Haworth Tompkins has completed the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre in Cambridge

Photos
Philip Vile, Fred Howarth

Designed by Haworth Tompkins, The Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre at The Perse School in Cambridge comprises a 400-seat auditorium, foyer, rehearsal and teaching room, exhibition space, dressing rooms, workshop and classrooms. The building is named after a former pupil who went on to become director of the National Theatre, an institution with which the architect has a long association.

“The challenge was to design a building that is robust enough to stand the test of the school day, yet capable of exciting pupils and visitors alike”, says project architect Jessica Daly: The PAC allows pupils to learn about theatre holistically, from music and drama to stage sets, lighting and sound. It also teaches them about sustainability.”

Overlooking a landscaped courtyard that forms the new heart of the school, the triple-height foyer is naturally lit and has a striking ‘diagrid’ timber roof structure. It operates as a cafe for pupils and staff during the day, and as a foyer for audiences during events in the auditorium. Spanning the full width of the courtyard, the highly glazed envelope allows views in and out of the building, as well as blurring the boundary between interior and exterior. A specially commissioned wall-hung textile artwork by Glasgow-based artist Victoria Morton is visible from the approach to the building and connects the foyer at both levels.

Site plan; ground- and first-floor plans; sections

The auditorium is a rich, dark timber-lined space that wraps the audience around the performers. It also permits a more conventional end on configuration when required. The seats are upholstered in wool with natural colours that allude to the landscape outside. A suite of dressing rooms and technical spaces complete the accommodation.

As with much of the practice’s theatre work, and particularly for the resilience required of a school, materials were chosen for their durability and capacity to mature and change over time, says the architect. The warm, robust palette of hand-made bricks, precast concrete and timber was selected with this in mind.

Natural ventilation is employed throughout the building, alongside ample daylight and a large ground source heat pump for heating and cooling. The auditorium and gallery studio exhaust air through a plenum and acoustically attenuated chimneys on the roof. High-level windows in the foyer, gallery studio and classrooms automatically open and close dependent on the weather and external temperature. Other sustainable tehnologies include a green roof on the classics department and photovoltaic panels on the auditorium roof.

Additional Images

Credits