New Marlowe Theatre - a tour de force in theatre and performance space design

01/09/2011 Written by: Gill Sincock No comments

Buro Happold’s latest inspirational performance venue

The new Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury opens its doors to the public on 4 October, three years after construction started in 2008. The venue will open with a gala performance led by the Philharmonia Orchestra followed by three days of street arts, live music and theatre performances as part of ‘My Marlowe: Opening Weekend’ from 7 to 9 October. The first theatre production will be the British premier of iD by Canadian company Cirque Eloize, running from 12 to 15 October.

The opening of this new £25.6 million project celebrates an ambitious forward thinking public building scheme spearheaded by Canterbury City Council (CCC) that will establish East Kent as a leading national destination for culture and the arts.

International multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold was instrumental in the delivery of this exciting new project from its conception. Experts in the delivery of buildings for the theatre and performing arts sector, the consultancy worked alongside the client CCC, Keith Williams Architects  and contractors to create a truly 21st century venue for the arts and culture in Kent.

A vibrant public building, fully accessible to patrons, staff and visiting artists alike, the theatre complex is well positioned to attract the best touring productions and shows as it offers two venues within one building: the Marlow Theatre and auditorium, and new flexible, multi-purpose performance space, the Marlowe Studio, designed to seat 150 people and host a range of performances, creative workshops, gigs and events. The studio’s state-of-the art retractable seating system means that the auditorium can easily be adapted into a flat floor space that will be able to accommodate up to 300 people.

The brief

The brief for Buro Happold was one of construction and development, similar to that of the award winning Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which opened last year and is another of the consultancy’s cultural sector triumphs. The requirements were to;

• Demolish part of an existing theatre structure to rebuild a theatre venue on an existing site ensuring full accessibility to patrons, staff and visiting artists
• Create two venues in one building: the Marlowe Theatre seating 1200 people and the Marlowe Studio accommodating between 150-300 people
• Provide a better audience experience with more comfortable seating and greatly enhanced sightlines
• Create a closer relationship between the audience and performers with no seat further than 25 metres from the stage
• Provide improved acoustics plus a larger orchestra pit for up to 80 musicians
• Create an extended ‘leisure experience’ to include spacious foyers with bars and amenities on three floors plus a riverside café and terrace

Creating new from old

The site identified for Marlowe Theatre was originally the location of a 1930’s Odeon Cinema and had undergone several transformations including the addition of a fly tower in the mid 1980s, which was added to convert the existing building into a repertory theatre. The new expanded facility was made possible by the previous theatre’s very successful record culturally and financially and the consequent desire to literally build on this success.

Before the transformation could begin on site a delicate operation to remove a buried fuel tank located beneath the soon-to-be demolished Friars motor company had to be carried out. Buro Happold supervised this process to ensure that there was no ground water contamination.

In dealing with the existing structure the decision was made to demolish the old 1930’s cinema part of the site but retain the 1980’s fly tower as an integral part of the new theatre complex. The retained fly tower structure was re-clad with insulating panels and cladding mesh.

Protecting the past

The site’s proximity to Canterbury’s historic city centre, a highly regulated conservation area, was a major challenge and the Buro Happold team worked closely with English Heritage as the site was categorised as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM). As the site is also in close proximity to a Franciscan Priory there was the requirement to dig trial pits to investigate for Roman or more recent archaeological sites and remains.

Two concrete cores were erected with a third about to go up providing stability against collapse to the new building. However the discovery of the remains of a Roman villa on the newly exposed part of the site next to the fly tower meant a change of plan. Buro Happold proposed the design and implementation of a shallower foundation and a lighter steel framed core which were implemented to minimise disruption to the archaeological remains.

Protection from the River Stour

The Buro Happold team also worked closely with the Environment Agency as the site is adjacent to the River Stour on a flood plain. In the case of the Stour overflowing, the site remains an anticipated repository for flood water.

To ensure the development of the Marlowe Theatre did not displace flood water from the site and create flood risk further downstream Buro Happold carried out three dimensional flood modelling. As a result of this work the team was able to agree a design that raised sections of the foyer and café on stilts. Buro Happold’s collaborative approach to working with the Environment Agency enabled this creative and unusual solution to be adopted.

Enhancing the visitor experience

The design team was keen to ensure that a sense of flow and space was maintained in the foyer, improving pre-performance and interval movement and comfort levels, leading to increased use of the theatre’s facilities and audience spend. Buro Happold achieved this by reducing the number of weight bearing columns within the foyer by hanging the first floor from the roof and detailing a cantilevering set of stairs that required minimal support from the ground. This proved to be a complex operation as the first floor foyer support beams form the backspan to the auditorium balcony cantilevers. Excessive loads within the foyers could have affected the deflection sensitive balcony structure, with any show lighting mounted on the balcony front being thrown out of focus on the stage. All potential obstacles were successfully overcome to create a new spacious front of house that can be enjoyed by theatre goers throughout the year.

Exterior focus

The theatre plays a major part in Canterbury’s built environment and a key requisite of the building’s design was to work with and enhance the town’s existing skyline. A light coloured concrete colonnade embraces the south-western façade of the building and includes slender Somerset manufactured precast concrete columns that contain concealed drainpipes. This colonnade provides important shading to the glass entrance façade. In addition to the concrete and glazing the studio auditorium is clad in copper and the refurbished fly tower has a new tensioned mesh ’jacket‘. Buro Happold designed a new steel framed spike to cap the fly tower and give the building a new iconic form.

Creating more dramatic space

A major benefit of the rebuild has been the creation of a second theatre space – the Marlowe Studio. This has been made possible due to the studio auditorium. This auditorium is a smaller 150 seat venue that cantilevers out above the café. The floor of this space has been designed to carry a collapsible seating system giving added flexibility to the performances in the space.

Buro Happold designed a structure for this small auditorium that provides acoustic isolation to the café below and prevents any noise or vibration from the plant room located over the top of the auditorium from spoiling the performance.

Enhancing the local economy

The old Marlowe Theatre was one of the largest creative businesses in Canterbury and the commercial challenge of developing the site was to build and improve further on this success. The figures speak for themselves - in 2008, 66% of theatre tickets sold came from outside the district, delivering 187,510 theatre trips to the town. The City of Imagination report, commissioned in 2005, estimated that in terms of measurable economic impacts, the new Marlowe Theatre will inject over £23 million per annum into the local economy and will create or safeguard nearly 300 jobs. Buro Happold is proud to be part of the team that will help to make this important economic vision happen.