Pixel Cinema in Wuhan

By Savitha Hira

Photography: Ajax Law Ling Kit, Ulso Tsang; Courtesy One Plus Partnership Limited

 

.

Applying a simple metaphor of the ‘dot matrix’ to design, interior design firm One Plus Partnership Limited chisels an unusual cinema house in Wuhan, China. Predictably, they bag the Gold Award of iF Communication Design in the Interior Design category for 2013!

Recreation is a very important part of life. When you go to the cinema, your experience encompasses the ambiance of the cinema hall, the film and the sum total of the outing itself. Taking this projected holistic maxim to its appropriate zenith, interior design firm One Plus Partnership Limited has chosen the ‘dot matrix’ as a singular element of design. Using the ‘pixel vocabulary’ that is an integral component of technology; the designers have created an animated setting in steel that alludes to a happening atmosphere and acts as a precursor to the experience of watching the actual film itself.

.

The philosophical bent maintains that just as the pixel is the most basic element of a computer screen and millions of pixels are needed to create a complete picture on the computer monitor, all big things in life are also an amalgamation of several small things. This metaphoric vocabulary is applied to the design of the theatre – right from an indigenously collated massive feature wall comprising of numerous marble columns in a dot-matrix setting jutting out in seemingly random lengths, where some of them act as tables and seats, others perform as decorative light boxes; to the crystallized craftsmanship of the round-ceiling – oval-floor auditorium that pulsates with moving imagery – partially clear, partially distorted, loosely captured by numerous big rectangular stainless steel plates that are fused into a giant round ‘tent’ – the shell of the auditorium. These plates spin around the centre of the tent in a tornado-like fashion, right up to the ceiling.

.

With the plates’ mirror finishing, visitors’ reflections are translated into pixel images. Gravity force formed in the centre of the round structure “sucks in” some louver boxes that are randomly mounted within the wall of stainless steel bricks and movies are promoted by totem light boxes.  

.

.

Another attraction for those who step into the cinema is the concession area, which is the magnified version of the pixel wall outside. Various sizes of brown stainless steel boxes are randomly grouped together assuming their roles as counters and bulkheads, as well as set of tables and seats that defines the rest area in front of the concession. Customers are allowed to enjoy the mixture of food, leisure and design ambiance right here.  

 

.

.

.

And there’s more… a gigantic white sculptural attraction that draws the attention of celebrities, who come for events. Large columns varying heights are arrayed and linked with a neat dot matrix pattern for the celebrities to leave behind their autographs. And then you have full-height LCD panels playing classic and famed movie trailers; not to forget the mention of a VIP lounge and equally tech-looking washrooms!

In short, a clever application of the pixels-theory transforms a simple movie experience into a whole lot more than expected, keeping pace with gen next and their jet-setting mindsets.