Since 1986 the Plaxbox Theatre has built a national and international reputation for its work with children and young people. It is recognized as one of Europe’s most innovative arts organizations working with members aged 2-21 on an extensive program of performing arts.

The Playbox Theatre decided to create the “Dream Factory”, a £2.7m new building project funded with the help of the National Lottery. The Dream Factory is designed to meet the specific needs of the Playbox Theatre and includes studios for creation, training and development in the performing arts, including theatre, dance, circus, mime and music.

The main studio has 200-seats that can be arranged on a retractable bleacher or on the flat floor. Above the entire studio area is a tension-wire grid for safe access to the production lighting and overhead rigging. The studio is tall enough for trapeze work.

Environmental considerations have strongly influenced the design of the building fabric. The heavily insulated walls and roof provide both a thermal and an acoustic barrier against the external environment. The cavity in the walls is utilized as a sound-deadening air duct, and the thermal mass of the walls and “Termodeck” concrete roof provide passive cooling of the ventilation air.

This is only the second theatre in the UK to use passive cooling, and the first design ever to couple thermal and acoustic performance in this way. The ventilation system is designed to be completely silent in operation, meeting the N-1 noise criterion.