The Opera Rehearsal Room

The charity converted a large house in north London into accommodation for the postgraduate students it supports. Many of these students are opera singers or répétiteurs who can’t find suitable rehearsal space. This led to the creation of a design brief for a rehearsal space to be provided as a jewel-like pavilion in the garden of the property.

The key drivers for the building were how it responded to its site and how it performed acoustically. This led to the form of the building being composed from a rectangular volume with opposing corners pulled down to create an asymmetric internal volume. This minimises parallel internal surfaces ideal for the acoustics while also generating a massing that respects the neighbouring gardens and a diagonal ridge that aligns with the main axis of the house. The building is then constructed from an inner and outer shell that are physically separated to prevent noise transfer.

The primary structure of the building is formed from a series of timber glulam frames that are acoustically insulated from the external shell. Internally the exposed glulam structure helps to break up the surfaces of the walls to further improve the acoustic performance. The outer shell is clad with bronze anodised panels, which sit on a grey brick base.

A series of bronze fins align with the internal exposed glulam structure to provide a visual link between the interior and exterior while giving the elevations depth and interest. These materials were chosen to provide a highly engineered external appearance to the building that would honour its crisp geometry