Cinema Ideal in LISBON, Portugal by José Neves

Article source: José Neves

Cinema Ideal was the first cinema in Portugal. Located in the heart of Lisbon, between Loreto and Horta Seca streets, it occupies the ground floor of two buildings built in two different epochs – 19th and 20th centuries. Since its inauguration in 1904, the cinema was transformed by multiple interventions, becoming a degraded and architecturally disqualified place, showing exclusively pornographic films during the last three decades.

The entrance of the cinema in 1930 and today, Image Courtesy © Fernando Freire

• Architects: José Neves
• Project: Cinema Ideal
• Location: LISBON, Portugal
• Photography: Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra; Fernando Freire
• Software used: Autodesk AutoCAD
• Client: MIDAS II, Cinemas
• Constructor: Contentor de Ideias
• Colaborators: Rui Sousa Pinto, Vasco Melo, André Matos, Fernando Freire; João Pernão, Maria Capelo (consultores de cor).
• Engineering: Betar, Natural Works
• Project year: 2013-2014
• Construction year: 2014

The cinema space is opened to the city, bringing inside the limestone of the streets of Lisbon, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

The project was based on three fundamental principles:

1. To recover the original urban nature of Cinema Ideal, opposed to the character of almost all of today’s cinemas in Lisbon which are located inside shopping malls.
2. To accept and integrate the traces of different interventions over time, giving it a new unity.
3. To give the screening room an architectural identity: a boîte à miracles instead of an indistinct black box.

Therefore, the entrance was reconfigured, opening the cinema space to the city and bringing the limestone of the streets of Lisbon to the inside.

In the foyer, the walls extend the asymmetric and undulating surfaces of the screening room, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

One of the existing pilotis was reconfigured to be covered by film posters and a three faced mirror embraces the foyer, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

In the foyer, of exiguous dimensions, the walls extend the asymmetric and undulating surfaces of the screening room and a three faced mirror reflects the light and the movement from the street in the interior space. One of the existing pilotis was reconfigured to be covered by film posters and the artificial light, emanating from circular holes opened on the ceiling, establish different areas of light and shadow.

In the screening room, the most valuable existent elements that remained were also integrated in the project: the stalls and balcony, the undulated folded walls and its texture. The shapes of the floors and ceilings of the screening room were reconfigured to ensure perfect viewing and acoustic conditions, while the reticulated and light structure of the chairs gently rests on the floor, helping to clarify the character of the room. The doors between the screening room and the Horta Seca street, allow that, at the end of the sessions, the audience gets out directly to the street – from the darkness of the screening room towards the light of the city.

The most valuable elements that remained were integrated: the stalls, the balcony and its folded walls, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

The shapes of the floor and ceiling were reconfigured to ensure perfect viewing and acoustic conditions, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

The plaster of the walls, the wood-fibers and cement, used in the ceilings – all painted in a single nightly color – and the natural cork that dresses the floors are the only materials, along with a few elements made of mirror and stone.

Together with the quality of the film programming carried out by the promoter, the project is a gesture of resistance to crisis that Portugal is going through, not only social and economic, but also cultural. In this sense, the richness of Cinema Ideal does not depend on the wealth and ostentation that is historically associated with the architecture of movie theatres.

At the end of the sessions, the audience exit directly to the street – from the darkness of the cinema towards the light of the city, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

Painted plaster, wood-cement panels and cork are the only materials, along with a few elements made of mirror and stone, Image Courtesy © Laura Castro Caldas & Paulo Cintra

Instead, this is achieved by using a minimum range of cheap materials, the organization, shape, and lighting of spaces, as well by the viewing and acoustic conditions of the screening room. In every step, we are reminded of the words – more opportune than ever – of both Vitor Figueiredo, the architect, and Jean-Marie Straub, the filmmaker:

“Take everything from us, but luxury!”

Model, Image Courtesy © Fernando Freire

Site plan, Image Courtesy © José Simões Neves gabinete de arquitectura, lda

Plan of the entrance floor ( Loreto street), Image Courtesy © José Simões Neves gabinete de arquitectura, lda

Plan of the exit floor (Horta Seca street), Image Courtesy © José Simões Neves gabinete de arquitectura, lda

Loreto street elevation, Section and Horta Seca street elevation, Image Courtesy © José Simões Neves gabinete de arquitectura, lda

Tags: Lisbon, Portugal

Categories: Autocad, Cinema, Hall

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