Gereon Siévi

This project is a proposal to revive a cinema in Oerlikon that has closed in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid Pandemic. The building was constructed in 1950 as the third cinema in the neighbourhood by Werner Stücheli and had a car workshop in the basement as well as a tea room on the ground floor. It was modified into a dance school with a bar in the late 70s and in its final years since 1999 reused as a porn cinema.

A year after the building closed down in 2019, a group of gastronomes from Oerlikon bought it and since have refurbished and reopened the existing Restaurant/Bar by the name of Venus on the Ground floor with great success. With them a caterer and a vegan ice cream maker moved into the basement as tenants , as well as a secret listening bar into the projector room on the back. The closure of this public cinema in Oerlikon is part of the decline of cinemas since the 60s, that has been caused by
the introduction of the private Tv. But watching movies collectively is not only enjoyable but has the potential to bring people together through a shared experience and can fosters a discourse on that basis.

The old screening hall on the first floor has been split in two in the past and is still out of use. If some of its spatial qualities could be reinstated and merged with the skills already present in the building a gastronomical cinema for Oerlikon could be the result. It would offer food during the screenings and invite to stay for multiple films or elsewhere in the building.

Films shown should be at least a year old to highlight the historic catalogue instead of a constant strive for new productions and the cinema would operate more as a leisurely place to linger at and talk for the neighbourhood. Such conversations could be continued on the ground floor, which has been redesigned with furniture in support of such exchanges. This floor is split in two by a red carped and is a space for before and after the screenings.

In hours of sun the shades are closed to enable screenings, at dusk however they open for a second cinematic sunrise, leaving its mirror image visible on the big window in the façade. Passing by you can watch the movie from outside on the small plaza and sometimes the neighbouring kebab shop on side provides the missing sound.

Such an integration opens the building to the neighbourhood and would bring a cultural institution to an underserved part of the centralised city of Zürich. The current model of cinemas that are attempting to compete with the home cinema is under pressure, while film as a medium is booming, evolving cinemas into public forums instead of having to leave right away. The proposed design is an example how this model and could work for other areas that suffer from the loss of public screenings.