A comprehensive public consultation process, informed by more than 22,000 survey responses, helped shape priorities around accessibility, sustainability and community use. The completed building reflects these ambitions, providing spaces for participation, education and social activity alongside its performance programme.

At the heart of the transformation is a new glazed foyer extension, which creates a visible and welcoming entrance. Arranged over three levels with a central atrium, the daylight-filled foyer brings together a reception, café, and restaurant, which offer expansive views across the Clwydian surrounding countryside. Internally, the redevelopment reorganises the convoluted and restrictive 70s circulation into intuitive and generous routes centred around an internal “street” connecting the theatre’s performance spaces, visual art gallery and public facilities.

The two existing performance spaces have been upgraded technically and refurbished throughout, improving comfort, sightlines and theatrical capability. Alongside an upgraded events room and a cinema, the building now includes rehearsal rooms, studios, making workshops, artist spaces, a restaurant and bar, significantly improved backstage areas and dedicated community spaces. A new scenic workshop extension allows - for the first time in the building’s history - all the production teams to work together on site, while a public viewing walkway provides audiences a glimpse of the extraordinary sets and props that are made on site.

Accessibility has been a central priority throughout the project. The redevelopment introduces new lifts, step-free routes across all levels, additional wheelchair positions within auditoria and a Changing Places facility. Dedicated community spaces, play areas and sensory gardens further extend the theatre’s role as a welcoming civic resource for audiences of all ages and abilities.

Sustainability informed every design decision. Rather than demolish and rebuild, the design adopts a deep retrofit strategy, retaining the majority of the existing concrete structure and brick envelop. Minimising the new build extensions reduces embodied carbon, as does the use of engineered CLT and glulam timber for the new foyer structure. The building’s operational decarbonisation is supported by reducing energy demand through fabric improvements, passive design, optimised building services, replacement of gas boilers with air source heat pumps, on-site PVs and a renewable energy tariff.

The building also serves as a cultural canvas. Studio Three Sixty led a public art strategy, commissioning local, national and international artists to create five site-specific works integrated throughout the redevelopment. The programme supported both established and emerging artists, resulting in installations including a large-scale tiled artwork, a screen-printed mirrored artwork, a 33-metre textile commission, murals, an interactive treasure hunt and an oral history project exploring the theatre’s former television studios. Together these commissions enrich the visitor experience and reinforce Theatr Clwyd’s role as a centre for creativity, participation and cultural exchange.

The redevelopment arrives as Theatr Clwyd celebrates its 50th anniversary, marking a new chapter in the theatre’s history as a cultural centrepiece for performance, learning and community life in North Wales.