The Court Theatre Christchurch

The exciting purpose-built Court Theatre includes 360-seat main playhouse auditorium and a 130-seat studio theatre for children and family shows, as well as front-of-house facilities. The project forms part of the earthquake recovery plan for central Christchurch and is situated in the Performing Arts Precinct on Gloucester Street.

The original architectural design concept was led by Haworth Tomkins in the UK who have extensive experience in theatre design - the preliminary design was handed over to Athfield Architects in New Zealand for collaborative completion.

Corten Steel Rainscreen - with a bespoke engineered fixing methodology

A key technical challenge on the project was the fixing methodology for the Corten steel rainscreen, which was custom-folded to echo the profile of traditional corrugated roofing iron. While visually striking, this approach introduced complex requirements around panel movement, drainage, and long-term material performance, particularly given the reactive nature of weathering steel. To address these issues, Thermosash engineered a bespoke isolating washer system, designed to allow for differential movement while also preventing moisture entrapment behind the cladding. To arrive at a proven design, testing was conducted by 3D modelling, prototypes and Finite Element Analysis to validate the performance under dynamic and thermal loads.

This small but critical detail exemplifies the importance of performance-led design in façade engineering, where digital prototyping and material science intersect to solve highly specific, real-world construction challenges.

Thermosash facade solutions include:

• PW1000 Unitised glazed aluminium curtainwall
• PW400 Unitised glazed aluminium curtainwall with actuator sashes 
• PW40 Unitised glazed aluminium curtainwall
• Commercial aluminium windows and doors
• Auto sliders
• Sierra triple sliding doors
• Rooflight
• Corten steel rainscreen wall and roof cladding
• Glazed frameless pivot door
• Auto bi-parting doors