Within the foyer, the major design feature is the outer wall of the auditorium: a three-dimensional mosaic of angled wooden panels that sweeps its full length like an avant-garde sculpture. This feature delivers one of the centre's environmental credentials, since all the wood veneer for the 8,400 square metres of panelling was harvested sustainably from only 56 Australian Spotted Gum trees. The sculptural shape of this wall (and walls of the hall within) reflects the textural qualities of the maritime history of the Yarra River. The crafted hulls of clipper ships, cranes, working platforms of the docks, and the engineered structures of the railways are all clues to the genesis of the architectural language.

© Peter Bennetts

Behind this wooden feature lies the heart of the convention centre, the fan shaped Plenary Hall, in essence a building within a building. Conceived as a landmark element, with its revolutionary design and advanced technology, the space can change format at the touch of a button to suit a range of events. The design team managed to well exceed the Government's brief requesting a 5,000 seat auditorium by ultimately providing 5,541 seats. As part of an explicit need to reduce operating and recurrent costs, and to offer a distinctive venue with a competitive advantage, the Plenary Hall is designed to incorporate gala venue automated seating.

The use of this system allows the seating arrangements to transform into an almost unlimited range of configurations and capacities. The entire first tier of seating (some 1,700 seats) can fold away under the floor, leaving a large flat floor area for use as a conference banqueting hall, large exhibition space or ballroom. Alternatively, the seats can be tiered in a range of configurations, automatically rising off the floor and unfolding themselves.

This is not only one of the world's biggest halls with automatic seating, it also combines this feature with the ability to subdivide into three smaller halls, each capable of differently configured seating, each with its own stage and able to hold separate events simultaneously. Serviced by a 270 degree foyer, the hall has been designed to meet the multi-modal and concurrent requirements of the facility. There are multiple public entries, with integrated links to the existing Convention Centre; self-contained population flow at the southern foyer is possible with circulation able to occur concurrently within the northern public foyer, and exhibition events can be staged whilst Plenary Hall events are taking place simultaneously.

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