Mimosa Architects revive a Czech open-air cinema for a new age of film

Film reels and projectors inspire the kinetic design of this open-air cinema in the Czech town of Prachatice by Mimosa Architects.

The practice was tasked with reviving and modernising the existing outdoor cinema complex in the South Bohemian town, which had become dilapidated and unusable, reducing it from 800 seats to a more sustainable 350 seats. It looked to the origins of cinema technology for inspiration, drawing on the principle of film reels threaded through a projector to inspire its retractable roof, with roof ropes and pulleys controlling a tarpaulin cover.

With the old cinema buildings deemed unusable and the original projection wall shading the adjacent Štěpánka’s Park, they were demolished. Three new smaller structures were erected in their place to house the cash desk, projection booth and washrooms for the Kino Narodka summer cinema. A smaller projection wall was also rebuilt, with ‘fractured’ fencing from the original complex preserved in the spirit of the site and inspiring new gabion walls around the north.

With space reclaimed from the site’s reduced capacity, Mimosa introduced a ‘buffer zone’ around the perimeter of the theatre to dampen sound for the neighbouring residential buildings. Meanwhile, corrugated sheets add to the illusion of movies, commanding shadow and light and connecting to the city’s Municipal Theatre of Prachatice. Granite and gabion walls nod to the stonework that dominates the town centre and the newly revamped Štěpánka Park.