Atelier
Noirs
Viewing
Machine
Location: Cannes, France
Status: Competition
Year: 2020
Program: Cinema
Exterior Design - A Zero Point of Architecture
The design is inspired by the Black Square and monolith from 2001: A Space Odessey - a pure and abstract geometry that explains itself. Architecturally, their simplicity and machinical asthetics are derived from programming. Malevich desribed the black square as the "zero point of painting" and he explained "I transformed myself in the zero of form and engaged from nothing to creation."


Context - A Viewfinder of Cannes
The cinema is located at the end of an existing pier. Although the exterior of this cinema creates the exotic sense with the context, different programs connect the interior closely with the exterior by different viewing systems. The architecture is a viewfinder capturing moments that happen in the film, in the city and inside the architecture itself.
Structure - A Lever on the Sea
Loads of different programs are applied to the structural core and trusses as a level system. Boxes, platforms, decks and assigned weight are hung on both sides of the truss by cables to balance the entire structure.
Program - A Machine for Viewing
"A house is a machine for living in." Le Corbusier uses this statement to introduce the machinical asthetics in modern architecture: simplicity, standardization and reproductivity as guidelines to design the form and form follows function.


"A cinema is a machine for viewing." Camera Obscura is an early prototype of viewing machine in architecture. When applying Le Corbusier's quote to the design of a cinema, a clear image appears - different programs serves as different parts in a machine, interlocking and functioning tightly. With program explorations through the perspective of section, this cinema exhibits different programs providing multiple ways of viewing, by integrating different architectural elements.