Musical Performance Centre at the University of Kent
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Betteridge & Milsom are carrying out quantity surveying services for the proposed music building. Below is some interesting background information taken from the Kentish Gazette.
The building, which will go next to the present Gulbenkian Theatre and cinema on the Canterbury campus, will give an extremely flexible space, with the main hall able to be used in 13 different ways.
The university intends to apply for planning permission towards the end of February 2010 and, if all goes well, will start digging the foundations in Autumn. It is expected to take about a year to 14 months to build.
Although it will be a two storey building, the main hall, which will be 416 square metres, will be of double height, along with the foyer. A balcony will go around the first floor, with offices, practice rooms, an instrument store and a band room on the other levels.
All the seating will be retractable so that the main hall can be use for a variety of musical events, such as choral or orchestral concerts or dances.
Sue Wanless, the university’s director of music, said “At the press of a few buttons the whole hall can be changed around to accommodate all kinds of concerts, as well as workshop space and dances with no seating.”m
“The brief was that the acoustics should be flexible as well and that the hall should be able to cater for big band and rock concerts, as well as choral performances and chamber groups such as the Brodsky.”
Among the facilities are four practice rooms and a band room, all hermetically sealed.
The main hall will be 14 metres high.
The new building will link to the Gulbenkian Theatre and cinema to form one seamless arts hub with a shared box office, and will extend slightly on to the present Gulbenkian car park.
Ms Wanless said “We will still carry on using the cathedral for concerts as we do now but the new performance space will provide superb rehearsal areas and the aim is that there will be some kind of spontaneous music going on most days. Because of the difficulties of booking rooms in the university at the moment this kind of spontaneous event is not possible. I want to see it buzzing all the time, both with our students and the community who will be able to hire it for performances out of term time. We get lots of talented musicians here at Kent who do not want to study music as a career. This new space will be a perfect way for them to take part in the university’s vibrant musical programme while studying other subjects. It is very exciting”.
