West Australian Ballet HQ
Project leader & Design Architect, early concept design to Construction Superintendent.
This world class dance training, administration, wardrobe and set production facility is housed in a significant heritage listed building in Perth. With parts of the large former Institute for the Blind building over 100 years old and in need of extensive repair, a great deal of considered design was required to incorporate the highly technical elements of the Ballet Centre. The installation of high performance flooring over a 100 year old timber structure to create a full size practice stage in the dance salles required drawing together many experts to come up with creative solutions that could be achieved within the budget of a not-for-profit organisation. The result has been hugely successful, aside from achieving these functional and beautiful facilities, the injury rates of the professional dancers has plummeted.
The project was remarkable for having successfully pulled together a huge amount of donated building services in order to create a community facility as well as meeting the needs of the WAB. We were also able to incorporate, upcycle and recycle a large amount of material left onsite as part of a failed apartment conversion, in line with the project's aspirational sustainability goals.
It was awarded the 2013 West Australian Heritage Council’s Excellence in Adaptive Reuse Award as well as receiving a commendation from the West Australian Institute of Architects for Adaptive Reuse and qualifying for the UNESCO awards.
