Wuhan Panlong Plaza Yinxing Cinema by One Plus Partnership: 2018 Best of Year Winner for Entertainment Project

Ajax Law and Virginia Lung of One Plus Partnership have completed a whopping 55 cinemas over the course of their partnership. Their firm’s mission when working on so many projects that share the same functional and technological requirements is to create a distinct visual language for each. This particular 43,000-square-foot theater—the Wuhan Panlong Plaza Yinxing Cinema in China—is distinguished by a sort of counterintuitive impulse that nonetheless draws on a filmic trope, Law explains. “Normally, one designs by adding elements into an interior,” he says. “But here we used reverse thinking by instead subtracting ‘projections’ from the overall volumes, resulting in irregular, faceted spaces.” Though the strident composition of angles seems casual, even a bit haphazard, Lung says they are in fact “precisely positioned,” the byproduct of laborious 3-D AutoCAD sessions.

Every surface in the lobby is cement, a material chosen for its calming effect. The gray-scale color palette repeats in the theater, clad in acoustic paneling that mirrors the lobby’s zigzag spatial gestures. (A similar pattern is also applied to the carpet.) LED strips installed along the panels’ edges create an illusion of depth and a strong sci-fi element.

Speaking of strength, will anyone step up and take the firm’s theater crown away next year? It won’t be easy: The duo currently has 15 cinemas on the boards.

> See more Best of Year Project Winners from the December 2018 issue of Interior Design