Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Value - £2.3m | Main contractor - Galliford Try Construction
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a faculty of Birmingham City University and a £57 million world class institution providing exceptional training for musicians, actors, stage managers and performers. Featuring 9,000m2 of purpose designed teaching, rehearsal and state-of-the-art performance space, including a 500-seat auditorium, the Conservatoire is one of only nine in the UK.
The challenge:
With all interior installations required to meet very specific impact plus multiple decibel acoustic ratings and separation requirements, the technical demands for the project were challenging and unique.
The Conservatoire is set over six levels with different finishing requirements for teaching rooms, live performance spaces, the 500-seat auditorium, offices and communal areas.
Feature acoustic ceilings were required to the performance spaces and a high-level timber ceiling to the foyer area.
As some of the specifications had not been previously built, certain construction requirements needed to take place on a ‘design as we build’ basis.
The project therefore required a company with a great deal of experience, able to innovate on-site and coordinate with all the other trades including external façade and internal fit-out teams.
The solution:
10 different wall types were required, ranging from single layer partitions to twin frame systems with multiple layers of plasterboard and ply lining to live rooms.
Suspended ceilings ranged from single layer MF, to live room ceilings consisting of two MF frames and five layers of plasterboard.
A Hunter Douglas feature timber ceiling was installed to the foyer area at a high level to give the required level of finish and impact.
Ceiling materials installed included 5,000m2 of plasterboard, 600m2 of Armstrong ORCAL, 600m2 of Armstrong OPTIMA and 180m2 of Hunter Douglas.
Overall, almost 24,000m2 of drylining, 31,000m2 of plastering and 5,200m2 of on-site SFS works were completed to plan, requiring at times over 50 men working in multiple areas.
The benefits:
Mansell Building Solutions’ previous experience on similarly demanding projects, including the BBC’s Media City development in Manchester, meant that the company met all the demands of the Birmingham Conservatoire development while adding value where possible.
This experience also meant that that company was instrumental in overcoming technical issues on-site, implementing innovative and realistic solutions for all the different applications.
As a well established subcontractor, the company was able to provide the necessary resources as demanded, including managing the peaks of labour required on the project.
The company acted as a key subcontractor on-site, helping to co-ordinate the activities of the other trades to ensure the best possible timescales and results on the project.
“We are well accustomed to working on developments with such complicated on-site finishes and resourcing demands. Having been established for over 25 years we have the experience and means to manage such challenges and in this case were able to add tremendous value in coordinating the activities of all the other various trades. Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a superb facility, a landmark building and is playing a vital role in developing some outstanding musicians, actors and performers.”
Mike Foy
Divisional Director, off-site
