The acoustic sophistication of Sadler's Wells East

Sadler’s Wells East in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford is a remarkable building, both in design and construction. 

Theatre, acoustic and experience design consultancy Charcoalblue worked alongside architects O’Donnell + Tuomey on the project, writing the initial brief and feasibility study and collaborating with the design team to create a flexible performance space equipped with advanced technical infrastructure, including a fully motorised hoist system and adaptable seating configurations. 

Charcoalblue also worked on the acoustic design - an enigmatic discipline whose influence is felt, but not always seen, according to the firm's senior acoustic consultant Vangelis Koufoudakis. 

For Koufoudakis, acoustics is not a dark art, but a field grounded in the practicalities of addressing operational challenges, enhancing communication and improving functionality.

'As acoustic consultants we provide a specialised perspective on the built environment, but our work is deeply integrated with other disciplines,' he says. 

'We establish structural stiffness and weight criteria, coordinate with facade engineers to mitigate external noise and advise services engineers on equipment placement, air delivery and vibration control.'

Loud and clear: the art of explaining acoustics

Sound is physics - a science of tangible principles, says Koufoudakis - and, for an acoustician, the challenge lies not only in that, but also in communicating the expertise effectively. 

Discussing the perception of sound and how it shapes the experience of a space is difficult, but an acoustic solution must be understood by everyone - from clients and architects to contractors - in order to be implemented correctly.

With many specialist consultants contributing their expertise on a project, acoustics can sometimes be perceived as an afterthought - an element to be added in at the end. Fortunately, Sadler’s Wells approached this project with a deep sensitivity to sound and the Charcoalblue design team collaborators were highly experienced in arts and cultural projects.

Early involvement focused on education - highlighting the sound separation challenges of a densely programmed building centred around rhythmic movement. The notion of Sadler’s Wells East as very much an acoustic building was championed early on and communicated throughout the design and construction process by the architects.

Charcoalblue's collaboration with engineers Buro Happold was strengthened by weekly day-long workshops during the design phase - a luxury of the pre-pandemic process that fostered mutual comprehension of all specialist disciplines.

Elegance and functionality at Sadler’s Wells East

The building houses acoustically demanding spaces, including:

• Three medium-sized dance studios (12x14m)

• Two large-sized dance studios (14x16m)

• The flagship Studio 1 (18x21m)

• A 550-seat flexible dance theatre

• An 8x8m community dance stage in the front-of-house space

All these spaces are subject to significant floor impact from rhythmic dance movement, which can excite structural resonances. Given the constrained urban footprint, the challenge was to vertically stack high-activity spaces while maintaining the necessary sound isolation.

Rather than relying on conventional box-in-box construction, Sadler’s Wells East required a tailored approach. The solution was structural separation - a series of strategically designed 'box-next-to-box' and 'box-on-top-of-box' configurations:

• The main theatre is fully independent from its surroundings, featuring a 100mm-wide gap between it and the front-of-house structure housing the dance studios.

• Each studio incorporates a 100mm-deep jacked-up slab - a floating concrete floor system that isolates vibration from adjacent spaces.

• Studio 1, the crown jewel of the dance studios, is an entirely self-contained structure perched atop the main theatre. It rests on mega-trusses supported by 100mm-thick, pre-compressed natural rubber bearings, ensuring complete acoustic separation.

The public areas are equally well designed. The foyers strike a delicate balance between sound absorption and liveliness - comfortable when sparsely occupied and never overwhelming at peak capacity before a show.

Although budget constraints and a global pandemic posed hurdles, the original vision remained intact: Sadler's Wells East embodies an acoustic sophistication so seamless it becomes as invisible as sound itself.

Charcoalblue's expertise enabled a highly functional, vertically arranged building to achieve simplicity and elegance while ensuring that the acoustic design goes unnoticed - exactly as intended.

Find more on this case study at charcoalblue.com/sadlers-wells-east

For more information and technical support, visit charcoalblue.com

Contact:
020 7928 0000
vangelis.koufoudakis@charcoalblue.com

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