Royal Exchange Theatre

Manchester's three-domed Edwardian Cotton Exchange closed in 1968 and its Grade II-listed status ruled out many conventional uses for the building. This led to the innovative idea of a theatre-in-the-round, and in 1974 our founder Max was invited to work on the building services for the project. 

The theatre design was inspired by the NASA lunar landing spacecraft and is a transparent structure of tubular steel and glass that forms a separate structure within the great hall. It seats 700 people, all within 10m of the centre of the stage. This creates a very densely packed space requiring high ventilation rates.

One of the most striking features is that all the services are fully exposed, yet stylistically sympathetic to the architecture. The hot air supply reaches the theatre from a remote plant room via ducts. These ducts have been designed in recurring tree-like patterns that make an essential contribution to the visual impact of the building.

The building was later bombed and rebuilt. Max was again involved and devised an innovative lighting design, including plasma lamps.