The new Performing Arts Centre provides specialised teaching and rehearsal facilities for both music and drama education at St Cuthbert’s College.

Situated on the corner of two main street frontages in a neighbourhood characterised by established homes and mature trees the project looks to provide a transition between the scale of its residential surroundings and the college campus.

The building idea is a series of elements organised around a central atrium space. Towards the street these present an abstraction of the scale, form and rhythm of the adjacent residential context. Facing the college they provide a sheltered point of arrival linking the new building to the college campus.

The atrium anchors the individual building elements, each of which accommodates clearly identifiable teaching and activity zones. These include general teaching spaces for music and drama as well as specialised facilities for instrument teaching, full size orchestra rehearsal, choir and drama performance.

The central atrium introduces light deep into the heart of the building and has become the social hub of the performing arts community on campus, providing space for both informal break out and formal functions.

Project Sheet

• Project Sheet