Design at Studio Wayne McGregor

And the fulfilment of his wish for a creation-friendly home for both his world-class, eponymous dance company and the Studio’s in-house teams, who collectively devise, produce and enact a huge array of performances and events, education and outreach initiatives, and countless further intrigue-piquing projects in collaboration with their prodigious interdisciplinary network.

Minimal yet playful, Studio Wayne McGregor was designed and realised by We Not I, a progressive and enigmatic architectural practice, who actively defy the notion that any building is the work of a solitary human. The enterprising architecture firm had previously collaborated with McGregor on the set design for his outstanding, Olivier-award-winning production, Woolf Works (The Royal Ballet, 2015). 

“It is clear that dance, choreographic processes and creativity have a part to play in the fast-changing landscape we find ourselves in, where thinking through and with our bodies – in a broad range of contexts challenges and re-calibrates what the art-form can really achieve and invent into the future.”—Wayne McGregor     

Thus the entire dynamic structure and vessels and objects therein, serve as a material rendering of choreographic thinking – embodied creativity as transmuted into surface and texture in a multi-level environment imbued with palpable latent energies that duly inspires and guides the people that encounter it.      

Due to the gigantic scale of the extant hangar, We Not I designed a freestanding architectural structure as an outer ‘shell’ that was to house three state-of-the-art dance studios – including two of London’s largest; several versatile areas for contemplating, collaborating and making, and a gym and kitchen area.      

On entering Studio Wayne McGregor, the eye is instantly drawn to the sculptural Open Space Tower... 

...while its pale wood, central staircase invites exploration. 

Nearby, the Tower meeting room boasts a striking bespoke floor bearing a lively geometric design that was reproduced in 3-D from a 2-D from ‘Camino Royale’ sketch of the Mexican desert by acclaimed textural artist and print-maker, Anni Albers, once of the Bauhaus School.   

The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation have actually been avid supporters of McGregor since he and his creative partners immersed themselves in their American archives when seeking inspiration for a San Francisco Ballet piece, entitled Borderlands.

For the Studio, We Not I and McGregor also reinterpreted a selection of beautiful drawings by Josef Albers as 3-D glass objects called ‘Structural Constellations’.    

As for the multiple additional eye-catching artworks that one will find upon Studio Wayne McGregor’s surfaces, they are testament to his decades of on and off-stage collaboration with exceptional artists – many of whom are represented by the eminent Lisson Gallery, who in turn loaned these pieces out. One such work is ‘Lightwork xxv’ by kinetic sculptural and installation artist, Haroon Mirza, with whom McGregor conceived Alea Sands for the Paris Opera Ballet.      

A further notable piece is by visual artist, Rashid Rana, who utilises sculpture, video and photography to shatter then reconfigure our visual universe. Fittingly, he collaborated with McGregor on the set for Multiverse (The Royal Ballet, 2016).      

Naturally, Studio Wayne McGregor wouldn’t have been feasible without the kind support of its backers, including the Quercus Trust and Arts Council England. ‘Atlas’, a permanent installation, designed by We Not I, pays homage to each and every generous supporter.      

At Studio Wayne McGregor, we share the belief that the arts are a nexus for intersections of knowledge, where collaboration in its truest sense finds root – where we are open to the unfamiliar, where connectedness reaps untold rewards, and where empathy drives our shared experience.”—Wayne McGregor.