The project adopts the model of the Vkhutemas school in Soviet Russia – who came up with huge abstract concepts and then worked out how one might use those architecturally – to conceive an imaginary ‘City of Dance’.

The study of ballet and its notation systems provide a useful spatialised link, with the seven key moves in ballet expressed energetically and passionately through acrylic models, using coloured highlights and lighting to give a suitable urban aesthetic.

The design proposal is for a centre for dancers, of all types, that provides rest and recovery for those suffering physical or mental injury, or fatigue. Conceived as a micro-building, located in a small triangular slot next to the Coliseum Theatre on St Martin’s Lane – a narrow alleyway that is often called London’s smallest street – the all-glass façade rises toward the rooftops above. On a glazed bridge. over the heads of passers-by, dancers perform for the public after their rehabilitation, linking the formal experimentalism of the building to a social purpose.