Conversion of cinemas : Technical solutions for soundinsulation, daylight admission and accessibility. A case study of the old Filmstaden in Uppsala

Adaptive reuse of former cinemas preserves existing structures and reduces resource use. This study investigates the technical challenges and solutions involved in converting the former Filmstaden in Uppsala into a youth-activity cultural house. Three core aspects are addressed: 1) sound insulation of walls adjacent to noise-sensitive areas, 2) implementing daylight solutions in a building originally designed for darkness, and 3) compliance with modern accessibility standards. Field studies of the existing building together with computer simulation were used to identify and solve these problems. Acoustic measurements on the partition wall revealed that its sound-insulating performance failed to meet Swedish standard. Based on these results, a retrofit construction was modelled in Insul v10. The added construction comprised of a stud framing with an air gap to the existing wall, insulation, a plywood board, and 3 gypsum wallboards. The new wall construction achieved Rw+Ctr50-3150 > 55 dB, satisfying Swedish requirements. Revit 2023 together with daylight simulations were used to model the existing building and evaluate daylight factors. The analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of combining daylight factor simulations with hand calculations when planning a building's floor plan. Daylight factor simulations in Revit confirmed that it is an effective method for optimizing a new floor plan. The results from the sound simulations showed the critical role of an airgap for achieving high sound insulation, as well as the benefits and effects gypsum boards, and the influence of insulation thickness.