Refurbishment of the Municipal Garden Theatre
CULTURAL CAPITAL OF EUROPE “THESSALONIKI ’97”

The Garden Theatre is one of the most significant projects of the Organization for the Cultural Capital of Europe “Thessaloniki ’97”. During spring, summer and autumn, it hosts many of the most important cultural events in the city: classical and modern theatrical shows, music and children’s theatre, concerts, dance shows, cinema, literature events, fashion shows, exhibitions of architecture, arts and applied arts, receptions etc.

The building and landscaping of the Garden Theatre covers an area of 3140m² on a 5032m² plot. The positioning of the building complex was chosen in order to preserve the main green areas of the surroundings. Following the greek-roman typology, the building’s closed shape provides very good sound proofing conditions. Furthermore, with its simple and functional form it incorporates the building to its surrounding environment. The three characteristic building elements are the theatre concave with the auxiliary areas and offices, the foyer and the covered gallery around the orchestra and scene, which serves the circulation and connection between the main entrance/exit and the exhibition areas. The construction process included reinforcement of the bearing structure by applying cast concrete mantles and shotcrete (gunite).

The acoustic design of the theatre adopted the passive (natural) sound amplification. The forming of the concave below the natural ground level, the intercalation of vertical sound barriers and the construction of an up-lifted horizontal low frequency sound barrier (covered gallery), guarantee adequate sound proof conditions for the theatre.

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