Tron Theatre, Glasgow

RMJM Scotland has just completed the final phase of a £5m refurbishment of Glasgow’s Tron Theatre in a suitably dramatic style. The theatre was created in 1982 from a tight-knit cluster of medieval, Georgian and Victorian buildings. The most recent work includes the refurbishment of the main auditorium, housed in a Georgian church, and the addition of a studio theatre.

Earlier phases, completed over the past 20 months, have been treated in a “playful and sculptural” manner by the architect, egged on by five collaborating artists. The box office has been inserted behind a Victorian baroque stone screen and a frameless glass flank wall. Inside, bold planes of sandstone, slate, render and even mock-timber laminate spread across walls and floor, all tied together by the scarlet band that forms the main counter.

Further along the street, the stone screen reappears as a modern stone wall enclosing a bar with two storeys of offices above. On the upper storeys, the stone wall gives way to a window wall veiled by slatted timber brises-soleil. On the ground floor, a pair of enormous sliding timber windows open up the café to the pavement and street.