Cineteca Nacional Siglo XX

DESCRIPCIÓN

Description sent by the project team.

Attendance numbers for Cineteca Nacional SXXI continue to amaze one year after its reopening - a total of 806,803 in 2013 -. Ticket sales increased 29.22% compared to the previous year and 1,287 more films were screened.

A construction schedule of only 10 months, set by political times, left the construction team working quickly to finish before President Felipe Calderón left office in December 2012. As a result, some aspects of the project were postponed or canceled. to be able to finish in time for the opening ceremony. Fortunately, and not the most common in Mexico for projects that go from one administration to the next, the new government has promised to finish the work according to the original design. The project is expected to be completed in late summer.

Even though the work is not fully finished, the design team is excited about how it has already benefited the community. "It is a very democratic, very social space," says Gerardo Salinas, partner at Rojkind Arquitectos. "When we first proposed it, the government authorities were doubtful of spaces such as the outdoor amphitheater that could be used by everyone - affluent people as well as people with fewer resources - but that is precisely what has happened," he says.

Located in the southern quadrant of Mexico City, the Cineteca Nacional houses the most important collection of cinema in Latin America. Its facilities occupied an underutilized terrain of considerable dimensions within the now strangled town of Xoco. This once historic town, once surrounded by farmland, is now part of the dense urban blot and facing its disappearance due to the economic and political pressures of developers and municipal authorities who covet its prime location.

The current complex dates back to 1982, when a fire destroyed part of the campus and most of its archive, and was a "temporary" facility not well suited for its purpose. In addition, thousands of people cross the complex daily as they walk to and from a nearby metro station, Estación Metro Coyoacán.

With a view to its total renovation, the Cineteca intervention project included the total remodeling of the existing complex, more archival vault space and four new screening rooms. But additionally, and in response to the immediate urban condition, a lot of recovery work had to be contemplated to revert part of the land to public space and thus give relief to the surroundings of Xoco full of new real estate developments and with lack of green areas and spaces. for recreation in addition to accommodating the thousands of people who cross it on foot every day.

The first actions were the relocation of the parking lot, which occupied 40% of the land, to a six-story structure and the reactivation of the "back door", located in front of the town's historic cemetery, which had a more pedestrian-friendly scale. -70% of Cineteca's clients use public transport and arrive on foot. In the recovered space, the new program was organized around two axes: one perpendicular to Calle del Real Mayorazgo that became the main pedestrian entrance and another perpendicular to Av. México-Coyoacán for cars and pedestrians.

The intersection of the axes was converted into a new 80m x 40m public plaza protected from the elements by a roof that connects the existing complex with the new projection rooms. Covered in aluminum panels with triangular perforations of different sizes, the ceiling structure surrounds the new rooms and becomes their facade. The protected space functions as a lobby for the projection rooms and can host alternative programmatic options, such as concerts, plays, exhibitions, etc. "We didn't want it to feel like a commercial movie theater lobby, we wanted it to feel more like a college campus with everything floating in a park," says founding partner Michel Rojkind.

An open-air forum, large green areas, and new retail space were also added to the original program, increasing the possibilities for social interaction and cultural exchanges and giving the complex the qualities of a university campus.

The new screening rooms have a seating capacity of 180 people each and the existing rooms were updated with the latest technology. In total, the complex now has a capacity for 2,495 visitors in interior rooms. The outdoor amphitheater has a capacity of 750 people. Two new vaults were also added, increasing the Cineteca's archiving capacity by 50,000 rolls of film. Parking capacity was also increased by 25% to a total of 528 cars.

The thousands of people who cross the Cineteca on foot every day now find a welcoming public space. Subway users continue to walk through the complex in the morning and evening, medical staff from a nearby hospital stop for lunch, students hang out in the park in the afternoon, and moviegoers attend. to free outdoor events in the evening. The new amenities have made the campus a favorite gathering space not only for moviegoers, but also for Xoco residents and workers who have appropriated the space as if it were their backyard.