Luminato Festival at the Hearn Power Plant
Teaming up with Canada’s acclaimed Luminato Festival and PARTISANS Architects, we transformed the decommissioned Hearn Power Plant into the world’s largest temporary multi-arts centre.
Project Summary
For its 10th anniversary, Toronto’s Luminato Festival set out to create one of the most ambitious cultural venues ever attempted in the city: transforming the decommissioned Hearn Power Plant into a temporary multi-arts centre.
Key Features
- a 1,100-seat theatre built inside a decommissioned power station
- a large-scale music venue with up to 5,000 standing capacity
- a network of performance and exhibition spaces across the building
- a unique immersive festival environment
Charcoalblue’s Approach
Working with PARTISANS Architects and the festival team, Charcoalblue helped reimagine the vast industrial structure as a network of performance environments capable of hosting theatre, orchestral music, experimental performance, exhibitions, talks, and dining.
Charcoalblue developed a flexible framework that allowed the building’s industrial scale and character to become a defining feature of the visitor experience.
Rather than fighting the architecture, the design embraced the raw qualities of the space — a key principle in creating successful theatres within “found spaces”.
The result was the largest temporary multi-arts venue ever created for the festival, bringing thousands of visitors into one of Toronto’s most iconic and rarely accessible industrial landmarks.
The Vision
The festival’s leadership wanted to create an experience that blurred the boundaries between performance venue, cultural hub, and urban exploration.
The transformed power station would host:
- theatre productions
- amplified and acoustic music
- exhibitions and gallery spaces
- participatory workshops and talks
- a restaurant located within the former control room
- large-scale spectacle events
Rather than a single performance space, the goal was a fully immersive cultural environment where audiences could move throughout the building and encounter multiple art forms.
The project also sought to inspire broader conversations about reclaiming underused urban infrastructure for cultural use.
Key Challenges
Designing for a Vast Industrial Interior
The Hearn Power Plant is enormous, with an internal volume of approximately 700,000 cubic metres. Turning this space into functional performance environments required careful acoustic and spatial planning.
Supporting Diverse Programming
The venue needed to support an unusually broad programme, including:
- spoken-word theatre
- orchestral performances
- experimental and amplified music
- participatory audience events
Each required different spatial and acoustic conditions.
Creating a Multi-Space Audience Journey
The design needed to allow audiences to explore the building, moving between multiple venues and experiences without losing orientation within the enormous structure.
© Jonathan Castellino
Results & Impact
For the duration of the festival, the Hearn Power Plant became one of the most extraordinary venues ever created in Toronto — a cultural landmark where theatre, music, art, and audiences collided within the monumental scale of a historic industrial structure.
Charcoalblue’s work helped unlock the building’s potential as a performance environment, and the transformation demonstrated how industrial heritage buildings can be reimagined as cultural destinations, inspiring new approaches to temporary performance venues and adaptive reuse.
Project Details
| Client | Luminato Festival |
| Location | Toronto, Canada |
| Year | 2016 |
| Project Consultants | PARTISANS Architects, Architecture; National Theatre of Scotland, Production Partner |
