Vue: Westfield Shopping Centre

Stadia Seating Structure

Farrat acted as design co-ordinator by taking the loadings from the structural engineer, baseplate dimensions from the two steelwork contractors and the acoustic performance requirements of the acoustic consultant to generate schedules and drawings for each auditorium showing which CineSTEEL pad should be positioned in which location. Each acoustic bearing pad was individually labelled and AWTH acoustic washers were then packed as a kit for each auditorium and deliveries were scheduled to be in line with Bridgford’s installation schedule. This all proved to be a valuable service to the client, making sure no mistakes were made and shortening installation time. 

Internal Partitions

The typical cinema design relies on the acoustic walls being supported by the floating floor to create a box-in-box design. The performance from the White City VUE cinema proved that the alternative method of placing the walls next to the floors and isolating them with Farrat CineWALL PRO gave excellent acoustic performance results. There were a number of different wall types depending on the location and in each case we calculated the width of strip required, length of each wall type required and the quantity of CineWALL acoustic washers with integrated bushes. All these items were packed for easy identification to speed up installation time on site. 

Acoustic Floating Floors

The final part of the process was to install the Farrat CineFLOOR PRO system which was chosen  for the ease, speed and flexibility of installation. We created accurate installation drawings for each auditorium showing exact isolator and formwork locations and quantities. For the entrance ramps to each auditorium we created reinforced screed ramps which were isolated using FAVIM full area acoustic isolation material where the top of the ramp met the CineFLOOR PRO floating floor system. 

Access for all materials was very constrained and there was a big emphasis on protection of the newly finished building. This once again prompted the decision to use fibre reinforced concrete rather than mesh reinforcement as it would have been too time consuming.

The concrete pour was successfully completed in the scheduled 5 days. The concrete had to be pumped 30m vertically (being careful not to damage the finished building facade) and up to 230m into the building navigating through the network of auditoria entrance corridors. For such a long pipeline we used a compressor to push the excess concrete out of the pipeline to minimise concrete waste. 

A cooperative and professional relationship between the Farrat team and the client meant that design changes imposed by the end user as well as coordination with other trades were successfully navigated to ensure the project was completed on time and on budget.