Client: OMNIJOI MEDIA CORPORATION (JIANGSU BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

Overview

The designers adopted the rail used for filming tracking shots as the theme of this cinema, illustrated through copper colored metal tubes that stretch throughout the entire cinema. In the lobby, metal tubes wound and overlapped eachother on the ceiling. Some reach down and become seats, some enlarge and act as ticketing counters. Elongated lights are installed along the tubes, adding varieties and illuminate the space. In the auditorium, the walls are decorated by segments of the metal tubes. The bent segments are modified with lighting at both ends, arranged to point towards different directions to enhance the lighting effect.

Goals

The designers created an impactful map of metal tubes visible throughout the cinema, acting as the main artwork of this project. The design merges into facilities, creating a unified design throughout the cinema. Some of these tubes reach down and become seats for visitors to rest, parts of the tubes enlarge and act as ticketing counters. These straight tubes bend sharply at random places into different angles, imitating the form of rails in an abstract fashion.

In the auditorium, metal tube segments morph into artistic wall lights, which are tailormade by the designers to match with the design theme. The designers picked bent segments of the metal tubes in the lobby and installed lighting on both ends. These wall lights not only resemble the lobby decoration, but also decorates the wall in the auditorium. Installing these lights instead of a map of tubes lowers the production time and cost of the auditorium, while bringing variation to the cinema design.
The theme can also be found in the washroom. Apart from the copper tube ceiling feature same as that in the lobby, the designers have designed water taps in the same form. Visitors can enjoy and actually use the elegant decoration.

Process

With the design theme of tracks, the designers used metal tubes to represent tracks. Although the twisting metal tubes look very fluid and smooth, they are in fact hard and stiff, it was hard to manage the overall shape of the installation.

In order to customize the form of metal tubes in an effective way, the designers standardized 9 types of connectors, linking the tubes together and form a fluid shape. The locations of these connectors are specially designed to be well-hidden and create a smooth flow. The designers had to clearly brief the construction workers to ensure that the tubes are correctly installed.

Also, as the ceiling height varies in different areas, the connectors and tubes need to be adjusted accordingly. In order to better plan the whole form of railways, the designers created 3D models to design the movement of the tubes, to make sure that they look nice and present the best effect. It was also helpful in making sure that the arrangement of the tubes suits the needs of the client.

Additional Information

The cinema has a really low ceiling, limiting the scale of decorations and installations to be applied in the design. It was hard to decide the expression of design, as it would easily look very crowded and crammed in a limited space. The designers strived to create a design that would not overload the space. Firstly, the decorations are merged with facilities, creating a unified design throughout the cinema and avoided the need to install extra facilities. The wall and floor are black, highlighting the copper colored installation, and makes the area appear more spacious.