Education
Royal Academy of Music by ritchie*studio
The Royal Academy of Music – Susie Sainsbury Theatre and Angela Burgess Recital Hall in London was presented at the AT Awards live finals on 18 September 2024. Learn about how the project has stood the test of time and see building in use photos from Timothy Soar.
Occupying a tight urban site in London’s Regents Park Conservation Area, ritchie*studio’s Royal Academy of Music project comprises The Susie Sainsbury Theatre, The Angela Burgess Recital Hall, five new percussion studios, a jazz room, an audiovisual control room, and 14 refurbished practice and dressing rooms.
The theatre is designed to host both intimate and large-scale performances with natural and electronically-enhanced acoustics. Thorough survey protocols and building analysis has resulted in an increased seating capacity of more than 40 per cent with the addition of a balcony, enlarged orchestra pit, new stage wing, and fly tower.
Acoustically isolated from the theatre and adjacent structures, the 100-seat recital hall matches the main stage’s footprint. Lined in pale, lime-washed oak and naturally lit from a central oculus, the structure has allowed RAM to expand its remit and revenue stream to include research events, summer schools, lectures, and fundraising events.
The newly inserted building fabric is highly insulated, meeting the rigorous acoustic demands of the brief, and keeping fluctuations in heating and cooling demand to a minimum. A glazed roof over the circulation space between the theatre and the north façade of the existing Edwardian building has reintroduced daylighting to some of the historic teaching spaces.
The judges said:
“Ingeniously, two independent and acoustically separated concert venues have been inserted into the building envelope. This elegant, beautifully detailed solution has given the building a new lease of life that will keep this world-class music school at the top of its game for generations to come.”
Ian Ritchie from ritchie*studio and Gita Maruthayanar from Atelier Ten discuss key architectural and environmental aspects of the design.
Ian Ritchie So how does a project like this start? It starts with an enlightened client or an ambitious client. And this was the new principal at the Royal Academy of Music, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood. He invited a number of firms to pitch, and recalls me standing on the stage of his very dilapidated performance space and saying absolutely nothing for five minutes. He then said, “Well, what are you making of this?” And I said, “Something’s coming to mind slowly, but unless you feel the atmosphere of an older place – and this was basically a dead space – then you have to imagine the atmosphere of a live space, and fundamentally that’s about sound.” So having a real sense of the motion of space and sound, and how your brain and body react to your senses gave us a head start, and we got the job.
We wanted somebody who would understand that sound was fundamental to the project, and not introduce noise. And that’s why we approached Atelier Ten. The great challenge was to create phenomenal acoustics in the theatre so that it could deal with wide a range of performances from opera to musicals and most things in between. When you think of opera, it’s about scale, and part of the design approach was how to get that sense of scale into the space, which only had – we hoped – 300 seats, if we could get them in! But the key came down to the base senses again; the nature of warmth, both acoustic warmth, and a sensual, visual warmth. One of the key elements is the balcony, which is all about the eyeline of the performer. You want half the audience above the eyeline and half the audience below, so that the performer feels they’re in the right space. The balcony front curves in both directions and integrates all the supply of air.
Gita Maruthayanar We were able to seamlessly integrate diffusers into the wood paneling of the two-tier balcony. When you sit in the gallery space, you don’t actually feel the effects of the air because it’s at very low velocity and not dumping. We also employed a low-velocity underfloor system within the theatre. Here, the air is supplied at a higher temperature, so you don’t feel it around your legs.
Above: The Angela Burgess Recital Hall is entirely lined in pale, lime-washed oak.
Left: An oculus floods the recital hall with daylight and provides the space with a central focus.
Ian Ritchie There are two big spaces: the Susie Sainsbury Theatre and above it the Angela Burgess Recital Hall. Everybody said, “You can’t build on top of a listed building that is next to other listed buildings within the Crown Estate.” But we just used a red and white stick to show how you could get six metres up there without anybody seeing it. Crucially, it enabled us to remove the existing theatre plant and other plant, and rehouse it along with new kit. And that, in a way, generated the space, or the shape of the copper roof. In the main theatre below, we introduced a proper orchestra pit, which they’ve never had, and a fly tower. The lighting is all very, very low energy, but extremely accessible in terms of maintenance and access.
Used for recording, public concerts and master classes, the 100-seat Angela Burgess Recital Hall has the same footprint as the main stage, making it an ideal rehearsal space.
Ian Ritchie As a practice we had never really used wood, so I went around Britain looking for the best joinery company. We found JJ Johnson down the road, literally eight kilometres away from our office, and they were brilliant. We prototyped this balcony front that is very complex in terms of its geometry, its wood, its prefabrication, and the integration of all of the services – electric lighting, air supply etc. This refined the piece that set the scene for the whole structure and design of the theatre. Acoustically, we had a wonderful experience with Susie Sainsbury and Jonathan Freeman- Attwood, within Arup’s active acoustic testing room. Here, you can take a piece of music and play it in different halls from around the world. This allowed us to look at the design that was emerging from our team and see whether Jonathan was getting excited or not, or upset. That was a magical process of understanding the values of what we were looking for in the acoustic environment. And then of course there was the prototyping of the timber panels. We used cherry and JJ Johnson managed to give them a beautiful warmth and texture, which is a fundamental part of the acoustic strategy. And then upstairs we used a pale lime-washed oak, which gave a heavenly feel. And that again has an adjustable acoustic, just by using a concealed felt curtain. Acoustic adaptability was foremost in everything we thought about.
A glazed lobby creates a visual and physical link between the old and new buildings. Lightwells reveal the previously concealed Grade II-listed rear façade. Bricked-up windows have been reopened to allow daylight into the practice rooms.
Gita Maruthayanar In terms of the recording studio and recital hall, the MEP systems had to be very, very quiet. The building systems were improved from the 1970s air handling units to modern high-efficiency AHUs. In conjunction with Arup, we tested the AHUs off site to ensure they could achieve a PNC (preferred noise criterion) of 15, which is quite impressive for the time. I think in London, the recital hall is one of the few that have been able to achieve such a low noise criteria with functional MEP systems. In terms of the existing building, we minimised demolition and prioritised adaptive reuse, which is now at the forefront of embodied carbon and reducing the use of new materials. We also upgraded the insulation and made it more energy efficient, reducing both heat loss and heat gain. We also reused some of the heating systems.
Ian Ritchie Elsewhere, we removed some blocked up windows and a whole lot of practice rooms, as well as brought daylight in, and a new connectivity between the Edwardian building and the new facility, which enhances community feeling within the academy. But in the end, it all comes down to the joy of the students and whether they think they’ve got something special. I think that the transformation has proved very, very successful, and brought the Royal Academy of Music into the 21st century in a startling way
The primary access to the new recital hall is the existing main staircase, dating from 1911.
Gita Maruthayanar The glazed roof over the circulation area brings in more natural light and enhances the space in terms of wellbeing for the students and teachers. We did some modeling to ensure we reduced any solar gain or overheating in that area.
Ian Ritchie We were building this project within an existing facility with virtually no street access and 800 kids studying music, which is of course sound. So prefabrication was for us vital. One of the by products, which we’ve not talked about much, is that the facility is now used as a training centre for musical theatre. So it’s not just students performing, it’s the backstage people, as well as directors, technicians, and producers. They’re starting to come and it’s almost like a secondary training centre for the music industry. It’s also the largest single-space recording facility in central London, which is why it’s in such high demand. I think in summary, we hit sustainability and we hit the kind of quality befitting a world class conservatoire. All of the finishes are holding up very, very well, and all the mechanical systems and lighting are working extremely well. With luck, it will go on for another 20 years before they have to consider doing anything with them. Above all we had a fantastic client, who just stayed with the project, and stayed with us as a client and as a friend.
Other finalists in this category:
RCA Battersea by Haworth Tompkins
Malthouse Theatre by Tim Ronalds Architects
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