Projects | State Theatre of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

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The landmark State Theatre of Western Australia, located in the Perth cultural centre, is a new theatre complex, comprising a 575 seat auditorium, 200 seat studio theatre and ancillary rehearsal and performance spaces.

Providing sustainable building design services

Aurecon assisted the Department of Culture and the Arts with the preparation of the business case for this venue, as well as the site selection study. Following this, during the second project phase, Aurecon provided key sustainable building services design.

During the mechanical services design for the facility, Aurecon engineers used extensive computational fluid dynamics simulations to analyse various air conditioning concepts to serve both the main Heath Ledger theatre and the smaller Studio Theatre.

The simulations gave Aurecon’s engineers a highly accurate selection of displacement ventilation system and high-level jet diffuser options and performance data, which they then matched to the building design so that optimal thermal comfort could be delivered to patrons, visitors, staff and performers.

Location

Whadjuk Country
Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Client

Government of Western Australia – Department of Culture and the Arts

Aurecon's Role

Business case and site selection study; building services including mechanical

Expertise

Building Design, Digital Engineering & Advisory, Environment & Planning, Infrastructure Advisory, Integrated Advisory Solutions

Complete

2011

The landmark State Theatre of Western Australia, located in the Perth cultural centre. Image courtesy of Kerry Hill Architects.

Aurecon assisted the Department of Culture and the Arts with the preparation of the business case for this theatre complex venue.Image courtesy of Kerry Hill Architects.

Aurecon provides key sustainable building services design for the second project phase of the new theatre complex. Image courtesy of Kerry Hill Architects.

During the mechanical services design for the facility, Aurecon engineers used extensive computational fluid dynamics simulations. Image courtesy of Kerry Hill Architects.

The larger of three dedicated performance areas is known as the Heath Ledger Theatre in honour of Perth-born film actor Heath Ledger. Image courtesy of Kerry Hill Architects.

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The landmark State Theatre of Western Australia, located in the Perth cultural centre. Image courtesy of Kerry Hill Architects.

“Being part of a theatre complex meant that the design of the Heath Ledger Theatre was required to meet very strict acoustic requirements. This specific theatre was loosely designed as a ‘concrete box within a concrete box’ which created void spaces between the walls of the ‘boxes’ which we could exploit to provide passive cooling of the 100 per cent outside air being delivered to the theatre displacement ventilation system. This truly innovative free-cooling solution significantly reduced the required capacity of the active cooling thermal plant,” said Phil Hues, Technical Director, Built Environment.

In addition, a number of design considerations specifically aimed at minimising the energy consumption of the building were also modelled to deliver improved ecologically sustainable outcomes.