Mecanoo completes "magic wooden box" theatre at Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts
Following a fire at dance centre Jacob's Pillow in 2020, Dutch architecture studio Mecanoo has completed the Doris Duke Theatre on the Massachusetts, USA campus, with a design guided by Indigenous principles. One of several wood-clad dance studios and theatres at Jacob's Pillow in the Berkshires, the original Doris Duke Theatre was built in 1990 The post Mecanoo completes "magic wooden box" theatre at Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts appeared first on Dezeen.


Following a fire at dance centre Jacob's Pillow in 2020, Dutch architecture studio Mecanoo has completed the Doris Duke Theatre on the Massachusetts, USA campus, with a design guided by Indigenous principles.
One of several wood-clad dance studios and theatres at Jacob's Pillow in the Berkshires, the original Doris Duke Theatre was built in 1990 and was destroyed in November 2020 when a fire broke out.
Mecanoo, landscape architect Marvel, and Indigenous artists and consultants Jeffery Gibson, Misty Cook and Kathi Arlong collaborated on a new building and garden in its place.
Located on a sloping site along the edge of the campus, the new Doris Duke Theatre encompasses a main performance space, a wedge-shaped lobby and office space, a slim art gallery, and a garden area at the back of the building.
The double-height theatre is contained within a wooden volume surrounded by an irregularly shaped pavilion.
Clad in textured layers of thermally treated pine, the structure is made primarily of spruce-pine-fir blend CLT panels, sourced from Canadian company Nordic.
Working with Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indian member and artist Gibson, Mecanoo organised the building primarily around the cardinal directions, which feature prominently in Indigenous philosophies and way of life, such as in the Medicine Wheel.
"We created what we called a 'magic wooden box' with openings to the four directions and surrounded by an organic veranda," said Mecanoo founding partner Francine Houben.
"We were really balancing [the] north, east, south, west, and also the wind, because we are on a hill, but also these ideas that are from Indigenous principles, you enter from the east, exit from the west."
The studio also related the building to the surrounding site using these principles, creating a more "nature-focused" eastern-facing side with its garden and a "people-focused" western entrance, which opens onto the central quad and other theatres.
On the interior, the performance space is clad in a slated wood, with acoustic panels and picture windows dispersed around the perimeter.
Large sliding doors are located on either side of the theatre, while various smaller entrances create pathways for performers to enter the space.
Designed with consultant Charcoalblue, the theatre also features an extensive ADA-accessible steel catwalk above the performance area and was outfitted with technologies such as livestream and AI capabilities.
Marvel, Cook and Arlong created a garden with native medicinal herbs surrounding a central stone fire pit by Nipmuc citizen Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr, which will serve as a gathering space and an outdoor performance area for the campus.
"At the end, we're embracing this thing again, the fire – and we're making it a part of the building and the landscape. We're not shying away from this part of nature," Marvel landscape architect Daniel Rivera told Dezeen.
Other recent projects in the surrounding Berkshires area of Massachusetts include a series of buildings for performing arts centre Tanglewood by William Rawn and an upcoming building at the Williams College Museum of Art by SO-IL.
The photography is by Iwan Baan
Project credits:
Lead architect: Mecanoo
US-based architect: Marvel
Landscape architect: Marvel
Theatre & acoustic consultant: Charcoalblue
Structural engineer: TYLin
MEP, IT, security: Altieri
Lighting consultant: Fischer Marantz Stone
Code consulting: New York
Civil engineering: Foresight Land Services
Indigenous consultation: Jeffrey Gibson and Heather Breugl
Planning partner & construction: Allegrone Companies, Lenox
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The post Mecanoo completes "magic wooden box" theatre at Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts appeared first on Dezeen.
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