Ballet Rambert Dance and Therapy Centre Part 2 Project 2006 Mohammed AgeliNiamh Hurley Kingston University Kingston | UK The Ballet Rambert acknowledges Southwark’s theatrical past. A sense of the body in space propels both schemes as dance rehearsal and autism therapy involve repetition of gesture in communication. The urban park’s civic ground permeates the scheme as a polemic to the incongruous developments adjacent; the building emerges from an ephemeral landscape of terraced reed-beds, evoking the materiality of the river-wall. Conceptually, the labyrinth weaves through the narrative revealing the building as a place that ‘appears with the dance’ - an experiential choreography; offering in its latent order a humble insight into the disorientation experienced by those with autism. This proposition suggests that Ballet Rambert’s headquarters would benefit from being located next to Tower Bridge. Placing the practice rooms in the ground next to Jubilee Walk allowed for a discourse to emerge on the nature of dance and movement itself, creating opportunities for seclusion and presentation which confront normal expectations. The resulting dislocation of the ground by these spaces led to other aspects of the scheme including reed beds to the rivers edge and, above the dancers’ therapy workshops, a tower which dealt with more acute forms of spatial dislocation in a clinic for the treatment of Autism. Tutor(s)