What are some areas to focus on when designing auditorium chairs?

It is now common for many schools and communities to have built more and more small theatres. Although they contain the same architectural elements of a theatre on a micro level, they vary greatly in size. It is common to design a theatre hall with chairs with the understanding that this will lead to many specific issues that need to be addressed.

Drama and performance courses are often part of the content of secondary schools and universities, so campus theatres are used for teaching and performance. Consequently, schools and communities use theatres for other activities. Examples include concerts, assemblies, voices, meetings, and even exams and sports. However, most schools expect theatres to have a single function and good technical facilities.

Multi-purpose halls, a common type of theatre in the past, are increasingly failing to meet the expectations of previous auditorium seating designs and cinema chair renderings. There are many common spatial problems, not only because of the different physical characteristics of the different performances, but also because of the large amount of time and human resources required for frequent changes of theatre form. Therefore, it is best to consider several options that allow each to meet certain performance conditions rather than any performance in a multifunctional space, Campus theatres may prefer flexible studios, but they also prefer traditional staging and seating.

Each auditorium chair rendering requires not only a studio floor plan, but also a flat semi-resilient floor with a ceiling of at least 5m, and a ceiling at the top of this space from which to hang a variety of lights and various technical equipment. The large screen track can be transformed into a black box theatre with a flexible seating system offering different viewing relationships if necessary. Very often the ability to use natural light from the outdoors is a valuable resource, such as for teaching and rehearsals, to avoid wasting energy, but all the windows must be able to provide effective shading for the programme, with enough space to store equipment that is not appropriate for the auditorium.