ASB Theatre

Alex led the design of the new 700-seat ASB Theatre while working for Beca Ltd in New Zealand.

Built to form a cultural focal point for the town of Blenheim, the new theatre was redesigned following an earlier, over-budget scheme. A key driver of the delivered scheme was to find an economic design that could be delivered within the available budget. To achieve this, exposed precast walls were used to form the auditorium and fly tower walls, allowing the cladding and acoustic panelling from the façade to be removed. In addition the use of custom-fabricated ductile screw piles, along with stabilisation works to the adjacent river bank, mitigated the seismic risk. These key changes allowed a significant reduction in costs and made the theatre a viable project.

The structure is predominantly constructed using precast, off-site fabricated panels, beams and floor plates. This allowed a faster construction programme and minimised the need for on-site footprint as minimal laydown areas were required. The use of precast also allowed careful management of the finishes, to meet the architectural intent for the theatre.