Sunand Prasad from Penoyre & Prasad, together with AT Awards judges Ben Derbyshire, Marion Baeli, Sarah Allan and Deyan Sudjic discuss the genesis and evolution of Snape Maltings and its legacy in terms of our attitude towards redundant industrial/agricultural buildings. Timothy Soar’s photograph capture the project as it is today.
In 1967 Benjamin Britten and others commissioned Arup Associates to convert the great Malt House at Snape, Suffolk, into what has since become a world-famous concert hall for the annual Aldeburgh Festival. The smaller buildings attached to the Malt House were used to accommodate front and back of house functions. The engineer and classical music enthusiast Derek Sugden established many of the principles of modern acoustics through his work on the auditorium and oversaw the reconstruction of the project following a fire in 1969.
30 years on, Penoyre & Prasad extended and adapted Snape Maltings to accommodate increased visitor numbers, respond to changes in recording technology, and address changing expectations around audience comfort, hospitality, sponsorship and health and safety issues.
The project demonstrated how simple agro-industrial structures could be reimagined as cultural buildings. Its success is evident in the way it has been able to accommodate far greater visitor numbers than anticipated. Audiences and artists continue to appreciate its simple functional elegance, but the spaces are now used all year round by people who come to enjoy the landscape, architecture and views.
New lighting complements Arup’s auditorium roof.
Sunand Prasad, architect We were hugely inspired by the unpretentious direct approach to detailing and the use of materials in the old buildings, which nevertheless resulted in quite a majestic setting and place. We wanted to learn from that, to serve this wonderful concert all in the most unobtrusive but also characterful way possible.
Ben Derbyshire Sunand Prasad offered a masterclass in how buildings can learn at Snape Maltings. This was already a pioneer of adaptive re-use when Derek Sugden of Arup transformed the Maltings into a world-class performance space for Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in the 60s. Penoyre & Prasad skilfully enhanced the venue – functionally, aesthetically and culturally – in ways that have not only enhanced the audience experience over the last ten years but have also contributed to an upgrade to Grade II* listed status.
Raising the Malt Store roof by an additional 1.5 metres created ample headroom for a generous dining space and the opportunity to insert a clerestory window along the length of the elevation.
Sunand Prasad In the auditorium, the beautiful roof structure with its timber struts and steel tension cables designed by Philip Dowson and the wonderful young engineer Derek Sugden, had become encrusted by lights. We wanted all of that cleared away. We replaced the lights with lighting bars. Max Fordham did a fantastic job of upgrading comfort and ventilation levels. There wasn’t much fresh air and it had started getting quite hot, so Max devised this wonderful scheme of using boreholed water and adjusting the air flow in the hall to create far greater comfort with very little energy expense. The borehole water itself used the sprinkler tank as the reservoir and that dual use was highly ingenious and successful.
Marion Baeli The adaptative re-use of a previous great Malt House stands as a proof that sensitive engineering (both structural and MEP) can result in an exemplar project that deserves to be celebrated.
The clerestory window affords expansive views over the estuary.
Sunand Prasad The challenge was how to add more than 600-square-metres of accommodation without expanding the footprint of the site. We raised the roof of the Malt Store by 1.5 metres to create an extra level to accommodate the restaurant, bar and so on. A big clerestory window matches the horizon and gives a beautiful view over the estuary. One small but significant change that happened soon after we finished the project was the replacement of the big oak handrail with a slim rail that further improves that view. The cradle supporting the mezzanine floor is free of the edges so the whole space acts as a one. It is set on a rubber acoustic mounting so that there’s no impact on the concert hall of people moving around. The structure was devised by Sam Price of Price & Myers, so it was a hugely wonderful multidisciplinary team and experience that we had in designing this.
Sarah Allan It’s an inspiration to see how collaboration between the whole design team resulted, not in grand interventions, but modest and essential alterations creating spaces that everyone can access and enjoy.
Deyan Sudjic Its relationship to the landscape, and its own history make Snape a very special place. Penoyre and Prasad’s contribution is based on a lucid understanding of that history, and the huge open skies of Suffolk. It has the confidence to respect what has gone before and to add to an existing narrative without talking over it.
An extension to the Malt Store adopts the restrained detailing and materiality of the existing architecture and provides space for a new kitchen.
Project presentation
View Sunand Prasad from Penoyre & Prasad give a presentation on Snape Maltings below
Additional Images
