Paxton Pocket Theatre Part 1 Project 2004 Michael Duffy Sheffield Hallam University | UK The initial brief was to design a 200 person capacity theatre for the sensitive and historical location of Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. In the final scheme priority was given to sustainability and environmental issues, as well as the contextual grain and overall simplicity and fluidity to function. The concept evolved by breaking down the four main spaces of the building, and nestling these into the existing surroundings. Approaches to and from the theatre were integrated within the existing axis of the site, with a sweeping ramp providing a well needed vantage point to the countryside beyond. The historic setting for this project has served as the perfect counterpoint to allow Michael to exhort his progressive attitudes to architecture - liberal and liberated, free and easy, sharp and smooth, under and over, open and closed. Such breadth of architectural experience within such a compact programme, without undermining the suggestion of a coherent whole, is remarkable. Only through mastery of structure and material, and power of visualization, can such a proposal be conceived of at the outset, and then brought to credible conclusion.