The lecture theatre plays a multi-functional role in the university. Aside from being a core teaching space, it also serves as an auditorium for live performances, film screenings and conferences.
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Location Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
Sector Higher Education
Acoustic challenges and solutions
One of the most demanding challenges to overcome in fitting out the lecture theatre was the management and abatement of noise breaking out and into the space. The required rating was 76dB, and Portview worked with a specialist acoustician to employ a variety of innovative solutions to achieve it. The elegantly curved interior walls were lined with FSC-certified maple hardwood, but what lies beneath is where the acoustic ingenuity takes place.
The walls have an inner layer, lined with acoustic baffling material. This, in tandem with acoustic rafts at ceiling height, prevents sound from reverberating around the hard surfaces of the lecture theatre. That’s not where the challenge ended, because the unit powering the air conditioning is located in an AHU room under the tiered seating. This required innovative encapsulation to prevent noise from filtering into the space above. Acoustic double doors add an important finishing touch to the lecture theatre, sealing the space from the natural hubbub in the mezzanine corridor immediately outside.
Noise reverberation is quelled by secreting wall-mounted acoustic baffles behind an aesthetically designed metal wall lining. This space also features a concealed metal frame that supports the maple-lined lecture theatre entrance canopy and hardwood 8m ‘floating’ seating bench. Our work in this lecture theatre was fundamental to its success as a teaching and performance space, so we coordinated other trades teams working within the space, including MEP, fire safety, AV and IT, to achieve the desired overall outcome, while also achieving a BREEAM Outstanding rating and low VOC levels
Fresh thinking
While acoustic performance was a fundamental target, ventilation was also a key design feature, especially in such stringently sealed space. The air conditioning system housed in a room under the main auditorium seats was designed to flow fresh air under at low level and extract it through grills hidden in high-level wooden slatted walls.
We designed, specified, and installed the durable, staged tiered seating system, building in modular flexibility to accommodate a larger stage area, when required. While the space is mostly utilised as a teaching area, it is also available for private hire, functioning as an event space, conference room and cinema. Seats were designed to be easily removed and added, no small feat in a space with no straight walls and exacting acoustic and fire safety compliance targets.
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Bringing it all together
Portview fabricated and installed the front wall unit that supports the main screen and a seamless surround that wraps around it. Behind the facing rear wall, at a high level looking out across the seating, we fitted a full production control room behind a large glass screen.
We installed other practical features including a fully motorised gantry and lighting system that can be lowered and raised via remote control and equipped every seat with power sockets and armrest retractable desk surfaces. In the mezzanine entry corridor immediately outside the lecture theatre we created a focal entry point by fabricating a steel structure to support a range of aesthetic and practical features including acoustic baffling, ‘floating’ benches, seamless maple hardwood veneer wall linings and architectural metalwork designed to house all cabling.
Our unique approach to overcoming the challenges posed by the lecture theatre installation was supported by modelling structural aspects of the project and the integration of multi-disciplinary data to create a precise, predictive BIM representation.
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