Critical Sound Attenuation
Colin Cobb, project architect with designers Feilden Clegg Bradley, said: “The Novastruct systems met our needs for deep-section curtain walling with modelling provided by extra-deep face caps. The window systems integrated well with our brickwork detailing, with clean lines around openers. Acoustic performance of window systems was a critical factor.”
He added that the aluminium composition of the “cost effective” Novastruct systems score well on the BREEAM materials matrix so this contributed to them achieving their targets in this respect.
Early engagement with main contractor Galliford Try helped the design alignment process for the 10,000m2 building on a sloping site in Eastside that has a threemetre drop, and ensured any challenges were ironed out early on.
Bennett managing director Lionel Grant said: “The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire was certainly a different kind of project for our team but we have helped to create an instantly recognisable building and something quite unique. It is located on a busy city centre road so it was vital we got the acoustics right to keep that sound out.”
The building for Birmingham City University comprises a 500-seat concert hall, 146-seat recital hall, 100-seat organ studio, 100-seat black box experimental studio, more than 70 practice teaching rooms capable of accommodating 650 students, and an 80-seat jazz club that claims to be the first permanent jazz club performance space in any UK conservatoire.
The five storeys are clad almost entirely in pale brick with simple rows of small, punched Novastruct windows occasionally broken by larger feature windows. Larger ground-floor openings trimmed with glass and aluminium pick out the entrances at either end. Through these runs the triple-height public foyer which serves the five main performance venues, linking street to university campus and lower ground to second floor concert hall.
