Here’s one way to impress meeting planners: convertible seating.
Consider, for example, the new Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, which features a 3,000-seat amphitheater that is fully modular. It houses a system of motorized swivel pins attached to each row of seats and concealed under the platform structure. The seats are raised or lowered, depending on what is needed for the meeting or event. The transformation takes approximately 15 minutes.
The convention center also features dye-sensitized solar cells, called Grätzel cells, that convert electricity similar to photosynthesis in plants.
“What we are doing with this convention center is a display of technology, a platform intended to draw attention to a remarkable device invented at our labs, to full-scale test this technology and to demonstrate its significant architectural potential,” Francis-Luc Perret, vice president for planning and logistics at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, told Phys.org.
Really, though, you should watch the video below. Now only will you learn more about the convention center’s convertible seating capabilities (around the two-minute mark), you’ll also be treated to the most serious sounding music I’ve ever heard accompany a venue marketing effort.
