4n Design Architects Gives a Shanghai Movie House Its Own Narrative
For the Palace Cinema Raffles City Changning, a 70,000-square-foot movie house in Shanghai, 4n Design Architects referenced two sources: the script booklet and the flipbook. The former outlines a plot, while the latter creates a simple animation. The firm’s resulting interpretation is a through-line intervention of hundreds of pale faux-timber slats cladding the site’s walls—from the entry and the concession area to the corridor “tunnel” leading to the project’s eight theaters—the fins yielding a rhythmic repetition and an organic backdrop. Inside the theaters, the scene is more dramatic, with acoustic paneling and seat upholstery in black, gray, and red tones.
