Multiplex Centre

Maribor, Slovenia, 2001

Type
leisure and sport

Source
competition

Client
Mariborski Kinematografi

Address/Site
Maribor, Slovenia

Site area
3.150 m2

Building area
1.232 m2

Total floor area
26.526 m2

Storeys
3 basements + ground floor + 3

Structure
reinforced concrete structure of parking space, steel structure of parallel walls, carrier plates and theaters

Cladding
printed isolation glass, isolation panels made of extruded stainless steel panels

Architect
SADAR+VUGA (Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Peter Šenk, Jaka Bežan, Marjeta Fendre, Mojca Kocbek)

The Maribor Cinema Multiplex is conceived so that the preparation for the film experience begins at each of the four gates into the object – the first means to this connectivity is the infrastructure.

The Maribor Cinema Multiplex is an infrastructural building, meaning that the infrastructure of its interior (the term infrastructure is hereby used for all communicational areas and facilities) is connected to the municipal infrastructure for pedestrian, bicycle and motor traffic. Moving through the infrastructure in the multiplex is a means of altering the perception of the inner space and with it, the experience of the effects of its architecture. By cutting short the time/space sequence on the infrastructure of the multiplex we magnify the change in perception and influence the intensity of the experience.

Beside the organization of the interior, another means to achieve the desired architectural effect is the inscenation of the experience for the audience at the multiplex. The interior is organized in spatial sequences the duration of which is determined by the speed of motion through the infrastructure.-the entire space is divided by eight thin walls (construction cinematic cuts) into seven 8-meter wide belts. The walls are pierced by the infrastructure and by seven theatres at the top of the building, connected by level plates. The relation between the walls, plates, theaters and the infrastructure is determined by a great number of different micro-atmospheres in the interior: half-open, half-closed.

Lighter, darker, higher and lower that are calibrated into space/time sequences by the unified rhythm of thin walls. The cinema multiplex thus begins to resemble a theme park as far as regards its effect, where the intensification of the experience is the major factor of the park’s attraction – in the multiplex, we establish three directed paths, three loops which connect the urban space of the town with the spaces of the multiplex: cinema – standard path, cinema – ceremonial path and non-cinema path.