Pippa Nissen
- Published: 22 October 2007 11:11
- Last Updated: 22 October 2007 11:11
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40 Under 40
Pippa Nissen
AJ Corus 40 Under 40
Pippa Nissen works as an architect and theatre designer. Having read architecture at Cambridge and obtained an MA in theatre design from the Slade, she worked for several architectural practices specialising in theatre-building design before founding Nissen Adams with Ben Adams.
Current schemes include a houseboat, residential projects in London and Brighton, a private-members’ club, an experimental mobile home project and a residential mixed-use scheme in King’s Cross. Both partners teach architecture, and Nissen is a diploma course senior lecturer at Kingston University. Her recent theatre design work includes sets for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Opera North, Northampton Theatre and the Staatsoper in Hanover, Germany. She has set up a theatre partnership with opera director Netia Jones. This month she is exhibiting a series of films at the Prague Biennale, her second exhibition in Prague.
Theatre, Poland
Nissen Adams’ competition-winning entry for a new theatre in Poland’s Gdansk houses the theatre element in a solid brick facade but locates the foyer, restaurants and café in a structure that is more open to the city. The route between foyer and auditorium uses screen-printed metal, reflective glass and video screens to create a sensual experience that is deliberately disorientating. The auditorium itself is flexible and has a retractable lighting grid beneath an artificial sky.
