Courtyard Arts Centre

The brief called for two performance spaces (one for 400, the other for 150 people), rehearsal rooms, artist's studios and gallery, administration areas, a café and separate restaurant. The clarity of the concept and resultant program is, thankfully, evident and un-diluted in the finished building. It is rigorously executed with a limited palette of three materials: concrete, glass and timber. The two auditoria are 'blind' and completely clad with stone blocks. They are linked, in contrast, by a three-storey glazed box, creating an inviting front of house. On the ground floor are the café and box office. Looking down into this space is the restaurant, and above this, at second floor level is the art gallery. Linking all three levels and providing an obvious circulation route is an elegant staircase. Preventing this glass box from over-heating is a simple, elegant matrix of timber louvres, held in a delicate, lightweight steel framework, which gracefully steps around an existing tree.