Perth’s State Theatre Centre is considered a landmark facility and comprises of:
- A 575 seat proscenium arch main theatre
- A 200 seat studio theatre
- An open air courtyard that doubles as an outdoor performance space
- Two large rehearsal rooms
- Back of house facilities including dressing rooms, technical stores, scene docks, repair workshops, wardrobe, laundry, green room and a kitchen, and front of house facilities, which include foyers, bars, box office, staff rooms and a concierge desk
WGE provided the consulting services for the electrical, hydraulics, fire protection, sustainability and vertical transportation disciplines.
The nature of the project called for WGE to have close liaison and co-ordination with the theatre consultant and the many specialist trades that fell under their control including theatre equipment trades, audio system trade, the winching / hoisting machinery trade and stage lighting dimming system/trade.
Some of the highlights from each discipline are listed below:
- The back stage circulation and working areas immediately adjacent to both the main and studio theatres are fitted with flexible lighting systems, including white and blue working lights, the latter to cater for movement during “dark” scenes on stage.
- The building was fitted with security, CCTV, access control, fire detection and Emergency Warning and Intercommunication Systems (EWIS).
- The public toilet urinals were fitted with flush valves to eliminate cistern-fill delays and cater for the expected high volumes of traffic during intervals.
- The hot water is provided by gas-fired instantaneous units. These are manifolded together and feed a storage vessel. Hot water is then circulated from this vessel to sinks and other site fixtures via a flow and return ring. This enables large volumes of hot water to be supplied on demand in the most energy efficient manner and with no delay at the tap.
- The rainwater run-off from the building’s facades is captured and stored in basement level collection tanks for re-use in the Centre’s landscape irrigation system.
- Extensive daylight modelling of the facility to test various options for glazing and façade treatment. Modelled results were used in the development of the unique façade treatment to achieve a high indoor environment quality and the day light penetration results were used to effectively zone the artificial lighting to minimise the energy consumption.
- A complex lift system, including front of house lifts, goods lift and back of house lifts, all of which are interfaced with the access control system, which also allows management to disable access to parts of the Centre that are not in use at the turn of a key.
