Competition launched to design new national theatre

The Government today announced plans for an international competition to design a new national theatre on the banks of Dublin’s River Liffey.

Minister for Arts Seamus Brennan said designers must create a new iconic landmark for 21st Century Ireland.

The project will form part of an ambitious plan to redevelop Dublin’s docklands, which will also see the construction of Ireland’s first skyscraper, the U2 Tower.

Mr Brennan said: “I strongly support the view that Dublin should constantly be striving to embrace the best the world has to offer in business, culture and architecture.

“The new National Theatre will combine all three of these elements and I am confident that when the International Design Competition is complete, we will have a world-class design for a new iconic landmark building for the city,” he said.

The design specification for the new 24,000 square-metre Abbey Theatre includes space for three auditoria as well as several rehearsal spaces, shops, bars, restaurants, cafes and a cinema/lecture facility.

“It must be a design that reflects and embraces the great surges in creativity and culture we are witnessing in the Ireland of the 21st Century, while at the same time acknowledging the historic significance of the Abbey to Irish life over more than a century,” Mr Brennan said.

The competition’s 13-member jury includes architects from Ireland, Britain and The Netherlands as well as representatives from the world of theatre.

Internationally-recognised, the Abbey has been at the centre of Irish theatrical life for more than a century.

Currently the famous venue in Dublin’s Abbey Street can provide an average of 632 seats across two auditoria on any one night.

But plans for the new development include some 1,000 seats across three auditoria.

It is expected that the design competition will be completed by the middle of next year.

The theatre will be the centrepiece of a new wave of cultural, social and economic amenities being developed in the Dublin Docklands, including the new National Convention Centre, the Grand Canal Theatre, and the U2 Tower.

Renowned British architect Norman Foster was announced on Friday as the visionary behind the latter project, a 120 metre high structure with the iconic rock band’s egg-shaped recording studio at its peak.

Work is expected to begin on that next year, with an anticipated completion date of 2011.