Glasgow City Halls

Glasgow, Scotland

Reopened to the public in 2006, the project consisted of the renovation of Glasgow City Halls, a historic hall in the city of Glasgow, into a 1,066-seat classical concert hall. It is also the home of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBCSSO).

The acoustic design strategy was to retain the positive geometry of the hall's "shoebox" shape. In order to optimise its acoustics, the volume of the hall was modified by renovating the stalls and slightly tilting them to obtain good vision and additional volume and by opening up the roof void to include it in the volume of the hall and increase the reverberation time. This also improved the scenographic offer with a new technical grill available for lighting and loudspeakers during amplified events.

Sébastien Jouan was part of the Arup Acoustics design team working alongside Ian Knowles and Ned Crowe, under the direction of Richard Cowell. Sébastien was responsible for all the acoustic reception tests for the City Halls as well as BBC Scotland, the new BBC television studios in Scotland by David Chipperfield.

These two projects gave him a presence in Glasgow to create a new Arup Acoustics office in Scotland.

Client: Glasgow Life under the direction of Louise Mitchell

Architects: Glasgow City Council (Kerr Robertson)

Acoustic Design: Arup

Role of Sébastien Jouan: Acoustician

Opening: 2006