetta (NO), ZAO (RU)), UNStudios design
was yesterday unanimously chosen by the jury for realisation.

UNStudios design for the Dance Palace presents an open and

inviting theatre building with provision for 1300 guests (large
auditorium 1000, small auditorium 300). Programmatic
considerations focus on the spacious circulation of the public
foyer and the transparent relationship to the surrounding public
square and the city. Integration with the existing neighbouring
buildings is achieved by both the scale of the building which in
elevation follows and respects St. Petersburgs typical 28m
roofline and the transformative transparency which is
introduced by a facade system of triangular cladding panels. The
variation between opaque and perforated panels creates a
controlled openness, depending on programme, views and
orientation

the vertical foyer provides a high level of transparency from

inside to outside, whilst also presenting a kind of stage for
visitors to the theatre; a place to see and be seen. the open
arrangement and balcony structure in the foyer provides
plateaus for its own choreography of both intimacy and
exposure.