Sea World and Research Centres with Ferco

Ferco are often involved in projects both in the UK and internationally – you need only search on our site and you will see the vast array of projects the BCFA member have been a part of!

Design Insider explores two of their recent projects, involving their ISI seat at Sea World Culture and Arts Centre, and their Caspian seat at the IBM research centre.

Sea World Culture and Arts Centre, Shenzhen, China

The new Sea World Culture and Arts Center, China’s “first major design museum” is the result of an important pioneering international partnership between leading state-owned company China Merchants Shekou Holdings (CMSK) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the world’s leading museum of art and design based in London.

It is designed by Award-Winning Japanese Modernist Master Architect Fumihiko Maki, 88, who has two master degrees (Master of architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a Master’s degree from the Design School of Harvard University) and has won the UIA award, which is known as the Nobel Prize for the architectural community and the Pritzker Architecture Prize of the United States.

The museum and cultural hub in Shenzhen opened to the public in December 2017, and includes a permanent gallery space curated by the V&A. The museum promotes Chinese design to an international audience and presents the best international design in China. The Victoria and Albert lends objects and tours exhibitions to the Shenzhen museum.

The Mountain View Theater is a 328-seat auditorium that marks the crown of the Sea World Culture and Arts Center. With views overlooking Nanshan mountain, a third-floor foyer opening up into a terrace, and a fourth-florr foyer overlooking the roof garden, the theatre hosts lectures and performances. The theatre is enclosed by a double-skin with exterior louvers, allowing views of the city and mountain from inside. To compliment the clean lines of the buildings design, the contemporary wooden back and outer ISI seat was chosen. The ISI has a narrow envelope and a high back.

IBM research centre

IBM Research has been a home for creative scientific minds since 1945. It began expanding its businesses in China in 1979, IBM has since established a total of 31 branches in the country, with its businesses spreading to 350 Chinese cities. IBM China Research Lab, founded in Beijing in 1995, is one of IBM’s nine research institutes around the world.

The lab is recognized as one of the most outstanding research institutes in China, IBM Research shapes the future of technology.

Ferco worked with IBM to develop their Caspian seat with concealed tablet arm (CTA) to fit in to their vision for their new auditorium. Originally designed for the Hanoi Convention Centre project, the Caspian is a contemporary, sophisticated auditorium seat.

Finished in wood with a reveal, with sumptuous padding and a high back, it is customisable with a concealed tablet which stows away neatly into the armrest. The modern colour palette and minimalist styling chosen by IBM is complimented by the Caspian’s clean lines.

For over thirty years, Ferco Seating Systems have been designing, manufacturing and installing high quality customised seating for the theatre, auditorium, cinema, education & sport sectors. They also love to collaborate and talk design – why not contact them and find out what they can offer your project?

Contact Ferco