Locomotion blog

St James Theatre

Photo taken by Mays Ali

located in the heart of courtany place, The St James Theatre building is just one of the many impressive Neo classical buildings that Wellington has to offer. Neo classicism is known for it's rational and symmetrical designs that can be seen through the use of simple geometries, grand columns, pedestals and pediments as well as basic typography, which all comes together to bring a well formed and stylistic revival of the classical period.

 The roots of Neo classicism originate from the discovery of ancient hellenistic and etruscan ruins, architecture and antiquity, which explains the nature of the style and for this building in particular  explains the relevance of the or the style to it's purpose. Historically the origins of theatre come from ancient Greece, so as we can see, the neo classical design era represented the high culture and civilisation of the ancient world. According to Geoffrey Broadbent's book ,titled Neo classicism, the Greek influence represented "everything that was good in culture", this being universities, museums, democracy, libraries and of course theaters.

The St James Theatre adds to the collection of Wellington's Neo classical styled buildings, giving the capital city prestige and reinforces the political significance of Wellington, where the New Zealand Government and political groups are based. This links back to the fact that certain political ideas ,and democracy in particular, were created by ancient greek governments. Neo classical buildings are often used around the world to represent the political importance of the cities/states and democracy, such as the white house in Washington D.C in the United States. Therefore makes sense to have a continuous style within Wellington that represents the culture of the city and is relevant to it's purpose.

References

Geoffrey Broadbent. (1979). Neo-Classicism. Dr A C Papadakis, 49(8-9), 5-7

Damie Stillman. (1988). English Neo Classical Architecture. A Zwemmer Ltd, London, UK