Hasta La Ideas

An aluminium canopy speckled with triangular perforations shelters the space between old and new buildings at Mexico‘s National Film Archive and Film Institute, recently renovated by Rojkind Arquitectos (+ slideshow).

Mexican firm Rojkind Arquitectos was tasked with upgrading the existing facilities of the campus in Xoco, south of Mexico City, as well as adding extra cinema screens, an outdoor amphitheatre and additional storage vaults for the film archive.

Rebranded as Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI, the complex is used a cut-through from a local metro station, which prompted the architects to create a sheltered space at the centre of the campus that functions as both a public gathering area and a lobby for the buildings.

“We didn’t want it to feel like you’re in the lobby of a commercial cinema, we wanted it to feel more like a university campus, with everything floating in a park” said studio founder Michel Rojkind.

The aluminium-clad canopy curves downwards to form the facade of a pair of new buildings. These accommodate four extra screening rooms, bringing the overall total up to ten, and create a two-storey zone for shops, cafes and seating areas.

“The added amenities have turned the campus into a favourite gathering space not only for moviegoers but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard,” said the design team.

Two archive vaults were added to the existing four, making room for 50,000 extra reels of film, and a museum dedicated to the history of Latin American cinema was constructed.

Car parking areas previously dotted  around the campus have been consolidated into a single six-storey building, creating space for planted landscaping and the new 750-seat amphitheatre.

Photography is by Paul Rivera, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Rojkind Arquitectos:

Cineteca Nacional Siglo XXI

Located in the southern quadrant of Mexico City, the National Film Archive and Film Institute of Mexico is home to the most important film heritage of Latin America. Its campus occupied an underutilised site of considerable dimensions within the strangled town of Xoco. This historic town, once surrounded by agricultural land, now sits deep within the urban sprawl and faces extinction due to economic and political pressures from developers and municipal authorities which covet its privileged location.

The existing complex dated from 1982, when a fire destroyed part of the campus and most of its archive, and was a “temporary” facility never well suited for its purpose. Additionally, thousands of people cross the grounds daily as they walked to and from one of the city’s nearby metro station, Estación Metro Coyoacan.

Facing total renewal, Cineteca’s original project brief included the expansion and renovation of the existing complex incorporating additional vault space and four more screening rooms. But in response to the immediate urban condition, additional restorative work needed to be done to reclaim part of the site as public space, give relief to the dense new-development – filled surroundings of Xoco and accommodate the constant flow of pedestrians and casual visitors.

First, surface parking was consolidated into a six-storey structure freeing 40% of the site. Then the pedestrian friendly “back entrance”, located across the street from the historic town’s cemetery, was reactivated – 70% of Cineteca patrons use public transportation and arrive by foot. The reclaimed space now houses the new program organised along two axes, one perpendicular to the street of Real Mayorazgo becoming the main pedestrian entrance and the other perpendicular to Av. México-Coyoacán for both car and pedestrian access.

The axes intersection became a new 80m x 40m public plaza sheltered from the weather by a hovering canopy connecting the existing complex with the new screening rooms. Clad in composite aluminium panels, with varied size triangular perforations, the roof structure wraps around the new screening rooms and becomes their facade. The sheltered space functions as the foyer for the old and new screening rooms and can accommodate additional program options such as concerts, theatre, exhibitions, etc.

An outdoor amphitheatre, extensive landscaping and new retail spaces were added to the original program expanding the possibilities for social and cultural interaction and exchanges, and giving the complex a university campus feel.

The new screening rooms seat 180 each and the existing screening rooms were updated with current technology. Overall the complex can now seat 2,495 visitors in indoor theatres. The outdoor amphitheatre has a 750-person capacity. Two new film vaults were also added to the site, increasing Cineteca’s archive capacity by 50,000 reels of film. Parking capacity was also increased by 25% to a total of 528 cars.

The thousands of people that use the grounds everyday now find welcoming unrestricted public space: commuters still walk back and forth across the campus in the morning and evening, medical staff from a nearby hospital stop by to eat their lunches at noon, students hang out at the park in the afternoon, and moviegoers attend free outdoor events in the evening. The added amenities have turned the campus into a favourite gathering space not only for moviegoers but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard.

Architectural project: Rojkind Arquitectos
Interior design: Alberto Villareal Bello, Esrawe Studio
Structural engineer: CTC Ingenieros
Roof structure engineer: Studio NYL
MEP: IPDS
Landscape consultant: Ambiente Arquitectos
A/V consultant: Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
Acoustical consultant: Seamonk
Lighting consultant: Ideas y Proyectos en Luz
Graphic design: Citrico + Welcome Branding

Program: Cultural
Construction Area: 49,000 m2
Location: Mexico City

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National Film Archive and Film Institute appeared first on Dezeen.

This timber-clad cinema in the south of France was designed by architects Encore Heureux to evoke both the arched facades of art deco picture houses and the herringbone walls of local tobacco-drying sheds (+ slideshow).

Located beside a former military camp in Auch, Ciné 32 is a five-screen cinema contained inside a staggered row of numbered wooden sheds.

“Rather than a large infrastructure-type multiplex, we wanted to create the image of a collection of small neighbourhood cinemas together,” explains Encore Heureux.

Zig-zagging wooden slats dress the arched gables of each structure, while numbers one to five are hand-painted over the surfaces using a traditional decorative font.

One screen is contained inside each of the sheds and every one is furnished with different coloured seating.

Above: photograph is by Nicola Delon

The architects comment: “Cinema has this unique opportunity to gather different people for a common but yet unusual journey. We wish to offer remarkable conditions for such a trip.”

A sixth shed gives the cinema a double-height reception and is contrastingly clad with translucent polycarbonate.

Activity workshops are contained in this part of the building, alongside offices, an exhibition space, a cafe and a terrace.

Other recently designed cinemas include one in a former slaughterhouse and one under a motorway flyover. See more cinemas on Dezeen.

Above: photograph is by Adélaide Maisonabe

Photography is by Sébastien Normand, apart from where otherwise indicated.

Above: photograph is by Adélaide Maisonabe

Here’s a short project description from Encore Heureux:

Cinema at Auch

Concept

To built a five rooms cinema for CINE 32 association has to answer some challenges. What else than a shoe box as you find in suburban territory? What kind of identity would suit to a meeting point, place of discoveries, debates and diversity? What presence for a brand new building right downtown, in place of an old military camp? How could we propose a place and an identity that fit to Cine 32 and its actions towards an always broader and mixed public?

We came up with images of old cinemas’ pediment and tobacco dryer from the south-west of France, with their openwork natural wood façade. We also care for an assumed double life image, an adequate day and night use.

Cinema has this unique opportunity to gather different people for a common but yet unusual journey. We wish to offer remarkable conditions for such a trip.

A strong relationship

To carry this adventure out we’ve looked preciously to the relationship between architect and client. Every step of conception has produced multiple studies. For instance, projection rooms were subject to a narrative outline and climatic environments ; bases leading us to built atmospheres. Thus, we go through starry night (first room) to sunrise (second room).

Interior and façade lights were developed specifically to this project with an effort of economy, consistency and precision. As were the custom-made administration’s furnitures.

Artist Bonnefrite has lead building’s signage with a delicate touch. The main sign, on avenue de l’Yser side, is a powerful and joyful gesture toward the city. Hand-painted numbers on pediments reveal the diversity of both spaces and styles in cinema.

Strong involvement from local construction firms allowed us to respect lead time and expected budget equally with a common requirement for the result. The adventure proved to be forceful and appealing.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: front elevation – click above for larger image

Above: long section one – click above for larger image

Above: long section two – click above for larger image

Above: cinema section one – click above for larger image

Above: cinema section two – click above for larger image

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Encore Heureux appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects Coop Himmelb(l)au have completed a film and theatre centre in South Korea with a steel and glass cantilever that’s wider than the wings of an Airbus A380 (+ slideshow).

As the home to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), the Busan Cinema Centre sandwiches a 4000-seat outdoor cinema between the two halves of the building, while the column-free roof measures 85 metres from end to end.

“Once we build architecture like aircraft wings we will no longer need columns,” Coop Himmelb(l)au Principal Wolf D.Prix told Dezeen. ”The cantilevered part of the roof with its 85 meters is twice as long as one wing of the Airbus 380.”

LED lights glow from behind the canopy’s glass underside, creating a rainbow of colours over the heads of visitors and guests arriving across the public square at the front of the complex.

A funnel-like structure punctures the roof on one side, while a ramp spirals around it to create a red carpet route into the reception hall in the south-eastern block.

A triangulated metal lattice clads this column, concealing a cafe at ground floor level and a staircase leading to a bar and restaurant above.

An indoor cinema and theatre are contained within the north-western block and are stacked on top of one another.

“The basic concept of this project was the discourse about the overlapping of open and closed spaces and of public and private areas,” said Prix. ”While the movie theatres are located in a mountain-like building, the centre’s public space is shared between an outdoor cinema and a huge reception area.”

Prix recently caused a stir by launching an attack on this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, claiming it’s “no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture.”

See all our stories about Coop Himmelb(l)au » 

Photography is by Duccio Malagamba.

Here’s a project description from Coop Himmelb(l)au:

Busan Cinema Center / Busan International Film Festival, Busan, South Korea (2005 – 2012)

The Busan Cinema Center – A multifunctional urban plaza

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s design for the Busan Cinema Center and home of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) provides a new intersection between public space, cultural programs, entertainment, technology and architecture creating a vibrant landmark within the urban landscape.

LED saturated outdoor roof elements acting as a virtual sky connect building-objects and plaza-zones into a continuous, multifunctional public urban space.

Media, technology, entertainment and leisure are merged in an open-architecture of changeable and tailored event experiences. The result is a responsive and changing space of flows acting as an urban catalyst for cultural exchange and transformation.

Project Description

The concept envisions an urban plaza of overlapping zones including an Urban Valley, a Red Carpet Zone, a Walk of Fame and the BIFF Canal Park. The urban plaza is formed by building and plaza elements sheltered by two large roofs that are enabled with computer programmed LED outdoor ceiling surfaces. The larger of the roofs includes a column-free cantilever of 85 meters over a multifunctional Memorial Court event plaza. The urban zones of the complex are formed by individual and recognizable building objects placed below the outdoor roofs. The building objects contain theater, indoor and outdoor cinemas, convention halls, office spaces, creative studios and dining areas in a mixture of sheltered and linked indoor and outdoor public spaces. The design of these spaces supports flexible, hybrid functionality that can be used both during the annual festival period and day-to-day use without interruption.

The urban zones defined by functional surfaces in plan are further articulated in a sectional dialogue between stone-clad “ground” forms of the Cinema Mountain and BIFF Hill, and the metal and LED clad “sky” elements of the roofs. The materiality of the building objects differentiates the spaces and articulates the architectural concept. Through their shape, placement and materiality, the various parts create a dynamic and informal tension between the ground and the roof.

Architecture and Cinema – the Main Roof

The dynamic LED lighting surface covering the undulating ceilings of the outdoor roof canopies gives the Busan Cinema Center its symbolic and representative iconographic feature. Artistic lighting programs tailored to events of the BIFF or the Municipality of Busan can be created by visual artists and displayed across the ceiling in full motion graphics, creating a lively urban situation at night, but also visible during the day.

Imbedded in the architecture the lighting surfaces serve as a communication platform for the content of the Busan Cinema Center. Light as art, which is at the very nature of cinema, creates a unique and memorable atmosphere for the public urban plaza and architecture of the BCC.

Double Cone, Café and Roof Restaurant

The Double Cone is the symbolic landmark entrance element to the Busan Cinema Center and serves as the connective element between the Cinema Mountain and the BIFF Hill. Designed as a steel web drum on top of a series of radial concrete fin walls, the Double Cone also is the only vertical structural support for the large cantilevered roof acting as a large, singular column.

During day-to-day use, the ground level of the Double Cone contains a public café with outdoor seating, and the upper level links to a world-class restaurant, bar and lounge within the roof volume with views overlooking the APEC park and river beyond.

During the festival the Double Cone marks the Red Carpet Zone and VIP entrance to the “Busan Cinema Center”, and can be used as a pre-event space for VIP’s on the ground level, or as a pre-staging area for transfer to the Red Carpet procession to the outdoor cinema stage, or to the upper levels of the Cinema Mountain or BIFF Hill foyers via the red carpet spiralling ramp and bridges suspended from the roof.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image 

Cinema Mountain

The Cinema Mountain is a multifunctional building containing both a 1,000 seat multifunctional theater with fly-tower and full backstage support, and a three-screen multiplex comprised of a 400-seat and two 200-seat Cinemas. Separate entrances and foyers are provided for theater and cinema respectively, however the foyers and circulation are designed so that they can be combined depending on operational preferences.

Complete structural separation between the theater and the cinemas ensures optimal noise isolation for the theater space, which is designed as a first-class, flexible hall with seating on two levels and optimal sight lines and adjustable acoustics. A flexible proscenium type stage with side stages and fly-tower accommodates movable acoustical towers used to close down the stage volume for concerts and operatic theater, but can be easily moved for theater, musicals and other staged events. The stage includes a fore-stage lift that can provide additional seating, an orchestra pit or stage extension as preferred. Horizontally tracking curtains along the walls of the audience chamber can be hidden or deployed to adjust the acoustics of the space.

Second floor plan – click above for larger image 

Urban Valley / Outdoor Cinema

The Urban Valley combines a flexible flat ground surface and large stepped tribunes of the BIFF Hill as seating for a 4,000 seat Outdoor Cinema. The Valley is sheltered by a large sculpted outdoor roof with an LED ceiling surface and is oriented towards a flexible stage and screen area on the outside of the Eastern façade of the Cinema Mountain. Accommodation for purpose built projection screens, stages, loudspeaker and lighting arrays are provided allowing for exterior performances to share the interior theater’s backstage facilities.

Third floor plan – click above for larger image 

BIFF Hill

The BIFF Hill is a ground surface formation creating the tribune seating space of the outdoor cinema and accommodating the concourse, the convention hall, the BIFF-center, the BIFF-offices and the visual media center. Given the flexible organization of the ground plan, it can be easily adapted to the different requirements during festival and day-to-day usage.

Fifth floor plan – click above for larger image 

Red Carpet Zone

During the BIFF festival, or for other special events, the Red Carpet Zone is created by a special drop-off and media-event processional entrance at the Double Cone entrance element. A red carpet can be extended from the Double Cone event space and photo position to the south through the park and along a pier. VIP’s can enter from limousines along the street edge, or arrive by boat from the pier. Various options are provided for the red carpet circulation from the Double Cone to the different event and performance spaces depending on the scenario preferred, including a vibrant spiralling ramp from the staging level of the event space to the VIP restaurant lounge of the upper roof or to the BIFF Hill and Cinema Mountain on upper levels of the foyers. During non-event periods the Red Carpet Zone acts as the symbolic entryway into the Busan Cinema Center complex.

Seventh floor plan – click above for larger image

Memorial Court & Walk of Fame

The Walk of Fame contains the Memorial Court as a public plaza. Our proposal is to imbed sources in the ground surface projecting holographic images of the stars, directors, producers and the like who have been made a part of the Walk of Fame. Their avatars inhabit the memorial court as permanent residents; however their programs can be changed to show variable aspects of information over time or in relation to specific BIFF- events.

During non-event times the Memorial Court is used as a grand entryway to the Cinema Mountain and contains an outdoor dining area of the Double Cone Café overlooking the park and water beyond.

Due to the column-free sheltered roof above, the public plaza of the Memorial Court is a multi-functional event space that can be utilized for BIFF- or Busan City- events without interrupting the day-to-day activities of the Busan Cinema Center, or simultaneously with other events in the additional spaces.

Long section 1 – click above for larger image

BIFF Canal Park

The BIFF Canal Park is proposed as an extension of the open network of public programs into the planned riverside park, and as a linking element between the river and the cinema complex. A new pedestrian footbridge is proposed to connect the Busan Cinema Center site with the park across the Boulevard to the South connecting the Double Cone with the APEC Park. An additional outdoor event ‘bowl’ is proposed surrounded by canals that can provide public and private boat access to the project site. Space for a future extension of the Busan Cinema Center project is proposed as an island among the canals, further integrating the cultural functions of the Busan Cinema Center project with the surrounding public space and landscape environment.

Long section 2 – click above for larger image

Competition (1st Prize): 11/2005

Start of Planning: 01/2007
Start of Construction: 10/2008
Opening: 29/09/2011
Completion: 2012

Cross section 1 – click above for larger image

Site Area: 32,100 m²
Net Floor Area (interior spaces): 51,067 m²
Gross Floor Area (interior spaces): 57,981 m²
Built-up Area: 10,005 m² (without roofs)
Cubage: 349,708 m³

Cross section 2 – click above for larger image

Building Costs: about EUR 100 Mio
Costs per m²: 1.725 EUR/m² (excl. exterior spaces)

Cross section 3 – click above for larger image

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by Coop Himmelb(l)au appeared first on Dezeen.

Designed in Hackney: last summer Hackney architects Studio Weave turned an old narrow boat into a floating cinema that toured the canals of east London.

The cinema screen is located inside the largest of two enclosed quarters aboard the vessel and is surrounded by dark curtains that were specially embroidered into triangular pleats.

Twelve wooden seats made from recycled oak tabletops fold into different positions in front of the screen and can be tucked away when not in use.

A quilted canopy decorated with art deco-style illustrations shelters an open deck outside the cinema, which forms an informal foyer for visitors.

The Floating Cinema travelled to various locations around the boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets during its three month season of screening, including a short mooring at Folly For A Flyover, another temporary cinema that was constructed beneath a motorway flyover in Hackney Wick. It is currently located at Bow Locks and is used for private trips.

Studio Weave are located on Saint John’s Church Road in Lower Clapton. You can see more of their projects here.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map here

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.