Malmö Stadsteater opens 24.02.23

Malmö Stadsteater has reopened following a five-year refurbishment by Haworth Tompkins architects and White Arkitekter. The project, for the Malmö Stadsteater team and Malmö City Council, will welcome new audiences and communities into the 120 year old former circus venue. A refurbished flexible format auditorium creates an intimate performance space with potential for boundless theatrical creativity, merging the raw energy of new architectural elements with the historic shell of the original circus amphitheatre. The auditorium is connected to the street by a new link building that part-covers an existing courtyard providing an informal events space as well as an inviting route between a new theatre street entrance, café & workshop space and the refurbished theatre foyers. All these design moves aim to express the values of porosity, conviviality, provisionality and artistic permissiveness.

Artistic Director Kitte Wagner said: “For many, it has been clear that Malmö Stadsteater needed to solve very fundamental challenges in our listed theatre, an historic hippodrome. Yet none of us saw the way forward until we met the architects of Haworth Tompkins. Despite the pandemic and the physical distance, they never felt far away. With White, they worked consistently to bring redemption to a fantastic theatre, to give back to the people of Malmö a house that is open, warm, democratic and without barriers a place we can all visit and feel welcome in."

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