Empire Cinema Ipswich

Background

The development, first announced in June 2016, forms part of a larger retail and leisure development from the Capital & Regional and Drum Property Group and has seen The Buttermarket undergo a huge redevelopment programme. The centre which will also play host to a new Pure Gym, Coast to Coast, Cosy Club, Wagamama and Prezzo as part of the £35m redevelopment.

Justin Ribbons, CEO of Empire Cinemas commented; “We’re thrilled to be adding to the Empire Cinemas family with the opening of our latest cinema in Ipswich. Empire Cinemas prides itself on offering visitors the very best in big screen entertainment and we’re looking forward to building on this at The Buttermarket. Along with two IMPACT screens, D-BOX and luxury seating as standard we are confident cinema-goers will have an unparalleled viewing experience.”

Challenges

The challenge was to adapt an existing ageing unoccupied section of the shopping centre into a multi-screen cinema. Alongside Cole Jarmin, Unick Architects, Farrat, and the client, we developed methods to create acoustic separation of all the auditoriums, and the newly constructed bowling alley below. Furthermore, the requirement for 2 escalators on the 2 floor, meant we needed to remove sections of concrete slabs, and come up with a solution to bringing them into the building at 2^nd floor.

Solutions

Farrat acoustic isolation systems ‘Farrat Concrete Floating Floors‘ and ‘PLAS Lightweight Partition Isolation Strips‘ were used in the cinema to achieve a Natural Frequency of 12Hz and Ambient Noise Level (inside auditoria) of NR25. Following successful completion of the cinema project, Farrat was also selected to provide the Acoustic Floating Floor for the bowling alley, achieving a Natural Frequency of 6Hz.

In this project we had an existing building with an unusually high structural fundamental mode, so the natural frequency of the cinema floors were designed to sit above this, and the bowling alley below, keeping all resonances as far away from each other as practically possible – Farrat’s Isomat floating floor isolators gave us unparalleled flexibility in doing this, as we are able to choose almost any combination of dynamic stiffness and damping that we like, in a cost effective way.

With the need to get the escalators onto the 2^nd floor, we were required to create an opening in the side of the building, and along with planned road closures we were able to crane lift the escalators into the building, and reinstate the outer fabric of the shopping centre once we were complete.

Results

The brand new, state-of-the-art twelve-screen complex will be Empire, and East Anglia’s, first all laser projection cinema complex powered by Barco’s Flagship Laser projectors.

Empire Cinemas Ipswich will feature luxury seating as standard in all 12 screens, giving cinemagoers the option to watch all the action on the biggest screens from the comfort of their very own luxury recliner or share one of the double Sofas. The cinema will also feature two IMPACT® screens, boasting bigger screens and Dolby ATMOS sound alongside stadium seating and extra legroom, creating the ultimate viewing experience.

In addition to IMPACT®, movie lovers in Ipswich will also have the chance to visit Empire’s brand-new D-BOX screens. These two additional screens offer viewers the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the action with seats synchronised to the film, mimicking movements and vibrations. Sound, image and motion will all come together in this user-controlled environment to create a truly memorable experience.

No cinema outing is complete without a stop at the retail stand and Empire Cinemas Ipswich will offer a wide range of high-quality cinema snacks. Alongside the much-loved favourites, visitors can also enjoy Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and Cup Coffee, further enhancing their trip to the movies. All this and with free parking after 4pm at The Buttermarket Centre.