SUMMER | FEATURE
Architects of entertainment
Stufish is well established as one of the industry ’ s most innovative and creative designers of live entertainment structures and productions . Access caught up with company partners Alicia Tkacz and Ric Lipson to gain an insight into the work that went on behind the scenes to create this year ’ s stand-out projects – the ABBA Arena and the Platinum Party at the Palace
ABBA
Words : Christopher Barrett
Founded by the late Mark Fisher , Stufish ’ s has a rich history of designing and producing remarkable live performance environments and activations including U2 ’ s 360 ° Claw , Beyoncé and Jay-Z ’ s OTR II floating stage and more recently stage architecture for Stormzy ’ s Heavy is the Head and the Rolling Stones Sixty tours .
The past few months have seen two landmark moments for the company , the unveiling of its ground-breaking ABBA Arena and the acclaimed multistage creation for the Platinum Party at the Palace .
With an audience capacity of 3,000 , the ABBA Arena is the world ’ s largest demountable temporary venue . Built by ES Global at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park ( QEOP ), it has been designed to be as light as possible so that the structure can be packed up and transported to another location at the end of its five-year tenure in London .
The ABBA Voyage show is performed under a 740-tonne roof which was lifted and installed as a single element , enabling a column- free view for audience members . The hi-tech building includes dance floors , audience seating and bars .
Stufish partner Alicia Tkacz began working on the project in March 2019 . From the outset , she worked handin-hand with ABBA ’ s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson , the show ’ s producers Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson , and the team at visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic .
“ We talked a lot about how to develop the theatre of the building ,” says Tkacz . “ It ’ s a bespoke show in a bespoke building , so it was important for us that they were both worked on concurrently . With the nature of the show , the physical and digital spaces needing to be seamless , it was important to us that we were there in the team from the beginning .”
Tkacz spent the first few months looking at sites that had a big enough plot and that were easily accessible by public transport . Once the QEOP was selected , the next step was to design a structure that would not scar the
land once it was removed .
She says , “ We must give the land back as we found it , so we didn ’ t want to break ground too much . The structure has been designed so it only penetrates the ground in 18 places around the main arena . Other than that , we sit completely independently on top of the tarmac surface . So once the whole structure is taken down , we can give the land back pretty much as we found it .”
While the building may not be permanent , its location is surrounded by residential properties and so for all intents and purposes the ABBA Arena was designed with the same sound proofing considerations as a permanent structure .
Tkacz says that internally the whole structure , including all of the seating grandstands , is made out of timber and as a result it feels very much like a solid , permanent , structure .
“ ABBA and the Swedish team were very keen to use as much timber as possible in the building ,” she says .
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