This project follows on from the project for the bar and café of the current Showroom Arts Cinema which the practice have previously completed. The proposals are for the extension of the Showroom Arts Cinema which occupies a prominent position on the route into the City. The prescriptive geometries circumscribed by the context define strong elemental forms, which articulate both programme and spatial experience.

 

The prescriptive geometries circumscribed by the context define strong elemental forms, which articulate both programme and spatial experience.

The lower, public base of the building is materially heavy - black concrete forms, alternately matt and polished, describe routes, a sequence of spaces and the form of the cinema itself.

In its form and articulation it takes advantage of Sheffield's topography to address different scales of view. A public room is proposed at roof level, surveying the horizon and catching the sun.

Cinema is an immersive, hermetic environment. The building counterpoints this, opening views and articulating the journey to one's seat through shifting relationships to the street outside. The black box is questioned - acoustically glazed windows utilise the geometry of sight lines and site to offer views up Shoreham Street and Paternoster Row from within the auditorium. The city only finally disappears when the crushed velvet curtains draw back to cover the windows and reveal the screen.

The exterior of the building is in black and white, responding to the graphic qualities of the existing Workstation building. Highlights and accents would be offered by posters, signage, lighting and glimpses into rich interiors. The interior of the building offers flowing spaces but also a series of special rooms. Each room would have an individual richness of colour, texture or pattern - perhaps a palette of golds and yellows, which turn up the contrast of the existing cream tiling and echo the glamour of historic cinemas. Each space might be an artist commission.