Theatres · HUB · REV 2026-10-06
Theatres
A theatre is settled by geometry before it is settled by finishes: what can be seen, what can be heard, and how the stage meets the audience. This gate separates that design decision from its construction.
What this gate is
A theatre here is a room whose shape decides hearing and seeing: volume, plan, rake, and the stage opening in front of the Auditorium. A speech programme does not ask for the room music asks for, and reinforcement does not repair a sightline that was drawn wrong. This is not a colour mood for drapes and seats.
Two paths are published. Design fixes the brief: C-value, volume, and the stage relationship. Construction coordinates structure, slab loads, service penetrations, and the isolation line before finishes lock in a mistake. Stage, seating, and acoustics pages complete the work. They do not dissolve into this gate. A discussion figure is replaced by the project criterion and by measurement.
What is published now
Theatre design
Auditorium geometry: sightlines, volume, speech versus music, and the stage relationship. Not a fabric choice.
Theatre construction
Coordination of structure, loads, penetrations, and isolation with a geometry that has already been decided. Not a promise to build every trade in the building.
What the gate leaves outside
Rigging design, the seat model, and an RT60 measurement have their own pages. The gate points to them and does not replace them.
What will not be published here
No city pages, no product fire classification, and no legal capacity copied from a floor area.
When to open this gate
Before the section is frozen
When the programme — speech, music, or mixed, reinforced or not — is still a sentence in the brief.
A renovation that must change hearing or seeing
If the work is only reupholstery, this gate is wider than the ask. If the rake or the volume changes, it is the place to start.
Wrong scope
A furniture package, a meeting room with a low platform, or a ranking of theatres by city: this gate is not that request.
How to read the subject
- 01
Name the programme: is the unaided voice part of the brief, or is reinforcement assumed from the start?
- 02
Draw the stage relationship and the sightlines, including C-value, before choosing a seat model.
- 03
Set volume and RT60 as project criteria — speech usually wants less late energy than music — then predict, then measure to ISO 3382-1.
- 04
Only then hand loads, penetrations, and the isolation line to construction. Finishes do not repair a wrong section.
What this gate does not do
Reading it as a catalogue
Linings and seats are materials inside an engineering decision. The gate does not sell a range.
Counting seats from area
A seats-per-square-metre factor is a sketch. It is not a legal occupancy.
Wrong scope
This gate does not design a cinema, a conference hall, or a VIP box by renaming the seat. It issues no fire classification and no STC figure.
Questions designers and owners ask
Is a black box a theatre painted black?
No. Flexibility is in power, audio, rigging points, and the ability to rearrange the audience. Paint does not create that.
Can one room serve speech and music?
Only if the brief states which criterion yields. The volume and RT60 that suit music strain speech clarity, and the reverse starves the decay music wants.
Does this gate give an RT60?
No. RT60 is a project criterion, measured to ISO 3382-1 after the room is finished. The page replaces neither the standard nor the measurement.
Who fixes the C-value?
Row geometry and the code adopted for the project. Theatre planning literature often discusses about 90–120 mm. That is a discussion range, not this gate's number.
Does the gate replace the egress code?
No. Aisle width, row length, and the number of seats between exits come from the building, fire, and egress code the project adopts. These pages do not replace it.
Technical sources
- ISO 3382-1
Measurement of room acoustic parameters in performance spaces, including RT60. This gate does not replace the standard, the measurement method, or the project criterion.
- The C-value method in theatre planning literature
Vertical clearance over the eye-line of the person in front. Often discussed around 90–120 mm, then fixed by geometry and code. The page replaces neither the section nor the code.
- The building, fire, and egress code adopted by the project
Occupancy, exits, and the fire performance of finishes are governed by the code the authority having jurisdiction has adopted. This gate names no city and does not replace that code.
Last editorial review: 2026-10-06. Review means the text was checked, not that a project was measured.
Turn the question into a brief
A study starts from room volume, use, and existing condition, not from a product name. Fill the brief and copy it.
Project study form