The Poet's Stage

My stage is located on the piers at Cardiff Bay. Designed to hold open mic sessions during the Eisteddfod festival “a celebration of the culture and language in Wales” for poets of all ages and diverse backgrounds. Poets are invited to showcase their poetry written about the rich, diverse culture of Tiger Bay - the home to "57 nationalities".

Unlike singers per se, poets do not have a lot of requirements for a performance space. I therefore focussed on creating an enclosed space, which allowed the poet to create a sense of intimacy with the audience but also provided the freedom for the poet to move around. I created wooden panels that could be moved by the poet to create their own unique space. The wooden panels showcased designs that were representative of the docking equipment in the Bay called dolphins – amalgamating the history of the bay into the stage.

I knew I wanted a circular form for my stage, as I wanted to create an intimate space. I trialled different shapes and different paths leading to the stage and found the eclipse shape to be the most effective. I created a two-story building covered in copper cladding, which was coherent in colour with the ramp that I designed as access to the stage. My ramp design took inspiration from the docking equipment used on the bay; in particular, the cruciform bollards with mooring rope wrapped around it. The ramp was accessible for wheelchair users and played a vital part in the journey of the visitor and poet too. With the wooden panels getting closer together the closer you got to the stage, it created the sense of entering a more intimate and peaceful zone, which was key for maximising the future use of the stage i.e. a mental health centre. The ramp also provided the energy source for the stage. Made from kinetic floors so when travelled across, the kinetic energy turns into usable energy to power the stages facilities. For the floors and walls of my building, I chose to use the material copper due to the way it degrades overtime.

The use of copper maximised the suitability of the flooring but was also symbolic in its representation for the future use of the building as a mental health centre – the copper degradation would showcase the footpaths of people entering and leaving the building, creating the ideology that people have been here before and have got through their issues, so when the visitor see this, they would get a sense of comfort.