The Challenge:
SFU required new teaching and performance facilities in a downtown heritage site, the Woodward’s retail building redevelopment. The six-level facility includes two performance theatres, a cinema, teaching studios, sound stage and offices; and required one of the theatres, the cinema and sound stage to be stacked atop one another. The performance requirements made sound isolation paramount.
The Innovation:
A “room within a room” method was applied: floating concrete slabs for floors, structurally separated inner walls and noise barrier ceilings. The largest room, with 400 seats, features flexible acoustics to suit the variety required by the school.
