Rafael Vinoly Architects has not had the happiest start in the UK. In fact, everything it has designed has been either delayed or slated by the critics. Work ground to a halt for 10 months on Vinoly's visual arts centre in Colchester, jaws dropped when he proposed a giant plastic chimney as the centrepiece of the Battersea power station refurbishment and his other big UK project, the Walkie-Talkie skyscraper in the City, was variously described as "ugly" and a "child's concept" and may never be built at all. So it must be a considerable relief for Mr Vinoly that his first British building, the Curve in Leicester, has actually been finished. But how successful a finished article is it? Like Vinoly's other UK projects, the Curve can't be accused of lacking ambition. It is a building that tries to redefine the way theatre is experienced by its audience. "The brief we gave to the architect was to create a theatre where more of the process was visible so audiences get an idea of what goes on behind the scenes," says Graham Lister, project director for the Leicester Theatre Trust, adding that the building has been dubbed the "inside-out theatre".
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