From Seats to Ceiling The London Coliseum was completed in late 1904. The original plenum-style ventilation system was reversed in 1932, with air supplied at the seating levels and extracted at the ceiling. The current air handling units and horizontal ductwork distributing air to the risers were installed 50 years later in 1982. In 2000, the system was brought back to full working order at a lower air volume and the addition of cooling supply air. Arup's new design is a direct inverse of the 1932 system.
Air is supplied via nozzle banks in the domed ceiling.
This creates a swirling airflow within the auditorium that doesn't affect the quality of acoustics. Air is extracted at the back of the seating regions, creating proper ventilation of the entire space. Arup's CFD study took approximately five weeks to complete. STAR-CD solved the momentum, mass and energy equations needed to predict detailed temperature distribution and air movement within the auditorium. Animation capabilities within EnSight enabled engineers to see the invisible forces of airflow and conduct experiments that would be too costly and difficult to do in the real world.