Shanghai Omnijoi International Cinema by One Plus Partnership Limited: 2017 Best of Year Winner for Entertainment

The medium is the message at this theater, which reinterprets filmmaking tools typically unfamiliar to movie-goers. During production, for example, camera operators use metal rails to roll the camera and glide it across the set for tracking shots. Here, the two principals abstracted those functional rails as the defining motif for the 35,000-square-foot interior, part of a shopping mall.

Rail-inspired tubing races across the walls and ceiling to embellish the lobby, a pair of theaters, and connecting spaces. At times, the tubes are again functional, becoming sconces and seating. Some even serve as sink fittings in the restrooms.

The tubes are a customized kit of parts, capable of creating nine shapes. Before assembly and installation on-site, they got coppery fluorocarbon coating that stands out in sharp contrast to the flamed black granite of the theater’s walls and floor. Virginia Lung adds, “We chose it for easy maintenance and durability.” And to enhance the futuristic, fluid appearance. Ajax Law says, “The installation precisely mirrors our drawings, so people have often mistaken our final project photos for renderings.”

> See more from the December 2017 issue of Interior Design

> See all 2017 Best of Year winners and honorees