Nanchang Insun International Cinema by One Plus Partnership.

Today I’m sharing with you guys a quirky little number from China’s Book City, Nanchang. Completed by One Plus Partnership in 2013, the design of the Nanchang Insun International Cinema uses the conceptual relationship between the book and the silver screen to drive its interior design strategy. References to books and pages are strewn throughout and are used to construct an architectural narrative that focuses on story telling. Why not, right? It’s a cinema. The conceptual approach and program couldn’t fit together any more harmoniously. Or could it?

Although it is a pretty sweet idea and clearly relevant, the project’s literal interpretation of the concept seems a little bit too obvious. Oh no I didn’t just go there. It is as if its barefaced literalism taints the project; making it read more like a clichéd mix of individual sub-concepts rather than a genuine ode to the relationship between the book and screen as a whole. I’m just saying. I’ll now get down from my ego-driven pedestal of design criticism and let you guys decide for yourselves. Have a browse through the images. Do you see what I mean?

Let’s not take any credit away though from the individual interiors and the sculptural qualities of the spaces One Plus Partnership has created. The walls in the entry space are simply wicked. Playing with a sense of staggered depth, splined curvatures and vertically stripped regularity, they create a beautiful rhythm from the entrance to the darker depths of the cinema spaces. The ticket desks are fashioned from white corian to emulate stacks of paper and the cladding on the internal columns creates an impression of towering circular bookcases. Moving from the lighter entry spaces to the darker cinema halls, the material palate moves from whites to blacks. Inside the cinemas the walls are clad with green and black vertical profiles that flows onto the ceiling. Mimicking book spines.

Well done One Plus Partnership, a project lapping up loads of attention and collecting loads of awards, all in spite of its literalism and direct translation of concept. Clearly proving me wrong.

[Images courtesy of One Plus Partnership.]