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Chinese studio One Plus Partnership used red bricks to create wave-like surfaces inside this cinema lobby in the city of Haikou, China, emerging from the floors and ceilings to form a reception counter, tables and chairs. More
Interior design firm Studio Giancarlo Valle has turned an early 20th-century cinema in Stockholm into a showroom for rug company Nordic Knots, restoring its original stone details and adding warm wood and brushed steel.
Mottled green marble covers the walls of the 150-square-metre showroom, which is located in the central Östermalm area of Stockholm.
As part of the revamp Studio Giancarlo Valle restored the existing marble – a traditional Swedish type of stone called Kolmårdsmarmor – as well as the building’s grand central staircase.
The showroom is located in a former cinema in ÖstermalmThe studio also added more contemporary touches, such as brushed stainless-steel details and walnut and oak furniture.
“The interior is historic and we wanted to preserve the architectural details, so we restored the terrazzo and plaster,” studio founder Giancarlo Valle told Dezeen.
“The building is a 20th-century former movie theatre and it was critical to maintain a sense of grandness when entering the space,” he added.
Green marble from Sweden clads the wallsNordic Knots’ co-founder Liza Laserow wanted the interior to feature as many of the original details in the 1918 building as possible.
“During the demolition of some old closets, we discovered the original floor to the building from the early 1900s – a muted green terrazzo with a red and white checkerboard,” Laserow told Dezeen.
“Discovering the original flooring made us realise that we wanted to use terrazzo throughout, as the green colour in the original terrazzo matched the green marble on the walls perfectly.”
The brand managed to find a Swedish company that could replicate the original terrazzo to cover the entire floor area.
Rugs designed by Giancarlo Valle decorate the spaceThe stone floors and walls are complemented by a variety of natural materials.
“To balance out the existing stone and terrazzo, we brought in warmer, more tactile materials like pine, oak, and walnut,” Valle said.
Oak and walnut shelves decorate the walls of the Sample Bar, a room where customers can see samples of different Nordic Knots rugs, and where Studio Giancarlo Valle introduced custom-made oak lounge chairs.
The Sample Bar features wooden shelving and steel furnitureValle also added brushed-steel touches to the Nordic Knots showroom, including on its custom-made steel and walnut coffee bar in the main gallery area and a table in the Sample Bar.
The furniture throughout is designed in reference to the building, such as the curved front of the coffee bar that reflects the shape of its doorposts.
Luca Nichetto transforms Swedish villa into his own studio and showroom
Laserow and co-founder Fabian Berglund had previously worked with Valle on a series of rugs for the company, which resulted in four designs, including an all-beige rug with a pattern of open hands and a red rug with flower buds on it.
These are used to decorate the walls and floors of the showroom.
Meeting rooms are located in the back of the buildingAt the back of the building sit the company’s meeting rooms and office spaces, which feature wooden furniture and a colour palette of saturated blues and mustard yellows.
“The new interiors very much honour the building’s history,” Valle said.
“We were careful to preserve the historic architectural details, along with the feeling of entering a grand theatre, when designing the space.”
The original terrazzo floor is replicated throughout the spaceThe showroom opened during this year’s edition of Stockholm Design Week, which also featured an exhibition of “functional art” by Danish studio Tableau and a virtual apartment.
Studio Giancarlo Valle’s designs have previously been used for projects including a showroom in a Brooklyn warehouse and a co-working company founded by Yves Béhar.
The photography is courtesy of Nordic Knots.
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Chinese studio One Plus Partnership used reflective bronze panels and a variety of spotlights to create a light-and-shadow effect at the Wan Fat Jinyi cinema in Shenzhen, China.
The studio chose “stage lighting” as the theme of the interiors to match the concept of the cinema, which caters to both film screenings and live performances. The project has been shortlisted in the leisure and wellness interiors category of Dezeen Awards 2022.
Spotlights form the key design element applied throughout the cinema”This project’s core design concept for the cinema was the ‘stage’,” the studio said. “Since the old days, the stage has served as a space for actors or performers and a focal point – the screen in cinemas – for the audience.”
On the lobby ceiling, two lines of spotlights are assembled with the lights pointing outwards at each side to form a series of rectangular blocks. They hang randomly at different angles to make it look as if they are floating above people.
The spotlights have a sculptural designAlso in the lobby, One Plus Partnership covered the interiors using bronze as the main material to create more reflective surfaces. The reflective quality of the bronze helps to create a light-and-shadow effect when it is hit by the spotlights.
Yellow and orange were chosen as the main colour palette of the interiors since the colours are closely associated with light.
Lighting dots on the hallway walls serve as signageIn the hallway, the spotlights are used as single units and have been added to the floors and walls at different angles. By arranging these lighting dots into groups, the studio created decorative patterns on the all-black walls, highlighting the lighting effect.
Some of the spotlights are formed into signage that help visitors to identify locations and directions.
Batek Architekten renovates historic cinema in pastel and earth-coloured hues
The studio used the same colour palette for the auditorium. The geometric patterns on the walls and seating were designed to resemble traces of light shot from spotlights.
“By using just different combinations of colours, we have managed to give variety to the design with the lowest possible costs,” explained One Plus Partnership.
The geometric patterns in the auditorium resemble traces of light shot from spotlightsOther Chinese projects in the running to win a the Dezeen Awards 2022 include a second-hand bookshop that uses supermarket-style crates to display its wares and a timber and travertine reading room, both located in Shanghai.
The photography is by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.
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German studio Batek Architekten has refurbished Yorck Kino Passage, one of the oldest cinemas in Berlin, adding a foyer bar with pistachio-coloured arches and covering its screening rooms in saturated colours.
The local studio wanted the renovation to pay respect to the original neoclassical style of the 1908 cinema, while still giving it a contemporary feel.
Decorative arches nod to the arched windows in the building’s facadeThe basic structure of the foyer in the 325-square-metre cinema, which has decorative stucco elements, is the original, as are the staircases and large cinema hall. Other rooms had been renovated and refurbished over the years.
Batek Architekten drew on the building’s large arched windows when designing the new foyer bar, which has pistachio-green arches that contrast against the original linoleum floor’s reddish-brown colour.
A pale pistachio-green hue elegantly contrasts dark wood”The brown floor colour was specified due to monument protection and our resource-conservative approach,” Batek Architekten founder Patrick Batek told Dezeen.
“This led to the general choice of earthy tones, but we chose the pistachio as a surprising addition.”
Batek Architekten chose cork cladding for the cupboardsThe studio also added a natural cork covering to the cupboards in the foyer, which has a number of practical advantages.
“The natural cork wall cladding was installed for acoustic reasons, it conceals the drinks storage and staff room spaces and allows for the hanging of posters and notices,” Batek explained.
Velvet fabric in green hues decorate the foyerIn addition, existing materials were reused as part of the renovation. Corten-steel cladding from the cinema’s old bar was upcycled and reinstalled as panelling, edging and fitting elements of the new bar.
The studio also restored Yorck Kino Passage’s brass light fittings and plaster moldings.
Batek Architekten transforms Berlin arthouse cinema with saturated colours and neon lights
As well as making interventions in the foyer, which now also features seating covered in forest-green and spring-green velvet fabric, Batek Architekten renovated two of the cinema’s smaller auditoriums.
Here, the team added intense, deep colours that they felt were suitable for the ambience of the screening rooms, using blue for one and red for the other.
A dark Prussian blue creates a dramatic auditorium”The auditoriums are in the basement of the building, and we wanted to create a more intimate atmosphere than in the original large lighter-coloured auditorium,” Batek said.
“That’s why we clad it in dark Prussian blue fabric which contrasts nicely with the warm glow of the yellow-upholstered seating rows.”
The studio added a deep red colour to the second screening roomA more traditional colour was chosen for the second room.
“The other screening room is an interpretation of the classic cinema interior with a range of reds from rust to crimson covering walls and seating alike,” Batek explained.
The studio also installed new podiums in the two auditoriums to create optimal visibility.
One screening room nods to classic cinema interiorsBatek Architekten has a history of designing cinema interiors – having previously completed the Kino Delphi Lux cinema for the same client and refurbished the historic Blauer Stern cinema in Berlin.
Among the studio’s other designs in the city is a duplex townhouse comprised of stacked cubes.
The photography is by Marcus Wend.
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The strings of musical instruments informed the vertical lighting elements and bookshelves of this cinema lobby and bookshop created by Hong Kong-based Pulse On for a site in Shanghai’s Bingo Plaza shopping mall. More
Local studio Batek Architekten has refurbished the historic Blauer Stern cinema in Berlin using neon lights that reference the original mouldings in its foyer. More
VDF studio profile: Oft Interiors is a Hong Kong-based design studio that specialises in cultural spaces and has overhauled the interiors of more than 50 different cinemas.It was founded in 2013 by CM Jao and Ken Cheung, two graduates from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Jao, who has previously designed interiors for a global architecture firm, brings his experience in leisure spaces to the table, while Cheung contributes his knowledge of architectural design and environmental planning.
K11 ArtHouse is another one of Oft Interiors’ cinema projects
“Our team devotes its full efforts and passions to developing innovative work,” explained Cheung. “We aim to bring a new zest to the Hong Kong design industry.”
In particular, the studio has made a name for itself by creating the interior design and brand positioning for cinemas and theatres across both Hong Kong and mainland China, often based on conceptual themes such as “water” or “deconstruction”.
Palace Cinema in LCMall features undulating walls and ceilings
One example of this is the Palace Cinema in Shanghai’s LCMall, which features a bright white lobby with undulating walls and ceilings, to represent the ripple effect that movies can have on their audiences.
The ticket counters are fitted subtly into these curves while reflective glass panelling on the walls creates the appearance of looking at the still, mirrored surface of a lake.
Hong Kong’s Emperor cinema uses an inky palette of materials to suggest pencil marks
Another project, Hong Kong’s Emperor cinema, is located in a building that had undergone three major renovations.
In order to bring this history to life, the studio decided to visualise the iterative process of drafting and redrafting by using materials of different textures such as inky black wallpaper, wood veneer, and nickel-plated countertops to evoke pencil marks of different strengths.
The approach for another Shanghai movie theatre, the UA Cinema in West Gate Mall, was based on the idea of deconstructing the interior using irregular lines and patterns.
In the lobby, the ceiling lacks a stable plane and instead features an asymmetrical beam that juts out at visitors from above to create a sense of surrealism.
The studio has received various international awards for its interiors, including two German Design Awards in 2017, two International Property Awards and various A’ Design Awards throughout the years.
Studio: Oft InteriorsWebsite: oftinteriors.comContact address: admin@oftinteriors.com
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