The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues. The structure was critiqued for its style of architecture ‘BRUTALISM’. Completed in 1976, this theatre stands on the South Bank of the Thames, just downstream of Waterloo bridge. It is formed from two fly towers rising from layered horizontal terraces that wrap around the building, cascading to the river level. The design is based on Denys Lasdun's idea of "architecture as the urban landscape. It exemplifies the best aspects of Brutalism: dynamism, a visceral sense of shock, and the rich, complex, and highly contextual spaces it creates. The structure is vast and city-like in the plan. It accommodates three theatres, the largest seating 1,160 people, alongside restaurants, bars, foyers, workshops, and all the mechanics necessary. The public interior spaces merge with the terraces outside, or what Lasdun describes as the "geological strata" of his architecture of "urban landscape".