All The World's A Stage

This experimental pavilion encourages visitors to walk the red carpet across seven stages, inspired by Shakespeare’s verse.

‘All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,   
And one man in his time plays many parts,   
His acts being seven ages.’
                                          William Shakespeare

Reminded of our collective mortality in a post COVID world, the passage of time has been on our minds. This experimental pavilion gives visitors the opportunity to consider their own life stages, and the metaphorical actors and audience that have participated in each.

Simultaneously, we also live in a time when always-on media encourages people to pursue their fifteen minutes of fame. This proposal taps into this narcissistic vein, with an interactive display wall that allows visitors to spell their own names and indulge in a photo opportunity before taking to the stage.

The visitor experience through the pavilion is linear. The seven stages unfold via an entry ramp at Stage 1, Infancy and exit ramp at Stage 7, Dotage. A bold red carpet welcomes visitors to traverse it, while two hues of rope - one creamy white, the other deep maroon - creating ever changing colours and pattern on the pavilion floor. The stage experience is enhanced by a single metal disc over each stage that reflects the light and references the spotlight of the stage. The experience culminates in a north facing landscaped pocket of native planting.

Laminated timber frames create a vaulted structure, recalling the curtains of theatre that open to reveal the acts behind. Drawing from the theatre with its world of rope rigging, natural rope provides dappled shade, while the moiré effect presents users with an everchanging experience along their linear journey. The audience seating before each stage recalls the sandbags of pulley fly-towers. The density of the ropes increases as the actors progress through the stages – the metaphorical curtain closing - before emerging into a landscaped pocket of native planting.