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Foster & Partners returnsto Clydeside, 16 yearsafter completing the

‘Armadillo’, to build anadjacent ‘Spaceship’.

Critique: Johnny Rodger. Photos: Nigel Young.

BUILDING

Traditionally when the players came totown to entertain they found a spare bit ofland on the urban limits where they couldbe daring, edgy and give the townsfolk asplash of colour. It’s not too much of an ex-aggeration to say that this is essentiallywhat’s happening with the Hydro, a new13,000-seat music venue completed by Fos-ter & Partners on Glasgow’s Clydeside.Nicknamed ‘The Spaceship’ by locals,

the 45-metre-high auditorium beamscolour out across the grey skies of Glasgow.In the post-industrial city, of course, it’s notalways necessary to go right to the edge oftown to find accommodation for such amassive venue: any old brownfield sitemight be redeveloped as a cultural district,and the advantage of the filled-in docks onthe banks of the Clyde is that in a dense ur-ban environment like Glasgow, you’re only

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Full circle: Foster & Partners’ SSE Hydro arena in Glasgow Above The SSE Hydro, Scotland’slargest purpose-built public event arena,adjoins the Clyde Auditorium or‘armadillo’ (1997, also by Foster &Partners) on the north bank of the RiverClyde within Glasgow’s former docks. Below/left Long section through arenaaxis; site plan.

ENTRANCE CIRCULATION ARENA

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drive through these portals to deliver setsright onto the stage. That’s not the sort ofthing that can be done in a bijou EdwardianFrank Matcham theatre in a city centre.The skeletal concrete structure is clad in

a wall of EFTE cushions, which are kept in-flated at a low pressure by fans. On concertevenings these walls are fully illuminated byan array of LED lights said to have a rangeof 12.8 million colours. The lighting systemis programmable and dimmable so that anyincoming act can apply its own ‘branding’colours. For the viewer on the outside, theconcert is visually ‘trumpetted’ across thecity. For the concert-goer, however, mount-ing the stairs and standing in the foyers be-tween the back of the seating decks and thistranslucent wall, it means bathing in the lu-minous display and participating in the vi-sual build up to the performance itself. Itcould perhaps be described as the moderntechnological equivalent of the experiencethe fin-de-siècle listener would have had in

Above/right The circular plan and tilted form of the arena pro-vide optimal viewing for each seat location within the compactenvelope. The top-hung stage lighting rig was developed withperformers in mind and evolved through discussions withproduction crews. Weighing 260 tonnes, its size and circularform allow maximum flexibility. Unlike its neighbour, the ClydeAuditorium or SECC, which has accommodated conferences anda wide range of musical and stage events, the Hydro is adedicated space for music performance, with the capability ofputting on a different event every night.

with the Hydro, which sits up like a tippingcup on a green-planted encircling bank –the saucer – which keeps the raised formdistinct and in the round above the sur-rounding edifices.The structure itself is efficient, with tilted

in-situ concrete fins supporting a crescent-shaped deck of seating within the circularperimeter. This arrangement means that agreater proportion of seats in the middleface square onto the stage, and fewer, at thepoints of the crescent, wrap around thestage area. This stage area is separated fromfront-of-house by two large stage doors onthe west and east sides. We see again herethe advantage of such a site for this type ofvenue, for full-size articulated trucks can

a five-minute taxi ride from the city centre.The growing high-tech media and leisure

quarter on the Clyde spans the river and isalready home to a whole toybox of ‘iconic’forms, from David Chipperfield’s hugeribbed silver box for BBC Scotland (2006)to Foster & Partners’ SECC ConferenceCentre or ‘Armadillo’ (1997), Richard Hor-den’s upended wing of the Glasgow Tower(2001), BDP’s titanium segmental sphe-roid Science Centre (2001) and, nearby, Zaha Hadid’s Riverside Museum (2011). The Hydro adopts a dominant pose

amongst its fellows on the north bank. Fos-ter & Partners’ earlier project, the 3000-seatArmadillo, was not sited on a plinth. andconsequently slumps and fudges its meetingwith the ground. No such mistake was made

Plans The arena has capacity for 12,000 seat-ed or 13,000 with standing in the performancebowl, and includes 11 hospitality boxes, twolarge VIP suites and a club seating level. As wellas accommodating a wide variety of concertsand stage sets, the SSE Hydro will host netballand gymnastics during Glasgow’s 2014Commonwealth Games. The seating bowl isenclosed by a lattice steel roof and wrapped intranslucent ETFE cushions. The 1,400 tonnesteel diagrid roof, one of Europe’s largest free-spanning roof structures, is raised on a circulararray of angled concrete fins which also supporta tilted seating bowl, designed to provide thebest possible viewing angles from every seat.

plan

plan

plan

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Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s Palau de laMusica auditorium in Barcelona, wherethe music is enhanced synaesthetically bygarish moving reflections from thecoloured glass and majolica tiling.The Hydro is built on a 26-hectare site

which formerly contained parking areas forthe SECC Conference Centre. The parkingfacility is now housed in a new multi-storeycar park. This structure was part of an over-all masterplan, but nonetheless the stack-ing of these vehicles brings us to thequestion of access, and of how well theleisure and media facilities are knitted into

the existing city. Clearly such large venuesneed to be able to accommodate peopledrawn from beyond the city and the region,so is it just a question of urban planning?The usual criticism of the area is that as anisolated and windswept park dotted withsuch perfectly formed protruberances, thezone doesn’t participate in or communi-cate fully with the grammar of Glasgow’sbuilt form or the vibrancy of its street life. Itis true that there is a good undergroundrail link to the quarter, but despite its prox-imity to the city centre few people would beencouraged to walk or cycle up the desolatestreets leading past motorways and industri-al scale showrooms. On the other handspace needs to be made not just for hugevenues and the kit involved, but for the safemanagement of vast numbers who comesome distance to attend. To find room forthis so near to a city centre is an achieve-ment in itself.

Left/below Seating tiers are arranged on concrete terraces,with the lower level retractable. The inaugural concert was byRod Stewart on 30 September (ph: Marc Turner).Below Circulation spaces run around the southern perimeter ofthe performance bowl. The building combines natural andmechanical ventilation – fresh air is drawn in above theentrances and vented at a high level.

Right Canted concrete fins, tied togeth-er by horizontal steel rods, support theseating tiers, the steel roof structure andthe facade framework for the inflatedETFE cushions. The ETFE fabric is printedwith a frit pattern to reduce glare. Onthe southern side of the building, the fa-cade is more transparent to draw in nat-ural light and reveal the structure, andthe movement of people within, to view-ers on the outside. Below The SSE Hydro is integrated withthe district-wide public transport, with araised walkway to the exhibition centrestation and a doorstep bus stop. A newmulti-storey car park complements theextensive surface parking in the vicinity.The surrounding landscaping provides anew civic amenity – the building is setback from the river to frame a new pub-lic space between the arena and confer-ence centre. A low concrete bank curvesaround the base of the arena,concealing catering and support spacesand providing a landscaped plinth.

Johnny Rodger is Reader in Urban Literature at the Glasgow Schoolof Art, a regular critic and author of fiction and non-fiction books.

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Project team Architect: Foster & Partners; design team:David Nelson (above), Spencer de Grey,David Summerfield, Ben Scott, ChrisConnell, Mike Jelliffe, Claire Donnelly,James Edwards, David Gillespie, JohnMcCulley, Scott McQueen, Gregor Milne,Mouzafer Ntagkala; structural, services,m&e, environmental & transport engi-neer, planning, fire consultant: Arup;project manager: Turner & Townsend;qs: Gardiner & Theobald; planning consultant: Keppie; planning supervisor:Halcrow; acoustic consultant: SandyBrown Associates; AV consultant: ShenMilsom & Wilke; contractor: Lend Lease.

Selected suppliers and subcontractorsSteel frame, lighting rig: Martifer; energycentre structural steel: Hescott; intumes-cent paint: Stopfire; aluminium extractduct: Metaltech; concrete frame: HeyrodConstruction; precast stairs and terracing:Solway Precast; mastic to precast: Pro-Sealant Solutions; perimeter bullnose:Techrete; brickwork, blockwork:Lesterose; ETFE cladding: NovumStructures; access systems: OCS Safety;bank roofing, cladding to BOH wall:Topek (BUR); bank roof landscaping:Blackdown Horticultural Consultants; irrigation: Souter Sports; moveable walls:Style Scotland; internal glazed screens:Gray & Dick, WorkSmart Interiors; plastering, rendering: George Rome,G&R Ross; partitions, ceilings: RoskelContracts; ceilings: Lindner; Texaa ceil-ings: Veitchi Interiors; resin and terrazzoflooring: Duracryl Flooring, Isocrete(Flowcrete); doors and ironmongery:Fitzpatrick Doors (SIG); roller shutters:Ascot Doors; architectural metalwork:Miller Fabrications; entrance doors: Door& Shutter Services; decorations: Baxter &Gillespie; tiling: A De Cecco; roof lining:Kalzip; roof structure, steelwork,cladding: Martifer; green roof: Bauder;internal furniture, FFE: MJM; ETFE facadelighting: Martin Lighting; digital projec-tors, screens, totems: Sony; drylining:British Gypsum; precast terracing:Solway; mansafe systems: Latchways;seats: Figueras; washbasins: ArmitageShanks; taps: Dolphin; cubicles, sinks,splashbacks: Interplan; internal glazingsystems: Optima; foyer dry-shake finish:Sika; carpet: Westbond; ironmongery:Allgood; door: Fitzpatrick; ceiling baffles,tiles: SAS; escalators, lifts: Kone;retractable seating: Steeldeck; drapes:Acre Jean; signage: Astley Signs; bluepaint: Lucas; entrance matwell: Emco;entrance and VIP doors: DSS; externalfencing: Lang & Fulton; paving:Marshalls; front-of-house fencing,perimeter cladding: Metaltech; render:Sto; movable wall panels: Dorma; load-ing-bay door: Skyfold.

Left The translucent ETFE facade incorporates an LED lighting system thatcan be programmed to form part of aperformance or event. Below The Hydro is next to the ClydeArena, until now Glasgow’s sole venuefor large-scale music performances.

Arup writes In terms of the roof design,the aesthetic required a ‘spiral’ structurethat could achieve a clear span of 125metres. The solution was to provide astructure that acted as a dome in the finalcondition, but as a series of beams duringthe construction phase. Using a‘performance-based dynamic assessment’,which considers ‘accelerations’ of thestructure, savings were made by avoidingunnecessary structural reinforcements.Services allow the arena to be rapidly

reconfigured while minimising energy con-sumption and responding to the demandsof the various spaces. Central boilers, wa-ter tanks, chillers, electrical switchgearand the standby generator are housed inan adjacent energy centre. The use of a full 3D model enabled

prefabrication and off-site manufacture tobe optimised, improved installation qualityand reduced materials use. The model wasused to coordinate service routes withinthe complex geometry and associatedstructure. Services were designed to

withstand the structural movement associ-ated with the live loads imposed by a largecapacity audience. The main air-handlingplant, located in two double-height plantrooms, was installed in a matter of days.The mains distribution runs around thearena were also prefabricated as wereservices within the other eight mechanicalplant rooms. Two electrical rooms,technical rooms and a series of distributedelectrical and technical rooms provide sys-tem resilience and flexibility toaccommodate changing needs over time.Fresh air supply to the main bowl seatingcan be zoned to suit varying capacities ofcrowds. The service tunnel beneath thearena bowl also provides flexibledistribution of power to serve performance,exhibition and event requirements. Awater supply beneath the bowl can deliveran ice/water mix for performances on ice.The use of translucent ETFE allows the

facade to ‘disappear’ to show the activitywithin, or host video or Gobo (Goes-before-optics) projection as required. The

facade LED scheme features 16 millioncolour combinations, and uses colourchange, movement and projection toachieve different effects. The system usesadditive colour mixing rather than subtrac-tive (as at the Allianz Arena in Munich byHerzog & de Meuron), so only the colourrequired is produced rather than usingfilters to subtract unwanted colours. The auditorium has one of the largest

LED schemes in Scotland, though at theearly design stages the technology wasnot sufficiently developed to light the are-na bowl successfully. The lightingconsumes a fraction of the energy of atraditional solution and greatly reducesheat generation, allowing ventilation andcooling loads to be minimised both incapital and running costs.The project, handled out of Arup’s

Edinburgh and Glasgow offices, was ledby project director Martin Surridge andproject manager Ian Lumsden, with DavidBrodie (mechanical), Douglas Wylie (elec-trical designer), Patrick Elsdale (lighting).