Theatre La Licorne by Architects FABG

Photos: Steve Montpetit La Manufacture is a theatre company from Montreal, Canada with strong urban roots. Part of its brief to FABG Architects was to communicate that heritage, its connection to the city and its inhabitants through the architecture. Conceived as a machine and built around two black-box theatres, la Petite Licorne seats up to 114 persons whilst la Grande Licorne can accommodate 227 people. Working with the idea that certain materials had a greater association with manufacturing, the architect has used glass, metal, concrete and brick in their raw forms. They have also expressed structure ducting, plumbing and cable trays further reinforcing the idea of machine and manufacture. Flexibility has been built in with a motorized technical grid on the large stage and the ability to convert rehearsal rooms to performance studios.