FLETCHER PRIEST ARCHITECTS' HACKNEY PICTUREHOUSE OPENS TO THE PUBLIC
Fletcher Priest Architects’ new Hackney Picturehouse has opened. It is the latest addition to the City Screen’s Picturehouse group of cinemas.
The former Ocean building has been transformed into a 4,000 square metre venue with four cinema screens, a café, upper level bars and facilities for community based organisations. The state-of the-art auditoria are equipped with luxury seating and the best digital, 3D and satellite technology. Films will be screened seven days a week, 364 days a year, from around midday until late.
Fletcher Priest have recently completed a bespoke auditorium for Nomura at One Angel Lane, as well as the RIBA-award winning Tyneside Cinema, which featured in The Guardian’s “10 of the best....Independent Cinemas” in 2010.
Lyn Goleby, Managing Director of CityScreen/Picturehouse Cinemas, Britain’s largest circuit of independent cinemas, said: “Our aim is to make the Hackney Picturehouse a really vibrant local community cinema that will become one of the linchpins of cultural activity in the centre of the borough, very much like sister cinemas in the circuit – The Ritzy in Brixton and the Clapham Picturehouse – offering a rich mix of mainstream and specialised film, music and other locally centred activity.”
The intelligent refurbishment of the spaces is accompanied by a bold new graphic identity throughout, which serves as link between the internal spaces.
Mareike Langkitsch, project architect at Fletcher Priest, explained how a careful audit of the existing interior spaces, and the creative reuse of materials, minimised waste and resulted in an effective design: “We have aimed to reuse and rethink as many of the existing spaces and materials as possible. This has included removing side balconies to achieve a large screen in the former main concert space. Acoustic panels in the cinemas and bar areas have also been refurbished throughout, and subsequently reused, with some being taken to the Ritzy Picturehouse in Brixton to be used there. Frosted glazed panels that were previously used as projection screens in front of the bar windows have been relocated to the art gallery space to act as a back-lit light box wall.”
The imposing sandstone façade with its distinctive copper-clad domes opens up at street level to create a large café and music bar with long opening hours, and a giant logo playfully announces the new venue along Mare Street.
This major investment in the heart of Hackney, is a timely addition and a vote of confidence in the borough, providing space for many arts related and community activities. The venue will house local organisations such as ‘Rising Tide’, who offer a comprehensive programme of music education, training and professional development to a wide range of individuals including disaffected young people.
Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney, said: “I’m really pleased that the local community and visitors to Hackney will soon have a new state of the art cinema in the heart of the borough. This is a really positive boost for the local area and will be warmly welcomed when it opens up for business.”
Project Team
Architect Fletcher Priest Architects
Client City Screen Limited
Main Contractor BW Interiors
Project Manager Gillespie PM Ltd
Quantity Surveyor Burke Hunter Adams
Services Engineers Cundall
Structural Engineers Conisbee
Acoustics Spectrum
Audio Visual Future Projections Ltd
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Fletcher Priest Architects’ projects include the enclosure of the listed courtyard at Devonshire Square, and the recent award-winning One Angel Lane (formerly Watermark Place), overlooking the first new public space in the City on the north bank of the Thames. Fletcher Priest Architects is an award winning practice established in London in 1978. In 1992 we opened our Cologne studio, Fletcher Priest Bösl, and our Riga Studio in 2008. Our work covers urban design, architecture and interiors and we are one of the one hundred largest practices in the UK. Clients include St Anne’s College Oxford, Royal Mail, UBS, Sony, IBM and Vodafone. Our projects range from new buildings to renovation and refurbishment of existing structures and from headquarters buildings to the regeneration of public space. Current projects include the Stratford City masterplan in east London, a 73 hectare urban centre delivering the Athletes Village for 2012, and the new urban centre of Riga, Latvia. We have a thriving Design Research team and strong links with Universities and Schools of Architecture. Fletcher Priest are finalists in the Architect of the Year Awards 2011.
www.fletcherpriest.com
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Image copyright: Richard Davies and Fletcher Priest Architects
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