Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay - Winner of the ACE Engineering Excellence Award for Best Building Services Project (Medium Firm).
Hulley & Kirkwood provided an acoustic consultancy service for the M&E solutions for Hoddinott Hall - an award winning concert hall for the National Orchestra of Wales. The concert hall's unique design cannot be compared to other concert halls due to a number of unique features. The venue’s key acoustic spaces are isolated from vibration and noise using ‘box in box' construction techniques, combined with a high specification acoustic design which necessitated innovative M&E solutions to match. M&E design solutions included;
• Bespoke, variable height integrated chilled acoustic element, plus ventilation system running at noise levels equivalent to a recording studio was devised; • Glazing strategy to allow an amount of natural daylight without external noise being heard;
• Silent digital dimming gear so foreign sounds would not be detected;
• Acoustic ceiling integrated with active beams;
• Building Services' noise levels equivalent to a Recording Studio;
• Service penetrations through floating floors;
• Silent digital dimming gear (lighting).
The hall’s acoustics have been deemed excellent by the musicians that have tested it thus far. It has been labelled as the most acoustically challenging project in the UK, if not Europe, to date.
