The Materials

At the outset of the design workshops, our involvement with the project team was to help assess the feasibility and suitability of tensile membranes as the covering element for the amphitheatre. Ultimately, PTFE fabric was selected for the covering of the amphitheatre structures due to its exceptional light translucency, ideal for daytime performances, and its superior fire performance, crucial given the amphitheatre’s proximity to bushland. The fabric also provided an ideal canvas for projection art of the clan shields to the underside of the roof forms, during night shows.

The construction of the amphitheatre involved the creation of six overlapping cantilever canopies encircling the amphitheatre. The five oval audience canopies, measuring 12m (39ft) in length and 7m (23ft) across at the minor axis, have a perimeter shaped using rolled steel edge beams. The larger wangun-shaped canopy over the stage area measures 6m (20ft) across the middle of the canopy, with an impressive 23m (75ft) span at the widest point.

The canopies are supported by columns on the outside perimeter of the amphitheatre, with each section cantilevered over the audience/stage to avoid any internal columns within the space. The columns are designed to reflect the surrounding gum trees, with a single pillar at the base (the trunk) that are then forked midway to provide twin branches supporting the canopies.