One Plus Partnership Conceives a Seven-Screen Cinema Complex in Shenzhen, China

2021 Best of Year winner for Entertainment

It was the stage in its multiple aspects—a space for actors and performers, a focal point for audiences, and, above all, a mise-end-scène to be lit—that co-design directors Ajax Law and Virginia Lung had firmly in mind when conceiving this seven-screen cinema complex. Indeed, with almost 4,000 fixtures positioned throughout the 78,000-square-foot movie palace, they’ve made lighting the star of the show. In the main lobby, spotlights are assembled into massive rectangular blocks that evoke theater-lighting rigs hung at wildly disparate angles, creating an attention-grabbing spectacle overhead. To intensify the dynamic light show, the lobby walls are clad in reflective stainless-steel panels with a copper finish; elsewhere the effect of burnished metal is achieved with equally shiny automotive paint. Single spotlights create pools of illumination and shadow in the auditoriums, where broad swaths of fabric and carpet are used to throw klieglike beams of orange and yellow across the mostly gray walls, seats, and floor. The designers have included an actual stage in one of the cinemas, hoping that community-building live performances will find their way into the limelight.

One Plus Partnership: Ajax Law, Virginia Lung