Community Arts Centre
Brief
A neighbourhood arts centre with a black-box theatre, workshop spaces and a public courtyard, on a tight urban infill site.
Problem
The theatre needed acoustic isolation while the workshops needed to feel porous and visible to the street — two opposite ambitions in one small footprint.
Signature Drawing
Click a room in the plan for detail.
Spatial Concept
The building reads from outside as a quiet volume hiding a loud one — a deliberate inversion of a typical theatre façade.
Material Strategy
Board-formed concrete for the theatre box, steel-framed glazed screens for the workshop wrap, a perforated metal scrim over the street façade.
Environmental Response
The workshop wrap is naturally ventilated year-round; only the sealed theatre box is mechanically conditioned.
Outcome
The workshops are visible from the street at all hours, which the Trust credits with tripling casual foot traffic into programmes.
Project Metadata
Timeline
Trust & artist consultation
Acoustic & noise survey
Box-in-wrap studies
Acoustic isolation detailing
Construction drawing set
18 months on site
Opening festival
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