After two and a half years of extensive work, the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne unveils its new setting! With a renovated main auditorium, now equipped with the most modern stage technology and an increased audience capacity, improved work spaces and the addition of a new rehearsal room, the theater can now meet the requirements of a reference institution in keeping with its international reputation. The work was also the occasion to add green roofs and solar panels. The theatre will reopen to the public on January 18 with a month-long program of shows.
It is a renovated, modernized and enlarged theater that the public will be able to discover as of next January 18, at the end of more than two years of an important building site. With five rooms, including a new one for rehearsals and a renovated main hall, the theater’s capacity has been increased by nearly 15% to offer approximately 70,000 seats per season. Indeed, the main hall gains about 50 additional seats to reach 430 seats and the reduction of rehearsal time in the performance halls allows for an increase in the number of performances.
Presented as one of the three major cultural projects of the 2021-2026 legislature, the realization of this project is a great source of pride for the City of Lausanne. “Vidy now has an extremely modern tool, which is necessary to maintain and develop its role as a creative space at the European level. The reception of both artists and the public is now optimal,” said Grégoire Junod, the city’s mayor.
Designed by the architect Max Bill and built for the 1964 Swiss National Exhibition, the emblematic Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne had never before undergone any major work. Taking into account the high heritage value of the place, the project, estimated at CHF 27’500’000. – and carried out by PONT12 Architects, included a major renovation of the stage and the Charles Apothéloz hall, the renovation and upgrading of the work spaces, the construction of an extension with, in particular, a rehearsal room and the technical rooms of the entire building, the modernization of all the elements related to the stage technology and the equipment of the hall for a better comfort of the artists and the public, the external installations (entrance and courtyard), as well as the realization of a fire safety concept for the imperative compliance of the building.
“This project is flexible and sustainable because it is based on the reuse of Max Bill’s original pavilion and developed and completed by the intervention of PONT12 Architects, in the structuralist spirit of its creator, while respecting the magnificent setting of the lakefront,” emphasizes Natacha Litzistorf, municipal councilor in charge of architecture. In terms of sustainability, green roofs to promote biodiversity and solar panels have been installed on the entire site.
According to Vincent Baudriller, director of the Theater, “with its five halls built by four different architects at different times over the past 60 years, the Théâtre de Vidy has become a beautiful city of theater on the waterfront. This new renovated and modernized facility will allow the Theatre to continue to be both a place of research, production and creation of international renown and a place open to a wide audience, welcoming, accessible and inclusive.
A month of celebration to mark the theater’s inauguration
To celebrate the reopening, the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne is offering a month of performances that reflect the diversity of the artistic landscapes produced and invited into its walls: theater, dance and visual arts, new creations, hosting and revivals, plays based on dramatic or literary texts, documentary investigations or stage writing, visual or sound proposals, shows for young audiences by artists from Switzerland, Europe and elsewhere.
On the occasion of the construction site, the City of Lausanne has commissioned a work of art from the artist Augustin Rebetez, including a light sculpture entitled Les rencontres possibles, which will also be unveiled on January 18.
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