Spiral Booths

London, Great Britain

Photo © Carlos M Teixeira

Photo © Grazia Cantoni

Photo © Victoria & Albert Museum

Picture © Victoria & Albert Museum

Architects: Vazio S/A

Location: London, Great Britain
Year: 2010

Designed for an architecture exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, this projects is, as the curator Abraham Thomas had asked us, a “space for fiction” with no more than 15m2. Spiral Booths is an open platform for events – music, theatre, dance, exhibitions. It is composed of six booths and a spiral staircase, all of them working like a condenser of performances. It aims to mix a singular, intricate architectural space with the freedom of activities to be programmed within it; be them experimental or didactic, traditional or contemporary, conventional or avant-garde.

The inside is somewhat meandrous and labyrinthine – but also intended to be resilient and versatile. Depending on the activity, the staircase can work either as a corridor or an audience or a stage. Theatre or music performances inside any of the booths can turn the stairs into informal stalls. As the six booths have windows, a concert for six musicians (or a six-puppet play) can be performed to the people outside the box (the Porter Gallery); but if the artist(s) is (are) looking for an intimate relation with the public, the staircase becomes a closed audience.