Sound Space Vision shapes Storey’s Field Centre
- Details
Storey’s Field Centre is the dynamic hub of the community of Eddington, a new neighbourhood under construction as part of the North West Cambridge development. The Centre is a civic building in the heart of the new development and encompasses meeting rooms and a large multi-purpose hall for exercise classes, lectures, music of all genres, local festivities and events alongside a nursery.
SSV joined the project to support the range of uses both in the acoustical design and the noise isolation and the activity-led design and specification of the technical fit-out of the building.
MUMA designed the main hall with a high level of design and finish, and SSV created several bespoke technical solutions to optimise the hall and contribute to its overall aesthetic. At once dramatic and pragmatic, the hall is the Centre’s primary public space, holding up to 275 standing and 180 seated.
Given the hall’s rectangular shape and the Centre’s mandate for a varied and active schedule, SSV envisioned a space that was adaptable, flexible, and, crucially, easy to operate by its users. It is a stylish, light-filled, three-storey space with refined acoustics and production fittings and fixtures that are well-detailed, discreet, adaptable and hidden within the architecture.
Unusually, the main hall has daylight on all four sides with views to a garden and high-level windows on the remaining three sides. This gives an ever-changing atmosphere to the space. The intricate brickwork modelled on the walls is an elegant solution for satisfying sound diffusion, while reviving a well-loved and underused craft. From a production design standpoint, the hall’s neutral colour palette is easily transformed by coloured and varied lighting.
The main hall benefits from several bespoke features including individually-sized acoustic banners created for SSV by a specialist manufacturer, and a one-of-a-kind solution for opening and closing them allows the bottom third banners to move up, and the upper third to move down.
The University's brief for the Centre included high performance qualities for the main hall, with a requirement for the acoustics to accommodate a variety of events from chamber music to rock concerts. SSV designed a space with an acoustic flexibility that spans every requirement from very dry, clear sound to live, resonant acoustics, with architectural and design features that double as sound dispersive, absorptive or isolation solutions. For amplification, SSV chose to use three beam-steering column array loudspeakers which have substantial output over a wide frequency range, and are ideal for a space of this scale.
“Our vision at SSV is to complement the architecture of a space, and to give clients a very high level of design, finish, and functionality at the lowest possible cost – usually well beyond their expectations,” says Anne Minors, design principal, Sound Space Vision.
(Jim Evans)
