iran
LONG ISLAND CINEMA COMPETITION
First Place – $1200
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project
madjid MONTAZERI + ali AFSARMANESH:
Metaphor:
One who enters, makes a picture of himself on a movie, and these two images are merged to the background of Manhattan.
Concept:
3 frames are located toward the river facing Manhattan respectively, the first frame is of a great screen reflecting the faces of people entering the site with hologram live projectors, as Andy Warhol once said: “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
The second frame is a screen for the outdoor amphitheatre, with the seats located on the roofs of the lower indoor space.
The third frame is a void looking to the horizon line of Manhattan.
Process of Design:
The circulation is formed in a three turn spiral. The theatres are located in the spiral. And the theatres are connected to each others in corners by large escalators which provide changing views to Manhattan and the surrounding. These three turns create three huge screens which lead to cohesive combination of indoor and outdoor spaces of Manhattan.
When a movie is on the second screen the first frame reflect the faces of people watching the movie or entering the site, the intersection of these two images present a live performance both for people watching Manhattan from the site and watching the site from Manhattan.
sP: What or who influenced this project?
mM+aA: Massoud Afsarmanesh
sP: What were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?
we were listening to Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix
sP: Whose work is currently on your radar?
Cable 8 cultural center by Massoud Afsarmanesh
afsarmanesh architects
Architect: madjid MONTAZERI, ali AFSARMANESH
Associate Architects: ehsan HASSANPOUR LIMA, lila TADAIONI
Project Team: pegah JALALI, sahand SOHRAB, mohammad MOMENI
3D Rendering: saied FAHIMPOUR
The process of design is based on a method by the late Iranian Architect, Professor Massoud Afsarmanesh.
jury comments:
michael SZIVOS: The idea of the building not only framing content, but in some ways producing content and even remixing it with the public is very compelling. I wish the formal resolution of the building was clearer in its support for this idea. The idea is very strong and should very apparent rather than diluted by an overly complex form.
gil AKOS: While a bit fantastical, I thoroughly enjoy the central idea behind this project and how it relates time, as an inherent property of film, to the configuration of the building and our sequential experience of it.
stella LEE: This would make a great installation in the city and what I enjoy most is how it engages the person, the moving picture and the cityscape in the way described in the description. Poetic and if one could actually build this, would be pretty astonishing. And fun. This is less about fame and more about image so I found the Warhol quote a bit off but nonetheless very nice project.
May 6th, 2011 at 12:30 am
Formally very poor, but if you “GET” the idea you can appreciate it.
May 6th, 2011 at 11:36 am
In addition to the jury comments which are so precise , I would allege that the building is perfectly involved with urban space, people and landscape simultaneously.It is a huge,magnificent receptive sculpture that facing to Manhattan.
May 6th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Very very well-done.. For a conceptual hypothetical project, I think the designers nailed it.. Too often, the winners are as a result of great renderings but I’m happy this one went a bit further; I love the idea of projecting in the direction of the city..
May 6th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
i was confident that they wanted architecture not sculptures.
May 8th, 2011 at 11:28 am
Well, there is no place for architecture in this world… If only it could be elegant sculptures…
May 8th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
High quality work however I am disappointed with the lack of re-imagination of the cinematic experience as it relates to new technologies, many brought up in the design brief. Film and interfacing technologies have expanded film beyond its traditional notions of timing and sequencing, making it a ripe time for rediscovery.
May 14th, 2011 at 8:47 am
i think there is a long distance between forms & functioons
May 15th, 2011 at 1:05 am
the concept breaks down when one comes in by boat or walks in from the waterfront side. 5th street is proposed as the main entry when in fact center st is the most active due to the apartments. the concept demands that one walks in from 5th st. there is no integration of building to site nor site to context. even if one says the screens integrate the context, there is no details showing how these screens work. during the day, if these screens actually worked, they would not be visible due to the sunlight. the landscape looks like one giant concrete slab. the floor plans on flicker show no attention to cinematic demands like acoustics, crowd flows, nor entry or exit strategies. in reality, there would be at least 4 or 5 elevator/fire stair per arc. the renderings and drawings are so ambiguous that it seems synonymous to this project wanting to whisk away like a thought of “what if,” then discarded due to gravity. This is what i call “one way architecture” which is when a concept is introduced and only works one way…when the sun comes up the concept is gone. if one comes in from the waterfront the concept wont work. when a person comes in from the canal the concept won’t be there. i really want to know what these judges were thinking.
May 17th, 2011 at 6:26 am
to Pablo:
First : the concept wont “break down” if one comes in by boat or walk in from the waterfront, since he will see different overlaps of frames, as you might be able to see in the third image showing different possibilites of seeing the frames, when viewing the project from different angles. In fact I think it would be silly if you were going to see the same thing from the river!
During the day, even if the screens wouldn’t work, which I confess I don’t know about if they do or not, the building avoid being a mass since it is a big void to Manhattan and would not block the city view.
About the integration between the project and the site, I liked the network describing the site angels and etc on flickr.
As far as I know architecture is all about potentials and possibilities so whether you can deal with “acoustic” which of course can be done by a sound engineer you cannot provide the site with new potentials.
May 18th, 2011 at 1:41 am
the concept is very well,but form and interior spaces are very huge and it is not suitable for this landscape.
April 6th, 2013 at 12:30 am
Very well concept and I enjoy the this spiral form,this form is good choice for showing the idea.Thanks from afsarmanesh architects.
July 23rd, 2013 at 9:20 pm
This is very Interesting . . . people are participants in architecture . . . Actually, any one of them can play a role and become a part of the architecture, and they are not the only user . . . and, this is very Interesting.