Multiplex Cinema Square

Multiplex Cinema square project includes some cinema and IMAX halls sitting in a floating square in the waterfront of the city of Patras. It is not a single building neither a single public square. It is a place dedicated to cinematography where people can enjoy their love in the seventh art during all their presence there. This public space is quite different from all the others in the city of Patras. We tried to design an art - square where artists and citizens can gather together in order to celebrate various festivals that they cannot do until now. The concept of this project came as the result of the combination of two major ideas. The first one is the building that is situated over the water and it distances several meters far from the coastline so as to “watch” the city and at the same time “been watched” by it. It is an alternative approach for the idea of cinema because while watching a movie at the same time you are the spectacle. The second idea is that of the ramp. It is a 100 meters corridor which forms the extension of a basic road axis of the region. Through this decision we aim to attract many visitors because while walking into the urban canvas of the city you probably find this ramp as an exit from it. You start your journey from the lowest level of the sea, you go higher and higher, you get into the building and you finally get out of it standing in a balcony 20 meters above the sea level. It is a totally “screen directed” journey in the building that makes visitor feel like being part of a film. Undeniably, it is a living experience as you are not only a visitor but the protagonist of a kind of play that takes place every day and hour. It is an experience based on the Greek ancient definition about drama by Aristotle, according to which the audience share the feelings of the actor so as to find eventually the “catharsis”. The basic materials of the building are the concrete, the steel and the glass. The main volume of the building is made out of concrete while the ceiling is totally translucent using frost polycarbonate panels where light penetrates the roof so as to fill the lobbies and the restaurants with light during the whole day. The night, when the sky is dark, the lights of the multiplex are concentrated and diffused in the sky making the building a reference point for the city; a shining place that shares the shine of cinematography.