Royal Festival Hall London
The Royal Festival Hall – the first important public building completed after the war – was inaugurated in 1951 during the Festival of Britain. A team of young architects developed an “egg in the box” theme: the egg (the auditorium) hovers above the box, which houses bars, restaurants, etc. This arrangement protected the auditorium from the noise and vibrations emanating from the train and subway. With its spacious lobbies and a lively interplay of a variety of colours, patterns, textures and painstaking detailing, the building does not let on to the fact that building materials were scarce. The architects themselves went down to the docks to secure the best materials from the most recent shipments.
