Gabion: Theatre as factory: Ian Ritchie's TR2 for the Theatre Royal in Plymouth. 1/4

I was not expecting great things, to be honest. This was the contender for the 2003 Stirling Prize that least had been said about. Part of the problem was not knowing precisely what the building was for. It is not a theatre, it is a back-of-house theatrical complex where sundry ancillary activities take place, stuck out on the edge of this Devon naval city. This did not sound promising, and the few somewhat enigmatic images available of the place, along with its equally enigmatic name - TR2 - gave nothing away. But Ritchie is a class act, whatever he does. So with the Stirling Prize looming, I went to look. It did not win, but it is good.

By "back of house", I mean the making of scenery and costumes, rehearsal spaces, admin offices, that kind of thing. But being sited on its own, it is not at the back of any house and is certainly not to be found behind Plymouth's 1982 Theatre Royal, a big lumpy thing in concrete and bronze-tinted glass designed by architect Peter Moro at the end of an illustrious career that had included co-designing London's Royal Festival hall in the late 1940s.