The Canariensis was born from the experience gained in developing the Varius Auditorium. Everything I learned about acoustic treatment for concert hall seating with the Varius was applied to this series.

The Canariensis owes its name to the fact that it was specially designed for the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Given the design of this concert hall –with stepped terraces and areas of seats oriented in diverse directions– I preferred not to emphasize the individuality of each seat so that each row could be perceived as a unified whole. For this reason, the Canariensis have a completely horizontal backrest, and each backrest nearly touches the adjacent ones, creating the effect of a continuous bench. For formal consistency, the armrests are entirely horizontal, and the side supports completely vertical. This way, the whole is geometrically very simple and, therefore, highly suitable for those spaces that want to make the prominence of the seats disappear.

Given the undeniable collective tendency to associate wood with good acoustics –and because laminated wood is a very suitable, warm material that I particularly love– I used it for the structure of the backrests, leaving it visible on its back side (we know that, acoustically, the best practice is for areas where we don’t lean to be as non-absorbent as possible, hard, and unpadded). The legs or side supports are made of cast aluminum, which can either be left exposed or covered in wood laminate as well.

(Out of production)