BEAM Cultural Hub in Hertfordshire, England architecture photos, Modern British design, East Midlands property
BEAM Cultural Hub in Hertfordshire, UK
1 October 2024
Design: Bennetts Associates Limited
Location: Hertfordshire, southern England, UK
Photos © Hufton+Crow
BEAM Cultural Hub, England
Hertford’s bold new cultural hub ‘BEAM’ completes
The new BEAM multi-purpose arts and culture venue presenting live performance and film, alongside an all-day café/bar and events spaces for community use, has been completed. Located alongside the River Lea in the historic town centre of Hertford, BEAM has been designed by Bennetts Associates to be a cultural beacon for the town and the wider communities of Hertfordshire and beyond.
The project grew out of East Herts District Council’s recognition that culture is a vital contributor to the future prosperity and wellbeing of local people. A £30m investment by the Council led to the transformation and extension of the former Hertford Theatre to create a building with a far greater range of facilities including a 547-seat theatre and three cinema screens, as well as a second theatre space coming in 2025.
The design incorporates the shell of the old theatre and its stage and backstage areas, but adds significant new paces for the cinemas, studio, and café/bar spaces in a series of brick-clad volumes. These new spaces enclose a covered triangular courtyard space, which forms the main foyer. The main theatre was transformed from a 400-seat flat-floor room with a large retractable seating unit, into a 547-seat auditorium with a shallow-raked stalls, a balcony and a fully accessible technical grid.
Placing such a large building on a tight riverside site in the centre of a historic town presented a significant challenge for the architects and contractor GPF Lewis. Bennetts Associates devised a design approach which broke down the building into a collection of individual forms, each of a scale more appropriate to context. Angled facades hug the site boundary whilst pitched roofs allow each element to be read individually, with the true scale of the building never apparent. The hexagonal plan form of the old theatre and its shapely zinc-clad flytower anchor the composition.
The facades are uniformly clad in a locally produced brick which was selected to tone in with the colour of historic buildings in the immediate context. The blank areas of façade enclosing the cinemas and performance spaces are enlivened with textured and glazed brick patterning, and full-height ground-floor window openings provide views into the public spaces within.
Bennetts Associates introduced Citizens Design Bureau to the project as interior designers. The like-minded practices both have extensive experience in theatre and arts buildings, and the project resulted in a fruitful collaboration.
Citizens Design Bureau envisaged the front of house areas as a series of volumes defined by layers of colour, with the bright green of trees visible through large foyer windows, an integral part of the palette. Simple materials: wooden floors, exposed brick and painted plaster concrete are transformed within each space with wall, ceiling, upholstery and lighting colours that bring a distinctive and atmospheric intimacy to each room and even extend to the toilets. The practice took great care in the design of room acoustics with the introduction of distinctive concertina felt absorption panels on the ceiling. The main auditorium, which has been completely remodelled, retains nods to the mid-century style of the original space – with retro ventilation grilles and structure supporting new technical galleries subtly concealed by a new layer of faceted, dark stained panelling.
Councillor Sarah Hopewell, Executive Member for Wellbeing at East Herts District Council, said: “This is a once in-generation building. A testament to the positive impact the arts can have on the economic and cultural welfare of our local and regional communities. With several big names lining up to perform at BEAM the team cannot wait to open the doors to our audiences across East Herts and beyond.”
Simon Erridge, Director at Bennetts Associates, said: “The completion of BEAM reinforces Hertford’s growing reputation as a great place to live and visit,with its opening also a timely reminder of the value that comes from investment in cultural infrastructure. The old theatre has been reborn and extended to create an inclusive multi-arts hub which we hope will inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy and participate in the arts.”
“We designed the building to be approachable and welcoming, with its warm brick facades and broken-up form echoing the scale and texture of the historic town. From the outside it is hard to imagine the sheer number and scale of the spaces in the building. The 550-seat auditorium, studio theatre and three-screen cinema make it one of the best equipped buildings of its type in the region. By part-reusing the old buildingand employing innovative materials like structural timber we’re proud that BEAM is also an exemplar of sustainable practice in the arts sector.”
Katy Marks, Director, Citizens Design Bureau, said: “We love working with creative organisations to make spaces that are catalysts for collective spirit. Our approach to Hertford Theatre was to make sure this would be a building that would feel like much more than a collection of functions and facilities, but would also be a place to hang out and socialise in the heart of Hertford…a space that would hold large audiences comfortably, but on quiet days would also feel intimate and connected to its unique location on the riverbank, even when inside the building. It has been a great collaboration with Bennetts – we took the design from concept to tender stage for the interiors and they have managed everything on site, ensuring miraculously that no element of the design was compromised in any way by value engineering – magic!”
BEAM Cultural Hub in Hertfordshire, England – Building Information
The whole life carbon assessment for this project was completed by Cundall.
Project consultants listed as follows:
• Main Contractor – GPF Lewis
• Structural Engineers – Integral Engineering Design
• Services Engineer – Max Fordham
• Lighting design – Pritchard Themis
• Theatre and Acoustics Consultants – Sound Space Vision (to Stage 3)
• Theatre and Acoustics Consultants – Charcoalblue (Stage 4 onwards)
• Inclusive Design – David Bonnett Associates
• Fire Engineering Consultants – The Fire Surgery
• Interior Design – Citizens Design Bureau
• Landscape Architecture – Fabrik
• Cost Consultant and Employer’s Agent – Bristow Consulting
About Bennetts Associates
Bennetts Associates – https://www.bennettsassociates.com/ is one of the UK’s leading architectural practices, known for its pioneering approach to sustainability and dedication to achieving Net Zero Carbon. A founding member of the UK Green Building Council, the practice is the first in the world to secure Science Based Target approval and commit to the UN’s Climate Neutral Now campaign.
Other firsts in the UK include the publication of LETI carbon ratings for projects, and certification under the NABERS scheme. Bennetts Associates is responsible for numerous prominent projects, such as the Royal College of Pathologists and the Meta Office in London, the Edinburgh Futures Institute, Storyhouse in Chester, and the JLR Global HQ in Warwickshire. An employee-owned trust and certified B Corp, Bennetts Associates operates from studios located in London, Edinburgh, and Manchester.
About Citizens Design Bureau
Citizens Design Bureau are an award-winning team of architects, interior designers and new enterprise strategists, founded by Katy Marks in 2013. They collaborate with inspired, forward thinking organisations and individuals, distilling complex briefs to create spaces with functional clarity, woven with ingenuity and joy.
As well as winning a RIBA National Award in 2023 for the extension of Manchester Jewish Museum, Citizens Design Bureau were named Public Building Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards 2022 for work including Jacksons Lane Theatre, Studio 3 Arts Centre and the Talent House for UDMusic and East London Dance.
citizensdesignbureau.net
@citizensdesignbureau
Photography © Hufton+Crow
BEAM Cultural Hub, Hertfordshire, England images / information from the Scenario Architecture London, UK
Location: Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
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