Warwick Arts Centre -
Butterworth Hall
Coventry, England

Client: University of Warwick
Project Type: Renovation
Opening: 2009
Architect: Architects Design Partnership
AD Scope: Acoustics, Audio, Lighting,
Stage Systems

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Butterworth Hall - Warwick Arts Center

"My colleagues in the Philharmonia Orchestra are delighted with the acoustic qualities of the reengineered Butterworth Hall. The players can hear each other across the platform and can feel the bloom to the sound generated by the acoustical properties of the Hall.

From the audience the sound picture is warm, well balanced and built on a clear bass line. The sound from the platform fills the auditorium easily and the experience appears uniform across the Hall. To summarise, the Philharmonia Orchestra enjoy performing in the Butterworth Hall and the refurbishment, both back stage and in the Hall itself has been a great success."

--David Whelton, Managing Director, Philharmonia Orchestra

Warwick Arts Centre is a multi-venue arts complex at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. It is the largest arts centre in the Midlands, attracting around 280,000 visitors a year to over 2,000 individual events embracing music, drama, dance, comedy, literature, films and visual art. It comprises six spaces on the same site, a concert hall, two theatres, a cinema, gallery, conference room as well as hospitality suites, a restaurant, cafe, shops, and two bars.

Acoustic Dimensions is providing design for acoustics, stage lifts, adjustable acoustics mechanisms, theatre grid, sound and lighting for the centre’s concert hall -- Butterworth Hall. Aims for the refurbishment include retaining the acoustical qualities of the existing room for unamplified music, improving the acoustics of the room for amplified sound and providing a new rehearsal room and dressing rooms.

Part of our design work is to accommodate the needs of different programming within the hall. Programming currently includes unamplified music and amplified music . Other important uses of the hall include speeches, meetings, and presentations – all of which use amplified speech. Currently the hall has a single, fixed acoustic that favours unamplified music.

Adjustable acoustics will significantly improve the acoustics of the room for amplified sound. The challenge is that the introduction of adjustable acoustics devices will inevitably reduce the acoustical quality of the room for unamplified music. Thus our design includes a series of compensating proposals to improve the acoustics for unamplified sound so that the hall truly supports both unamplified and amplified music.