Woolwich Creative District London, United Kingdom

By claudine

Woolwich Creative District

Author

claudine

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Carved out of five historic military buildings on the Royal Arsenal site, the project is creating a new cultural destination in London. The predominantly unused riverside Grade II and II* listed buildings will be converted into a 16,500-square-metre creative hub for multiple cultural occupiers, led by the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

The first phase comprising of Building’s 40 & 41 is now complete. Sound Space Vision, in collaboration with architects Bennetts Associates, had an overarching consulting role on the performance infrastructure, theatre planning and performance lighting equipment in Building 41. Inside of Building 41, now named Woolwich Works, is a flexible 900 seated capacity performance hall for live events, 3 dance studios, a recording studio, 2 hireable rooms, a café, courtyard and various front and back of house spaces.

The performance hall is named the Fireworks Factory, in tribute to its historic purpose as a munitions factory. This large flat-floor space is incredibly versatile for events, with natural daylight and many circulation options the room can easily be used for art exhibitions, fairs and other events requiring a large area. Abundant technical facilities and rigging positions allow high quality, connected performances in many orientations and the permanent control room provides plenty of technical space. A mobile in-house control tower with timber finishes to match the seating units can be moved with each seating configuration. Given the listed nature of the building the rigging positions were carefully integrated to seamlessly become part of the room while providing coverage across the entire space.

Building 41 also houses three dance studios with infrastructure to allow performances and assisted listening systems for everyday use. The infrastructure for the Studios was designed by SSV with flexibility and connectivity to the rack room, and thus main space, in mind.

“It feels intelligently planned, a real arts working and performing environment.” – Hugh Pearman, The RIBA Journal (December 2021)