architecum

Description

Switzerland’s largest cinema becomes the «Maison du Cinéma»

Built in 1928 and renovated in the 1950s, the Cinéma Capitole is the largest Swiss cinema still in operation. Thanks to the tenacity of «La Petite Dame du Capitole», Lucienne Schnegg, this important heritage from the golden age of cinema has been preserved. Following the purchase of the Capitole by the City of Lausanne, the project launched in 2015 had two main aims: to restore the historic building fabric and to create a second screening room, an essential tool for the Cinémathèque Suisse. The historic building with its unique interplay of twenties and fifties architecture has therefore been augmented by a new underground extension. These two apparently very different parts are nevertheless closely linked. The location of the new auditorium was determined by conservational, structural and urbanistic constraints. It establishes spatial relationships between the different historic parts of the monument, increasing flexibility of use. Without forced contrast or mimicry, the new architecture is designed to fit in with the two pre-existing epochs. The extension thus acts as a link, both spatially and in terms of its architectural expression.