The English National Ballet opened its state-of-the-art home in 2021, and was the same year awarded this prestigious award by the Royal Institute of Architecture.
The 93,000 square foot building gives ENB the space and facilities needed to continue to develop world-class artists, create new works that push boundaries of ballet and expand its programme of public workshops and classes. Based in the newly developed London City Island, the new space has been designed to welcome in the local community, with a public foyer, an exhibition space and The Barre café.
Image credit: Michael Molloy
The five-storey building includes a costume atelier and dye room, seven high calibre rehearsal studios, as well as the Holloway Production Studio which hosts a full height fly-tower. In this space the English National Ballet can rehearse their productions with full set and lighting, and event partners can host stunning transformations for launches, dinners and presentations.
In presenting ENB’s home with this architecture award, RIBA also acknowledged that, ‘the designers considered sustainability in depth, modelling for future climate change to reduce risk, and using daylight to reduce the operational energy load as well as enhance the wellbeing of occupants.
As a consequence, the scheme is lean, clean, and green’. The Mulryan Centre for Dance always has sustainability at the forefront of its mind... the dance floor beams were once cut offs from kitchen worktops and at the last count, water dispensers within the building had saved a whopping 108,562 plastic bottles from being used!
Unique Venues of London is delighted to welcome the English National Ballet, as one of its latest member venues.