Teamwork makes the most of a shared space

Across the Atlantic in Toronto, the world-renowned Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Choir have for decades shared Trinity St Paul’s Church with the local congregation.

Tafelmusik approached SSD and AMPC to see what improvements could be made for music performance, acoustics, staging and sightlines.

Constrained by a very tight budget, a holistic concept was developed with the church and orchestra leaders through careful briefing sessions and attendance at concerts, rehearsals and church services – thereby building understanding of the priorities for religious and performance uses.

As experienced musicians and churchgoers themselves, Anne Minors and Robert Essert of AMPC and SSD guided improvements both for performers and audiences, with AMPC supplementing the acoustic concept with designs for new seating and pews to improve sightlines, and a new stage that would lessen the time and workload involved in changing from church to performance use, and with better acoustical response for the musicians.

Last year momentum was finally behind the project and a first phase of improvements was carried out with local heritage architects ERA. Tafelmusik is overjoyed at the improved acoustics for their orchestra and choir, and Trinity St Paul’s enjoys improvements to their choir sound and congregational singing, as well as a close and flexible relationship between clergy and congregation.

As was the case with the Hallé St Peter’s project, the close relationship with the musicians and building operators has resulted in exceptional acoustic, technical and practical improvements, while the time invested in understanding the historic architecture in both projects has resulted in designs which are particularly sensitive to the existing structure.

The AMPC/SSD team currently has renovation projects under construction at the Grade Two-listed Friends’ Meeting House in Euston, London and the Grade Two*-listed, Basil Spence-designed Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of Sussex.

Lots more interesting projects at www.soundspacedesign.co.uk & www.ampcstudio.com