A BRIDGE INTO ANOTHER WORLD, HIDDEN IN A CAVE, ILLUMINATED BY THE DRIPPING LIGHT
At the beginning of the design process for a concept for the Schauburg cinema, I aim to develop three different concepts using collages. What fits the cinema, what is the essence of cinema as a place and how can that be expressed in a spatial concept.
> BRIDGE: The bridge is the connecting element between the world of everyday life and the world of cinema. It also connects the different functions of the building and serves as orientation. It is found both as a three-dimensional element in the foyer and as a graphic element in the design.
> CAVE: Thinking about what cinema really is, one can come to the conclusion that this space has great parallels to a dark cave. A cave serves as a refuge and is a place of protection. In the case of cinema, the dark cave represents the cinema hall, a place of dreams, visions, and illusions, sheltered from everyday life and offering the visitor a refuge in another world. Since places of darkness are not perceptible in themselves and the cinema not only is a refuge in the film but also has to communicate itself as a concrete space, it also needs light, which underlines the differentness of the place.
> STALACTITES: The light of everyday life radiates, but in the cinema, it drips into the room in abstract form. In the cinema, the light is dripping into space, and the stalactites, which actually grow through water and lime, grow out of light.
BRIDGE TO FANTASY
A modern cinema in the Art Nouveau monument
2014/ 2015 in the city of Halle [GERMANY]
'Going to movies'
A cinema connects us with the stories told, with which we can identify ourselves or which are completely strange to us. In any case, we as spectators develop a connection to the happenings on the screen, whether this may be characterized by sympathy or antipathy. At the same time, however, we learn through the cinema how separate our lives are from the stories told, and that it is almost impossible to get out of the cinema and become an active part of the plot on the screen. We remain silent observers! But perhaps, if we can take up something from the film we see, part of it will become a part of us. Movies reach everyone and when they touch us, we absorb some of it into our own lives. These can be desires, dreams, and ideas. Cinema as a public place for common movie consumption strikes the bridge between fiction and reality, between desire and truth, and between idea and realization. We create our own truth and so we are as far from our desires as we suppose. If we assume that the watched movie is only fiction and fantasy of the film-maker, then it is so. If the movie stimulates us to take up something from it, then we are just limited by our own imagination and not that far anymore from our desire, because we have realized it. The movie has encouraged us to think about what we want.
The special thing about movies is that the viewer watches a section from mostly fictitious stories within a short time and can think of himself as a silent observer: Who of the actors would I be, how would that be for me in such a situation as in the movie, How would I feel and how would I act. It is the consideration: What if ...? These thoughts reveal us some about ourselves. The movie can influence our perception of our own life. It strikes a bridge to ourselves. The watched plot can only be seen and evaluated by us personally. The perceptions and views of each one are different and unique.
The bridge to the movie and to our own imagination is presented as an element in the design of the foyer for the Schauburg. It can connect, but it can also separate. Every guest goes over this bridge in and out of the large cinema hall. Whether that brings him connection or separation, he can only find out for himself when he has crossed it, and probably his experience will depend on the watched movie.
