Dance City
Client: Newcastle City Council
Architect: Malcolm Fraser Architects
Project manager: Monk Dunstone Associates
Structural engineer: Ove Arup & Partners (Scotland)
Services engineer: Harley Haddow
Bricklaying contractor: Shepherd Construction
Bricks: Baggeridge Brick - Telford Smooth Brown
Traditional brickwork contrasts with steel frame and coloured glazing to create a striking composition.
‘Thermal mass’ as a term may have become over-used lately, but it is one reason why Dance City in Newcastle, completed in December 2005, is such a significant development.
It is one of the latest buildings to use brick as part of a passive environmental strategy, not to mention for structural, acoustic, security and aesthetic reasons. Located in Newcastle city centre only a stone’s throw from St James’s Park football ground, the new venue caters for dance, performance and teaching at both academic and community levels. Edinburgh-based
Malcolm Fraser Architects has produced a striking composition involving complex spatial relationships and two distinct structural systems.
There are three main components to the building. A strip of dance studios and associated activities form the highest block, with the dance lab forming the lower block. Both of these are defined structurally by brick diaphragm walls and exposed concrete floor planks. In contrast, the remaining L-shape block – which houses the administrative functions – is steel framed with coloured glazing to provide transparency and to contrast with the massing of the brickwork.
From the outset, the design team was keen to combine brick’s thermal mass – the ability to absorb, store and radiate heat – with the structural requirement of large, unobstructed spans, up to 15m in the dance lab.
Explaining the choice of brick, project architect Clive Albert says: ‘Brick offered the appropriate performance characteristics as well as being cost effective, thanks to a skilled local workforce. Structural investigations revealed that a double skin brick diaphragm wall construction also had acoustic benefits, helping to reduce noise breakout from the dance studios to nearby residential properties.’
Typically 440mm wide and up to 10m high, diaphragm walls have an inner and outer leaf of 102.5mm brickwork separated by a 235mm cavity with 120mm rigid insulation on the inner leaf. Stack-bonded stretchers at right angles tie the two leaves together, thanks to stainless steel ties in every course.
Initially, the architects toyed with the idea of bonding the tie bricks in to the two leaves, but concerns that moisture could transfer across the brick ‘fins’ led them to use steel ties with continuous vertical DPCs instead. Movement joints have also been incorporated into the diaphragm walls, typically at 11m maximum spacing.
Weather-struck joints were originally specified externally for their water shedding properties and visual effect, but it proved difficult to achieve the crispness and consistency that was needed. They were exchanged for ‘bucket handle’ joints at sample panel stage.
Dance City is also notable as a further example of the revival of interest in internal brickwork that has been witnessed recently in the UK. Seen throughout the building, brickwork is fair-faced in areas such as the three-storey multi-functional foyer/social space and the dance lab; but is painted white to reflect light in the dance studios and some circulation routes.
Throughout, the philosophy has been to use durable materials in the raw to increase the practicality and robustness of the building.
Staffordshire blue brick, white brick, board-marked concrete, birch ply soffits, white-painted plasterboard and timber handrails and stairs, combine harmoniously to produce a joyous building that is not only good to look at but also a delight to be in.