Hardy theatregoers who have stood patiently to watch rain-soaked summer performances at the Globe theatre in London will welcome plans for a new Jacobean-style theatre on the South Bank – with that latest theatrical innovation of the Bard's day, a roof.

On Thursday, the Globe announced that architects Allies & Morrison, whose recent major projects include the restoration of the Royal Festival Hall, will lead the project to create a theatre which Shakespeare would happily have moved his company into in winter. The planned two-storey galleried building will probably be, for some performances at least, lit entirely by candle and lantern light.

"It's an absolute thrill to take on the challenge of creating a new space that Shakespeare would have recognised, the kind of theatre for which he wrote his last plays including the Tempest, and we're really chuffed," said Paul Appleton, a partner at Allies & Morrison.

"Many decisions remain, including the materials and the finish – whether it should be a plain wooden box, which has a simplicity some would probably like, or a vividly coloured painted scheme – but I think the important thing is to create a space that is intellectually accurate."

The inspiration for the £8m, 320-seat design comes from two 1616 drawings for an indoor theatre, from the archives of Worcester College, Oxford, once thought the work of the court architect and designer Inigo Jones, now believed probably by his assistant John Webb. The Globe hope the new theatre will show its first performances in 2013.

Shakespeare's plays are full of references to candles, lanterns, and what must have been stage-lighting effects, from the mad Lady Macbeth sleepwalking with a taper to Starveling nervously clutching his lantern as the man in the moon in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The bard's company, the King's Men, is known to have performed in winter in an indoor theatre across the Thames at Blackfriars, and some of the late plays, including The Tempest, Cymbeline and A Winter's Tale are believed to have been written for it.

The American actor and director Sam Wanamaker always intended to add a Jacobean stage to his re-creation of Shakespeare's theatre on Bankside, complementing the "wooden O" with a pit open to the sky and a thatched roof over the tall galleries.

The Globe opened in 1997, four years after Wanamaker's death, but though the brick facade for the indoor theatre was built, and a considerable amount of research done, there was never enough money to complete the project. The new stage will allow year-round performances – even though Globe audiences are notoriously hardy and devoted, and shows sell out even in the direst weather, the season ends in late Autumn.

The Globe has already received an anonymous donation of more than £1m, but still has almost £7m to raise. Compared to the surprisingly cavernous Globe which can seat and stand 1,500, the new theatre will be an intimate space with 320 seats - which, Appleton said, will probably be hard wooden benches, but with compassionate cushions for hire.