DESA1002 'Nine Quarter City' - <Boyd Mockridge>

Abstract

The venetian ‘cultural cinema’ project has evolved in a very structured format, with each exercise creating a platform from which to continue the design process, while also providing inspiration and reasoning on how to progress. The notion of a ‘Cultural Cinema’ sprouted from the awareness that Venice was once a cultural icon, and a cinema could become a landmark to many local, professional fields involved in the production of films. The formulation of a program involved investigating the requirements of a cinema - and then prioritizing links between these spaces. The program became the most fundamental aspect of this project, influencing all aspects of form. The final program arrangement sprouted from placing staff maneuverability as a priority - combining the two projection boxes to create a distinctive shape. Structure was another defining aspect - the initial aim was to create a structure that could hold ‘on display’ the various spaces tailored to the program, rather than concealing them. The structure evolved throughout the project, but in concept remained as a set of scales - suspending and securing the different pieces of program. The cladding of the cinema grew from the program and external structure – while the circulation spaces were entirely glazed, so that movement through the building held visual connections to the surrounding spaces. The final design became more than that of a ‘black box’ cinema. As the structure grew to accommodate changes, it gained the opportunity to open up the theatre spaces as lookouts across the city, allowing the theatre to hold various functions. While the theatre stretches the physical boundaries of the site in terms of size, position and relation to its surroundings, I feel its strengths lie in the other forms of connections it makes with the city - which are both cultural, as mentioned, and interactive - including external projections, the marina and the ‘Floating Cinema’