Projects

Description

The delivery of all construction works to The Great Hall in Canterbury, opened in September 2019. This new building provides Kent College with a fantastic new facility which has become a focal point for school life at the College, as well as a key venue for Kent.

The impressive new state-of-the-art 600-seat auditorium provides cutting-edge facilities for worship, concerts and the performing arts. It has been designed and built as a versatile and practical space which offers exceptional facilities.

A key criterion at the proposal stage was to provide an assembly space for the whole school whilst also providing an intimate theatre space suitable for professional standard drama and music performances. These varying uses and scales of spaces were catered for by creating a flexible space that can be transformed to accommodate either. There is additional seating which is used during assembly periods but can then be stored away for theatre mode, which with use of a moveable partition creates additional foyer space. This flexible, efficient layout optimises the floor area and limits the footprint of the building.

Since it’s opening, The Great Hall has been used as a key venue to host events in support of ‘The Canterbury Festival’, an independent charity bringing a mixture of performing arts from around the world, championing new talent.

We are also delighted that The Great Hall has also enjoyed success in a number of awards since we completed the works. These include:

• Winner - RICS Social Impact Award (South East), Leisure category
• Finalist - Constructing Excellence SECBE 2020 Awards, Collaborative Working category.
• Winner - Canterbury Design Society Awards - New Building Outside a Conservation Area
• Winner - Canterbury Design Society Awards - Most Innovative Solution to our Climate and Ecological Emergency

Details