Seconds measured in centimeters. New Spatiality for a Cinema Centre in Frankfurt’s Altes Polizeipräsidium

Katja Heilingbrunner

In 1958, Hans Gugelot and Helmut Müller-Kühn’s design for a wheeled television represented a shift in how television and cinematic spaces can be conceptualized, introducing mobility to a previously static entertainment furniture piece. This mobility has evolved into the ubiquitous screens of today, transforming entertainment consumption and fragmenting traditional collective spaces such as the Odeon-like cinema. As the enduring popularity of film festivals in Frankfurt am Main indicates a persistent demand for collective cinema experiences, the project explores the Gestalt of cinema, television, and cinematic space. This takes the form of a dispersed reuse within an ensemble of the police headquarter built between 1911 and the 1960s, which faces an unclear future after the insolvency of a high-rise development. A series of incisions opens the complex to the city and houses functions connected to film culture to serve as a complementary institution to the array of small cinemas and the Deutsche Filminstitut und Filmmuseum. By introducing a play of observing and being observed, Seconds measured in centimeters re-spatializes the controlled boundaries of the police headquarters towards what Edgar Reitz calls a new “Kinotopia.”

Files
Énoncé (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF), Planche (PDF)
LINKS
Team
Teachers:
Dieter Dietz, Javier Nueno, Alfredo Thiermann
Supervision team:
Dietz, Dieter (dir. pédagogique) ; Thiermann, Alfredo (prof.) ; Nueno, Javier (maître EPFL) ; Szacka, Léa-Catherine (expert)
Professor in charge of the statement:
Thiermann, Alfredo (HITAM)
Educational director:
Dieter Dietz
Professor:
Alfredo Thiermann
EPFL Senior scientist:
Javier Carlos Nueno Guitart
Expert:
Léa-Catherine Szacka
Unit:
ALICE, HITAM
Infos
Year:
2024
Period:
Master, Fall
Category:
Master Project
Topic:  
Architecture
Copyright:
CC BY Licence
Theoretical statement

Cybernetic pedagogies

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