A Gala Venue Seating System Re-Energized Singapore’s Iconic Capitol Theatre

With two other restored landmarks from the early 20th century – Stamford House and Capitol Building – the Capitol Theatre  forms the centerpiece of an exceptional lifestyle development located in the heart of Singapore’s civic and cultural district. Designed in an artful manner by award-winning architectural firm Richard Meier & Partners Architects,  contemporary architectural-style buildings and a public plaza providing outdoor living space for the community now complement this cluster of historic properties. Opened in 2015, the Capitol Singapore destination comprises 157 luxurious hotel rooms, 39 high-end residences, retail outlets and a dining hub, as well as a flexible performance space, the first of its kind in the country, marrying historic structures and modern-day technologies.

Adaptative re-use of the Capitol Theatre allowed it to both diversify its economic activities and recover its formal splendor as the city’s once-premiere cinema with a huge billboard and curved corner façade. The theatre itself has retained all its neo-classical architectural charm, while also being equipped with the latest state-of-the-art audio features, Singapore’s largest single screen, and Asia’s first rotational floor system,  including  800 reconfigurable seats. Through this Gala Venue Seating System, the Capitol Theatre has become highly flexible, automatically transforming itself from a raked seating layout to a flat floor space in less than 30 minutes. With such adaptable size and capacity at the push of a button, the 977-seat theatre has been reborn as the only mixed-usage venue in town, equally suited for performing arts and cinematic purposes. It now hosts a panoply of events, ranging from seminars, conferences and galas to red carpet movie premieres and in-house theatre and dance productions, featuring both local and Asian repertoire.

While historic buildings provide a character-laden setting, improving them for modern use is often challenging because of the need to preserve their original layout and appearance. The Capitol Theatre was no exception, with its heavily populated pit combined with a compact retracted height. Much more pronounced inherent restrictions had thus to be dealt with while integrating new equipment, which was further enhanced by the choice of large luxurious seats, custom made by Poltrona Frau  for the comfort of the audience. Working with its local partner Siong Ann Engineering,  Gala systems  provided practical solutions to help modernize the existing iconic theatre for today’s uses. More specifically, 69 extremely compact Spiralift®  devices with high stability and lifting capacity were integrated within its unusual confined spaces to power multiple theatre configurations. Now restored and part of a magnificent luxurious lifestyle destination, the beloved Capitol Theatre offers a unique space linking the past and the present, where the arts and society meet.