Norden Farm Arts Centre in Maidenhead, United Kingdom has realized the long-term aims of the community to create a high-quality performance and visual arts centre. The centre is formed from reused historic buildings, the shell of a previous unfinished scheme and new buildings for the auditorium and gallery.

The biggest challenge was that the Arts Centre is located on a quiet residential site in Maidenhead. We were required to meet levels of quiet externally that are comparable to the levels of quiet we normally design for inside concert halls. We did this by applying similar design techniques for the outside noise that we normally use for inside noise.

The auditorium provides performance space for high-quality drama, musicals, classical music, popular music and cinema. This wide range of events can only be accommodated successfully in a room with a high ceiling (to create a live acoustic) and with variable acoustics (to create a dry acoustic). Unamplified music requires a live acoustic with strong reverberation. The reverberation is developed by the multiple reflections of sound between hard, reflective surfaces in the room. The rectangular room shape sustains multiple reflections between the parallel side and rear walls and is ideal for development of such a sound field when the room is tall. The side balconies in the Norden Farm performance space provide strong early lateral sound reflections which improve the clarity of sound both for music and for speech events. This acoustical clarity is of special importance in a room for drama.

For amplified music events and for cinema, a more dry acoustic is achieved by manually opening reversible panels to expose sound-absorbing surfaces that cover the side walls of the room.
The auditorium will provide a high-quality acoustic for the wide range of uses planned in the performance space; the massive building structure with sound locks on all the entrances/exits will contain high sound levels; and the remote location of the mechanical plant will enable a low-noise ventilation system to be achieved.