Promises

Cinema Marconi - Sensorial cinema museum space

Promises

Diploma Project
"Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urbanism

CINEMA MARCONI - SENSORIAL CINEMATOGRAPHIC MUSEUM SPACE
Methodological illustration through the studied spatial hypostases

Student: Adrian IONIȚĂ
Supervisor: prof. dr. dr. arh. Adrian SPIRESCU

The theme of the diploma project aims to outline a contemporary program for the Marconi Cinema, which can thus become a polarizing and revitalizing cultural factor in the architectural-urban context of Buzești Boulevard.
The conclusion of the multi-criteria analysis reveals an urban situation characterized by the opposition of two urban structural and functional fields. The first is made up of a traditional fabric, with single-family dwellings of various shapes, located on a plot with narrow lots and a small number of collective dwellings, relatively isolated on the lot or in front. The second structural field represents an area restructured in the post-World War II period, in which we find isolated mass or vertical landmark buildings, or bar-type buildings - blocks and the Ibis Hotel. There is a difference in the street profile between the two as the traditional weaving area is made up of narrower streets and low rise buildings.
The chosen program represents a fusion between museum space, sensory space and the world of film. If the museum is an active means of communicating values, being an expression, a response to the changes in the cultural society in which it has to integrate as part of the cultural development of the city, it is in a continuous process of adaptation, facing a major challenge. Today, more than ever, the museum has to integrate into an information landscape and become a more active, dynamic documentation tool to face competition from the Internet, libraries, etc. Gradually, the museum must become a factor of attraction rather than a repository for collections. It follows that a relevant direction is based on transforming the museum journey into an integrated, narrative experience that attracts the visitor.
Another premise that develops the social side of the museum experience is the association with related functions associated with relaxation and leisure: cafes, mini-bars, restaurants, party spaces or shops. In other words, the museum's "mixed-use"¹ space, characterized by dynamism and functional adaptation, which shows the tendency to turn the museum into an informal space, to be accessed at leisure, without any cultural preparation. In today's society, the museum should be widely accessible: a meeting place or a place of relaxation for a passer-by, but also a point of attraction for the interested tourist.

The sensory experience of the museum itinerary is complementary to the narrative exhibition. In his book The Architecture of Memory, Augustin Ioan speaks of synaesthetic ^experiences2 in the sense of a totality of sensory stimuli that promote a recollection through bodily experience - auditory, olfactory and tactile. Merleau-Ponty, in trying to define the bodily relationship with the object, brings up the term "depth"³, being the "reversibility of dimensions". Through sensation, mathematical distance loses ground in favor of intimate, invisible proximity to the object. Thirdly, from a psychological point of view, a deep empathization with the object through sensations provokes affections that favor an "estrangement from the self"^4.
On these theoretical bases, the design theme proposes a sensorial approach to the museum space in order to transmit to the visitor a total experience, both visual and physically conscious, through immersion in the object and a return to oneself.
The third side of the proposed program synthesis introduces a cinematographic temporality into the equation. The film presents a vision framed towards a parallel plane, sens sensorially experienced through the correlations between lived experiences and those observed on screen. Cinematographic temporality, seen as a repetition of static ^instances5, is received through a process of liberation from the everyday field, an exit from time. Through its atmosphere, the museum journey changes the dynamic-static relationship, favoring a pause, a temporal suspension controlled by the visitor. The succession of cinematographic instances becomes palpable and the building, as opposed to time, allows itself to be led by the visitor into his own time. Consequently, the cinematic side brings an extra space or, rather, a succession of spaces that become cinematic instances of a referential order in order to experience the temporality of the films. Finally, we can associate two characters to the proposed program. The first, reactive, determines the building-user contact. The museum's itinerary follows a progressive, but also a perfectly controllable reversive "play-rewind" path, which can be considered a derivative of the narrative sequence. The second character is reflexive. The museum space reverberates in the visitor's imagination and consciousness, having a ritual function of actively evoking memories. For this reason, in order to emphasize the ritual aspect, the itinerary incorporates the idea of ^repetition6.

><img src= Architectural spatialization is based on three types of relationship between users and the built.

(1) Experiencing cinematic dynamics. In cinema, movement occurs when several static instances follow one another at a speed of 24 frames per second. In itself, the cinema is a faithful representation of reality, but movement, through montage, is transformed into thought. Montage allows opposites to oppose opposites because it intervenes by juxtaposition, juxtaposition or even superimposition in the unfolding of static instances. Like montage, cinematic space is essentially an opposition of opposites made up of several sequences. The experience of cinematic space will be a composition, an assemblage of parts that are distinct in character, but which merge in composition. The idea of montage may be similar to the concept of Bricolage proposed by Glen A. Mazis. Bricolage takes objects from reality and integrates them into a modified, innovative composition, retaining elements of the objects used in its structure. The movement transposed into architecture is accomplished by traversing and understanding contrasting spatial hypostases.
(2) Psychological contemplation. The visitor's affective attraction occurs through relating to symbolic elements that refer to images and visual codes from the world of cinema. An example can be the idea/image of the staircase, producing suspense, the unknown, etc. The staircase in the sensorial cinematographic museum space becomes an element of reference and refers by its presence to the temporality of the cinematographic world.
Consequently, the idea of experiencing can be considered as the transposition of sensoriality into the sensorial cinematic museum space, while psychological contemplation becomes a version of narrative exhibition.
(3) Socialization and debate. The sensory cinematic museum space proposes a user-user relationship. Talking about the concept of cultural agora, Daniela Rădulescu brings up the conception of spaces based on the notion of dialog where "the permanent availability for conversation (...) and the exchange of ideas must represent the main purpose of thinking about its interior spaces7. Encouraging moments of conversation in the museum through specific areas or cultural activities - book launches, workshops, debates, round tables, film screenings, courses, etc. - are ways of integrating the museum into a socio-cultural network. The film and the museum may be two means of axiological transmission and education, but the relationship between culture and society draws attention to an interface space, mediator, catalyst and point of attraction. The cultural agora is the first contact with the museum/cultural center space and is present in the immediate vicinity of the public space, becoming its extension. At this point, the visitor stops at a crossroads and the idea of a psychological museum space emerges.

The collection of a sensorial cinematic museum complements the psychological character by encompassing and referring to everything that is cinematic - image, sound and light. Thus, in addition to collecting, documenting and interpreting films, we can also talk about collecting cameras, camcorders, cameras, projection equipment, artistic lighting, musical and recording equipment. Film interpretation can be the purpose of a video library where visitors can view representative scenes from various films, while collectibles can be displayed in themed rooms. In this situation, the screening room becomes a significant organ for the cinematic and sensorial museum space, as it complements sensory experimentation and psychological contemplation.
Accordingly, the design theme proposes a type of architecture that arouses the interest to walk through it with elements that realize visual and sensory references: various framing, vertical and horizontal spatial connectivities, various visually controlled angles that produce a sweep in depth, objects that allow an interaction with the world of the film, but also architectural elements - cinematic visual codes integrated into the body of the construction.
Finally, we can synthesize the design theme into a functional exhibition:
- Exhibition Spaces;
- Spaces for discussion and debate in relation to the city - mediation between museum and public space (cultural agora);
- Screening room;
- Space for workshops, related activities;
- Film editing and production workshops;
- Office space;
- Collection storage;
- Café/Lounge;
- Souvenir shop or various commercial spaces.

NOTES

1. MacLeod, S. (2006) Reshaping museum space: Architecture, design, exhibitions. London: Routledge.
2. Ioan, A. (2013). The architecture of memory: the new frontier of sacred space. București: Igloo Media.
3. Merleau-Ponty, M. (n.d.). Eye and Mind.
4. Jung, C. G., & Niscov, V. (2005). Psychological types. București: Editura Trei. 3.
5. Deleuze, G., Tomlinson, H., & Habberjam, B. (2013) The movement-image, p. 6, London: Bloomsbury Academic.
6. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/08/02/157789182/the-science-of-ritual-why-we- seek-help-and-healing-in-repetition.
7. Rădulescu, Daniela. Architecture of modern cultural centers. București: Editura Tehnică, 1996, p. 298.

Bibliography

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IOAN, A. Arhitectura memoriei: noua frontieră a spațiului sacru, București: Igloo Media, 2013
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