Gravity by Design Action

Jun 12

"When gravity reaches at its extreme, it will form a black hole, absorbing everything, and distort the space and time; forming an irremediable scene." <Lecture Notes on General Relativity>

Countless particles permeate the silent space, suddenly gravity depicts a track of guides towards the ceiling, and form a huge whirlpool. The vortex generates strong suction which distorts space and devours everything. In the distorted space, particles are reshape and restructured, leaving streamlined traces on ceiling and wall, capturing a moment in space.

As you enter the cinema lobby, gravity reshapes the cinema appearance. The white ceiling swirl design mimics the black hole, where numerous particles flow into the trajectory and form a stacked light cove from low to high. At the same time, the swirl design composes the wall and floor design. The walls of the whole cinema are covered with flowing lines, combining gold and silver colour as feature accent, in which the lines are twisted and turned forming the shape of rolled up leaves in this distorted space. Under the force of gravity, the grey floor forms a way finding path by using three different stones with stainless steel division lines creating different layers. Light flows from the wall of the ticketing lobby to the ceiling, forming a glowing ring of galaxy. The particles flowing in the same direction which forms the ceiling, the wall and the floor design synchronizing with each other, enhancing the visual effects. The retail sales counter is suspended on the ground like a spaceship. The waiting area is streamlined with grey artificial stones into the white wall. The signage design is like flowing suspended onto the wall. The corridor is designed with streamlined light troughs flowing towards the ceiling into the lobby, where gold and silver panels are led to the centre of the lobby’s whirlpool ceiling design.

This project covers an area of 2500 square meters, totalling 7 theatres. The original site is the earliest airport in China. Designers believe that this place is full of desire for flying from the people in the past, so the design concept hopes to achieve a sense of weightlessness of gravity, so that people can have their own sense of flying and satisfy human fantasies about the universe since ancient times.