Amphitheater

Contemplating and gathering

Amphitheater

Historicopen-air theater · stepped seating · tiered seating · anfiteatro (Spanish)

parkschoolplazauniversityhillside

Open seating, curved or stepped, that surrounds a stage for watching and listening together. It ranges from the great Greek theater to a few steps in a neighborhood park.

Solves

What it solves

Thanks to the slope and the curve, many people can see and hear well without sound equipment. In a neighborhood or school it serves for classes, assemblies, music and celebrations. The rest of the time it works as a place to sit.

Today

Take advantage of a natural slope, orient the seating so the audience does not face the afternoon sun and provide shade with trees or a light canopy. Plan ramps, wheelchair spaces and drainage on each step.

Common mistake

Building concrete steps without shade or drainage facing a noisy street, which stay empty except on the day of the event.

Tomorrow

Neighborhood and school micro-amphitheaters work as outdoor classrooms and assembly places. Their steps can receive rain and carry it to a garden where it soaks in.

Fact At Epidaurus the stone steps filter out the low background murmur below about 500 Hz and reflect the voice toward the audience.

Where it comes from

  • 1Greek theater Epidaurus, Greece, late 4th century BC
    Semicircular seating on a hillside for about 13,000 people, around a circular orchestra 20 meters across, famous for its acoustics.
  • 2Roman amphitheater Pompeii, Italy, around 70 BC
    It closed the seating into a complete oval around an arena, a form that culminated in the Colosseum.

Masters

  • Polykleitos the Younger Theater of Epidaurus, Epidaurus, Greece
    He set the seating against a mountainside and arranged its curves so thousands of people could see well and hear clearly. It remains the reference for how an amphitheater makes use of terrain and acoustics.
  • Alvar Aalto Main building of the Otaniemi campus, Espoo, Finland, 1964
    He designed the auditorium as an amphitheater and used the outer steps of its roof as an open-air theater facing a plaza. He teaches that steps can serve both as a building and as a meeting place.
Sources

See also

Also in Contemplating and gathering

Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.