If you’re after a boutique movie experience then Archlight Cinema in Battersea Power Station’s Circus West Village is just the ticket. Our role was to deliver the lighting design elements to reinforce the interior scheme by Ab Rogers Design that’s characterised by bold use of colour, materiality and movement.
The lighting scheme works across interconnected railway arches, which are home to three screening rooms and a central ticket office. Each room has a striking three-dimensional ceiling of angled acoustic panels that enhance the cinematic experience and swallow up vibrations from the trains above. To strengthen the dramatic design, we carefully positioned discreet spotlights behind the individual panels and calculated exactly how light would travel across the angled surface to produce “catch and miss” moments.
The illuminated panel ceilings have individual lighting scenes. On arrival moviegoers are given time to enjoy the play of light across the dramatic ceiling. The lighting then slowly dims as the film starts. The form of the ceiling is always visible, but slowly fades into the background so it doesn’t detract from the screen.
In the art deco-inspired foyer, we used functional track lighting and a backlit panel to illuminate merchandise displays and complement the handcrafted joinery and textured bronze surfaces.
Images © John Short
— Daniel Blaker
