Steel completes on Birmingham Conservatoire

The main steel elements on the first music conservatoire to be built in the UK for 30 years have been completed.

Working on behalf of main contractor Galliford Try, Mifflin Construction has fabricated, supplied and erected 450t of steelwork for the project, which equates to more than 2,400 individual components.

Being built for Birmingham City University the conservatoire will accommodate five major performance spaces, a dozen group practice rooms, as well as specialist practice rooms and 50 individual practice rooms spread over six floors in the 10,500m² venue.

Acoustics are the main driver for this project as all of the performance spaces need to be totally isolated from each other and using structural steelwork was the chosen solution.

The design involves five individual steel-framed boxes for the main performance spaces, each one independent from each other and from the surrounding main frame. Each box varies in size, but is based around columns, all of which are on acoustic pads, spaced at 6m centres.

The main box houses the 400-seat Adrian Boult Hall – a concert hall that will accommodate a full orchestra. This is positioned above two smaller boxes accommodating a recital hall and an experimental music space. At the other end of the building, the other two boxes housing jazz and organ rooms are stacked on top of each other.

The project is scheduled to complete in July.