New horizons cinema | BUCK.studio

Opened in August 2012 and located in a three-storey building which was a typical commercial multiplex before, Kino Nowe Horyzonty has 9 screening rooms and more than 2300 seats which makes it one of the largest art house cinemas in Europe. KNH integrates activities associated with cinema and its promotion – so not only a regular screenings, but also movie festivals, reviews, exhibitions, workshops, meetings and educational projects. All of the events requires a suitable space in which those can be organized – traditional cinema foyer happens to be, in this case, not enough. So there was an urgent need to conform the existing foyer and change it into open and !exible space which would not only be easy to rearrange but would also have an extraordinary and inspiring ambience. Because of the independent nature and limited budget of the whole project - both the design process as well as the renovation works were shortened in time to a minimum. The design of the interior and equipment was developed in 4 weeks and the renovation of 1800 sqm foyer took just 6 days. In addition, as we were responsible not only for the design but also for managing the entire process, we decided to design the key elements of the furniture and lighting ourselves and to develop them in cooperation with local manufacturers. The foyer makeover started off with old furnishings removal, decorations stripping and thorough cleaning-up. This exposed vast and somewhat chaotic space which unde#ned character turned out to be a huge advantage and inspiring prod. This also effected the main project’s concept focused on creating the place where the intuition and preferences of the user determine the space. We decided that the new foyer furnishings should be changeable, mobile and approachable. This goal was completed by creating ‘cubes’ - the multifunctional furniture system consisted of minimalistic steel frames, which depended on needs or additional elements, could be either a table, a seat or an exhibition space, but also a hammock rack. This intuitive set, which was the core of the whole equipment, was complemented by purposefully eclectic mix of vintage furniture and traditional rugs. This combination is, on the one hand - the peculiar aesthetic challenge, but on the other hand – invitation for the visitors to freely rearrange the equipment for their own needs and activities. Furnishings were completed with the new lighting system specially designed for the foyer. It is based on two types of modular luminaires - ‘lightning’ fluorescent lights and ‘hatty’ pendant lamps. Free to arrange, they work fine both as a group of elements or individually. Simplicity was also the core factor for redesign of old cinema bars and box office for which we decided to choose available but not obvious material solution. They gained a new, fresh look thanks to the ordinary trapeze sheet metal – affordable and adaptive building material - which was redefined for interior use and accompanied by traditional neon signs. And last but not least, the icon of KNH project - four 18 meters long swings located just next to the box office - which are kind of summary for the whole project and symbol of the KNH cinema. KNH foyer sets a good example of space which works as a constantly inspiring and ever-changing background for all kinds of cultural events and diverse user activities. EQUIPMENT ’cubes’ steel frames furniture system - custom design by B.A common tables - custom design by B.A chairs - fameg & vintage swings - custom design by B.A ’lightning’ !uorescent lights - custom design by B.A, manufactured by chors ’hatty’ pendant lights - custom design by B.A, manufactured by chors neons - custom design by B.A plexiglass poster pockets - custom design by B.A