Aviva Studios

Aviva Studios, programmed and operated by Factory International, is a new large-scale venue that captures the extraordinary creative vision of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) and is one of Europe’s most ambitious and adventurous year-round creative programmes.

Part of a wider local cultural development masterplan, Aviva Studios is a seismic catalyst for beneficial economic and social change in the region. The building is designed with flexibility at its core and comprises independent performance spaces that can be joined together for events hosting up to 7,000 guests.

Collaborating with OMA, we are designing the new adaptable 1,600-seat auditorium and 5,000 standing capacity warehouse for festival events and productions, using virtual reality to visualise the spaces and assist with the sightline analysis. All the technical systems are designed to be ultra-flexible, allowing users to create work with as few technical restrictions as possible – the warehouse alone can hang 200 tons of scenery and equipment. The technical infrastructure is based around a system of fibre networks to maximise flexibility and data transfer rates whilst coping with the large distances involved in this venue.