Royal Northern College of Music

Our first project looked at the original building whose primary use is for teaching, practice and music rehearsal for individuals through to orchestras. Twenty-five bespoke practice rooms, from a replica orchestral stage to smaller individual studios, were created and form the core of the project. These rooms are constructed on the same principles as recording studios and are highly insulated steel boxes floating independently of any connecting structure to reduce sound transmission. We also created a new library and archival storage to complement the teaching accommodation.

The new accommodation is accessed through a triple-height entrance pavilion that links the new wing to the main building with a 15m glazed bridge at 2nd floor level and level access at ground floor level. This glazed link provides a central entrance, reception and circulation hub for the college and is also used during festivals and open days for congregation and exhibition purposes. The box office was also relocated into the new entrance space as a far more legible entry point for the public audiences.

In this project for the Royal Northern College of Music, we extended and refurbished the restaurant and bar facilities for students and concert-goers; also designing new teaching and conference facilities. Public areas of the 1971 brutalist building were transformed into contemporary light-filled, warm and expressive spaces. Free-floating curved elements, lit from behind, define the spaces and express the new accommodation as layers inserted into the double height space. The project was run on a tight budget with close collaboration between the design team, client and contractor, allowing for successful completion within an extremely short timescale.

Our latest project with the college is the new Oxford Road Wing; a significant extension that fronts one of Manchester’s main arterial routes and fulfils a number of roles for the College.

The new building includes various rehearsal studios including two double height orchestral rehearsal spaces, 17 practice rooms for groups of up to four students and a number of general teaching rooms. The building also houses the senior management administration suite and a headquarters for the Manchester Camerata Chamber Orchestra.

The studios have acoustically diffusing ceilings, walls which provide both high levels of sound insulation and areas of fixed acoustic absorption; and motorised sound absorption that allow reverberation to be controlled. Where the wing faces Oxford Road an acoustic buffer zone has been created. Glimpses into the rehearsal rooms through this glazed double skin layer is also used as a shop window for the college to promote and increase visibility of its activities as an international conservatoire and successful arts centre.

The project was delivered to a high specification and within a budget normally associated with far more generic teaching buildings.