Changing the face – Pushkinsky cinema

Located in the heart of Moscow and set in one of the world’s busiest squares, Pushkinsky Cinema used to be the largest movie theatre of the country. ‘Symbiotic Facade’ aims to lionise the glory with a design that merges the new face to the existent and reconnects the cinema to its urban context. Pushkinsky cinema, as it currently stands has great iconic value and architectural presence. The aim is to design a façade, which does not destroy its formal beauty but adds to it. Hence, the idea of symbiosis is to provoke a bold interaction between the historical image and the new. It intends to give Moscow a landmark without taking away the familiar, celebrating the tension between the retained and the changed, through strategic use of form, light, space and material. This is achieved through the design of a structure that seamlessly flows onto the restored landscape of concrete and glass. The objective is to have an organic growth that emerges and merges into the existent, always revealing a glimpse of the building’s history. This intervention at first is scarcely visible in the square growing larger onto the steps and then gradually covering parts of the facade. It blurs the boundaries between the Pushkin square, the grand steps and the cinema. The structure, when on the floor forms part of the urban fabric, like street furniture, generating playfulness, stimulating interest and in turn drawing public to the area. As a façade it creates a constantly changing relationship between the interior and exterior forming the prefect backdrop for what Pushkinsy cinema is best known for; film festivals, opening ceremonies and world premiers. Symbiotic Façade is like an organic growth in the form of a complex dynamic lattice like structure. It is comprised of numerous varying cellular holes creating transient light qualities that change throughout the day as the light washes over its surfaces. Thus, creating physical, cultural and psychological interaction between various elements. DuPont™ Corian® is best suited to achieve this required fluidity in the new structure due to its hi-tech material properties. Digital Screens, displaying posters of featuring films will be mounted to the slanting face on top of the Pushkinsky Cinema’s Façade. Symbiotic Facade will be a landmark that will consciously stand out against the surrounding baroque landscape, revitalising the cinema’s presence as the focal point of Russia’s cultural life.