The architects wanted something bright that would not reflect light back on the screen at the Ted Mann Theatre. Photo: TNS
Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3150555/best-cinema-seats-ever-contoured-moulded-and-made-italy Entertainment
The best cinema seats ever? Contoured, moulded and made in Italy, the chairs will require a ticket to an Academy Museum of Motion Pictures screening if you want to test them
- The seats at the Ted Mann Theatre were made by Lino Sonego in Treviso, Italy, in a colour inspired by architect Renzo Piano’s favourite green felt-tip pen
- The chairs at the David Geffen Theatre were manufactured by Poltrona Frau in Tolentino, Italy, and ‘unique to the academy’, says project architect Jonathan Jones
Seats in the Ted Mann Theatre at the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times/TNS
It took two years to choose the seats for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ two state-of-the-art cinemas. The research-intensive process included in-person testing at manufacturing sites in Italy as well as flying the mock-ups back to Los Angeles in the US, where they were repeatedly tested by Academy Museum executives.
At first glance, the seats for the two cinemas might appear similar, but many details, including the colours, are different – bright green in the more intimate, 288-seat Ted Mann Theatre, which will accommodate multiple screenings a day, and scarlet in the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theatre, which will host big premieres and other Hollywood events as well as screenings.
Neither of the cinemas has chairs with cup holders. “That was based on current academy standards,” says Jonathan Jones, project architect at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop headed by famed architect Renzo Piano.
“In their theatres, you’re not allowed to have popcorn or drinks or anything like that. It’s really about the art that’s on the screen, and you don’t want somebody sloshing around their ice to distract you.”
Ted Mann Theatre. Seat manufacturer: Lino Sonego, Treviso, Italy
The look: A clean, simple chair with some architectural detail. If it were a suit, says Jones, it might be a tailored classic, with distinct stitching. Many of the technical elements in the cinema – sound-absorbing wall panels, speakers, overhead lighting structures – are purposefully visible, a nod to the creative and intellectual filmmaking process.
The cinema’s chair design, he says, had to be simple enough to offset the surrounding visual texture. But because there are only 288 seats, they could have some degree of ornamentation, such as horizontal stitching across the back and a bright colour.
The colour: The architects wanted something bright that would not reflect light back on the screen. (The relatively small cinema uses especially bright Dolby laser projection.) Yellow was thought to be too glaring and blue too sad. The Kelly green was inspired by Piano’s favourite green felt-tip pen, which the architect nearly always carries with him.
The construction: The frame is steel with a fixed back and fold-up seat so it does not lean backwards or slide forwards. The back has some contour to it, though, with moulded foam intended to conform slightly to the body. The filling is relatively firm, with 12cm (4.7 inches) of medium-dense polyurethane foam on the thickest part of the seat bottom.
High-density polyurethane foam with less give also is used in the armrests and a low-density foam in the back. The fabric is polyester, crafted to look like short hair velour, which Jones says evokes the formality of film premieres. The architects rotated the orientation of the fabric so the fibres direct light downward, away from the screen.
“The seat is something you touch, you feel, for a very long time. It holds you up while you’re watching the film,” he adds. “This one – it allows people of varying sizes to be comfortable in the chair.”
The exterior of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Photo: AFP
David Geffen Theatre. Seat manufacturer: Poltrona Frau, Tolentino, Italy
The look: A plush, premiere-worthy chair that evokes Old Hollywood glamour. If it were a suit, Jones says, it would be a tuxedo. The seats match the colour of the floor and the walls. “So you understand you’re inside the sphere,” Jones says. “The idea is: coming into the belly of the whale, the redness of the whale.”
The colour: Red-carpet red chosen immediately from just two fabric swatches. The deep scarlet is contemporary-looking but also a tie to the past, Jones says. “We tried to make it a little darker, grey, but that didn’t really fit. But when we brought the red carpet into the theatre and the red up onto the walls, it started to become something special.”
The construction: The David Geffen Theatre seats were more challenging to construct, partly because the cinema is larger and more complicated. There’s an elevation change, so the seat backs are positioned at two different angles. At the front of the cinema, they’re tilted backwards; at the rear they’re more upright so the audience focus is always on the centre of the screen.
The seats are also removable so the space can be reconfigured for special events, such as Oscar nominations.
The architects changed the manufacturer’s prototype a number of times. The edges of the armrests were rounded off and the backs of the chairs were shortened to allow for more leg room from behind. Overall, it’s a straighter chair, with a less contoured back and seat bottom, but the back offers more lumbar support.
The filling, a polyether foam, has slightly more give than the Ted Mann Theatre seats, and the red seats are thinner. The armrests are the most cushiony, using less dense foam so they have more give.
“So much went into the customisation,” the architect says. “This chair is unique to the academy, you won’t find this chair anywhere else.”