ABSTRACT
The growing trend in the entertainment industry in recent times has shown high level of developments and is evident from the developments seen in the music industry and Nollywood. However, recent research into theatres in Nigeria have shown poor facilities and dilapidated state of the centre for the arts, which has given rise to situations where users are uncomfortable thereby, making them express their discomfort by running side commentaries during productions and reduction in user loyalty to the existing arts centres. To this end, the research seeks to evaluate the effect of built form principles on the user experience in performing arts centres. Thus, a qualitative method of research that involves the use of review from relevant literature, questionnaires, interviews and case studies are used to evaluate the users experience in performing art centres. The results from the study reveals the impact of built form principles on user experience through a sequential flow of adjourning spaces and thus, reveals the user experience points in performing arts centres to be arrival experience points, social/ shared experience points and theatrical experience points. Finally, a framework was developed from the obtained results to aid future designs and informed decisions for the design of performing arts centres which was demonstrated in the design of a performing arts centre Jos.