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Ireland Eye | |
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Where Practice Makes Perfect | |
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Ireland Eye The architects concentrated on creating transparency, dramatic views, a high-profile, surround-sound experience of light, movement, and procession, and an element of surprise strong architectural elements to create interesting spaces and encourage people to visit and linger. "Usually when you go into a cinema, you go into a box," explains Wallace. Not so at Eye. A 330-foot- (100-meter-) long curved glass wall exposes the main concourse completely, creating a feeling that the guests themselves are on stage. The long, patent-glazing wall has no mullions or structural bracing to break up the uninterrupted curved glass "screen." Natural light, high ceilings, and an air of openness create generous spaces for eating, drinking, and relaxing. There's no reason to keep out daylight and views to the landscape: the Eye is not about privacy and inward-looking design. It is a celebration of location and a dramatization of the experience of visiting the cinema. Hello, Spaceship Rather than enclosing them in a rectangular box, as is usually the case, the forms of the theaters are dramatically expressed as and contained in three enormous copper-clad "pods" that are suspended on skinny legs in the entry foyer. They look almost comical, as if they have landed from outer space in this colorful foyer. The space seems at once retro and futuristic. Wallace explains the form of the copper pods was inspired, fittingly, by movies themselves. He suggests that if you've seen "Thunderbirds Two," you'll recall in these forms the puppets' green transporter plane. A luxury screen dubbed "The Magnificent Seven," which comes with a slightly higher ticket price, gives moviegoers a chance to experience an inner VIP treatment within the outer VIP treatment. This small theater, with 40 luxurious leather seats, is also available for booking for private screenings. "It's lovely with waitresses that come around selling ice creams and velvet curtains that draw back to reveal the screen," explains Wallace with an air of nostalgia. "And it sells out the quickest." As a courtesy to visitors coming by car, instead of a large parking lot to traverse in the dark, there is 600-car basement parking garage directly below allowing visitors to travel from their car to their seat without venturing outside. At Eye, attention to the smaller details makes the experience still more memorable. John Regan of Douglas Wallace describes the washrooms as "a 'cocoon' space, with music and sounds relating to the movies currently showing in the theater so that the customer's journey through the experience is not interrupted." The high-gloss interiors include bright yellow Corian countertops, creating a shiny, seamless solid surface for the box office and bar areas, and trendy couches and chairs in the waiting and bar areas, encouraging people to stay after the movie and "hang out." Views up at the two transparent "bridges" allow visitors to see the projectionists at work. The project pushes the boundaries of cinema design and far exceeds a first-time visitor's expectations. The interior functions as a sort of public space. People come early and stay late, socializing in the complex. Playful, innovative, and dramatic, Eye Cinema evokes both nostalgia for a time when going to the cinema was more exciting and glamorous and a dynamic, high-tech vision of the future. Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... Terri Whitehead is a writer and designer based in London.
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