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Centipede Cinema, cork, Portugal, Bartlett School of Architecture, Colin Fournier, pop-up design, urban design, urban intervention, sustainable materials, Guimarães, 2012 European Capital of Culture, UNESCO, green design, sustainable design, eco-design

Led by Colin Fournier, the Centipede Cinema is an urban intervention that demonstrates how easily exciting new cultural programs can be developed with minimal costs. It also reveals that cork, which is ubiquitous in Portugal, can be used in architecture as well as its other more conventional uses. The outside of the freestanding cinema is clad in a lighter colored cork while the interior is clad in dark cork to create a blackout effect.

Yellow nozzles protrude from the bottom of the cinema. These allow anybody to pop in to watch a film for as short or long a time as they desire. There is room for sixteen people and three different 20 minute films have been looping since the structure’s opening on 20 Oct, 2012. Inspired by the Guimarães CineClube (CCG), a leftist cultural organization, this fantastic design is somewhat oddly-placed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. But we love it all the same.

+ Bartlett School of Architecture

images via pictureNEON, Flickr