The Royal Academy of Music project was extremely complex. On a very constrained site, two new distinct performance spaces have been created for Britain’s oldest conservatoire, with new vertical circulation improving connectivity within the Academy.
Surrounded by listed buildings, these exceptional performance spaces have been seamlessly integrated within the historic Academy site.
The theatre, designed for both opera and musical theatre, now forms the heart of the Academy, and was realised within the gutted shell of a 1970’s fan-shaped auditorium and stage.
Above the theatre, the 100-seat Recital Hall skilfully exploits the last major area into which the Academy could expand, providing 230m2 of additional space for student rehearsal, performance, public events and recording.
The new rooftop accommodation had an extremely complex roof geometry, designed so that the new spaces would remain invisible from surrounding streets. As one would expect on a project for the Royal Academy of Music, the acoustic requirements were also very onerous, including isolation joints in the copper cladding, anti-drumming acoustic underlays and isolated batten details. Combined with the complex roof geometry and a central oculus, this project presented a number of very tricky interfaces.
All Metal Roofing worked in a very open and collaborative way, bringing their specialist knowledge to help develop the copper details and solve these interfaces with us over a series of workshops. They then produced prototypes and control samples for us to review prior to the final installation on site.
The site team were extremely skilled in working with the pre-patinated copper and along with the technical back-up provided by Richard Shanahan and Len Goodwin, All Metal Roofing delivered a first-class job on the Royal Academy of Music.
We would have no hesitation in recommending them for future projects.
Brian Heron
Project Architect
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