A new landmark for the city of Sydney, this 250,000-square-metre development designed by Populous and Hassell is comprised of a theatre, an exhibition centre and a convention centre, for which Camatic Seating provided a variety of seating solutions. “This is an iconic site, right in Darling Harbor, one of the top tourist destinations in the city,” says Declan Brennan, Camatic’s stadium division manager for Australasia. “It’s architecturally quite a captivating development.”

For the ICC Sydney Theatre, which features a fan-shaped vertical seating layout Camatic provided 8,000 Forte compact high back chairs, each of which includes a cup-holder arm. Camatic created a bespoke version of the Forte chair for the upper tier of the theatre with a higher back in order to make the facility’s steep seating rake safer. There are also approximately 1,000 additional Forte seats that fold down into retractable platforms. “You can push back the platforms to provide you more space on the floor,” explains Brennan. “When required, the client can pull out the platforms and use them for tiered seating. It gives you more flexibility on the floor to hold events at different capacities.” It was challenged to create a comfortable chair that remained compact.

For both the Pyrmont Theatre, a 1,000-seat boutique venue offering tiered seating over two levels, as well as the Darling Harbour Theatre, 2,500-seat entertainment space where the furthest seat is only 32 meters from the stage, Camatic provided the Clarity seat, an ergonomically designed compact seating innovation that offers unsurpassed comfort. Each is equipped with a JOT A3 writing tablet.