For design teams, one of the most difficult things is describing spatial concepts in a way that clients can make decisions.  Frequently when working on the early concept development of an auditorium, clients ask about the differences in row spacing. Row spacing isn’t a simple issue since it has such a dramatic impact on the footprint of the auditorium.  Too narrow, and the audience won’t be comfortable.  Too wide, and you lose the intimacy of the space.  And, there is no simple formula.  The selection is completely dependent on the context.

Dan Schoedel—one of our ideation specialists—developed a tool to be able to illustrate the perceptual differences in row-to-row spacing for auditoriums and the difference in use of theatre seats and pews for houses of worship.  It is not an engineering tool and doesn't describe some of the important design elements such as variations in seat envelope, length of rows based on spacing, etc. but it is a helpful visualization tool to facilitate the discussion between designers and clients.

We share many of our in-house tools at acousticdimensions.com.  Check out the new row-to-row tool.