Tato Architects / Yo Shimada

Kyoto Minami Kaikan

Location

110 Nishikujo Kawarajo-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto, Japan

Architects

Tato Architects — Yo Shimada, Yasue Imai, Takeshi Oka, Satoshi Oyama, Akira Yasuda

Structural engineer

tmsd Takashi Manda Structural Design — Takashi Manda, Tong Shuang

Acoustic design

Nihon Onkyo Engineering — Atsushi Hayakawa, Saori Kunida

Mechanical engineer

Tanaka Jimusho

Electrical engineer

Yamazaki Setsubi Sekkei

Lighting design

Daiko Electric

Custom lighting

NEW LIGHT POTTERY — Hiroyuki Nagatomi

Signage design

UMA/design farm — Yuma Harada, Keisuke Yamazoe

Fabric

fabricscape — Kiyohiko Yamamoto, Yuriko Nagayoshi

Planting

Atelier Botanique COCA-Z — Tatsuya Kokaji

General contractor

&S — Yoshifumi Hatanaka, Hidemasa Kunioka

Cooperating contractors

HVAC and plumbing — Just Corporation / Electrical — Shibaden / Audio systems — Hibino Imagineering / Sign fabrication — Epoch Kogei / Theater seating — Kotobuki Seating

Photography

Daici Ano

Principal use

Movie theater

Type of work

Full renovation (change of use)

Zoning

Commercial district, fire prevention district, roadside scenic formation district

Building coverage ratio

66.32% (permitted: 80%)

Floor area ratio

122.63% (permitted: 500%)

Structure

Reinforced concrete, two stories

Site area

572.03 m²

Building area

379.37 m²

Total floor area

702.34 m² (1F: 353.16 m², 2F: 349.18 m²)

A Screen That Catches Light

This project is the relocation and renovation of a long-established movie theater that had marked 55 years of history in Kyoto. Its new home is a building constructed as a bank in 1993. The question was how to convey, at once, the continuity of the “Kyoto Minami Kaikan” held in the city’s memory and the fact that it had been made new—in an age when films can be watched in the palm of one’s hand.

Our starting point was the nature of the cinema screen: unlike a monitor, it is a surface for viewing the reflection of projected light. Referencing this quality, we placed screens and meshes that catch and reflect light both inside and out, conceiving the entire building as an apparatus for the experience of cinema.

The change of use to a theater required open space at the front, so the main entrance was moved to the east side, formerly a service entrance. On the frontage converted from the old parking lot, we arranged planting beds of silver-leaved species evoking the silver screen, together with benches, setting the building back from the busy street and creating a semi-public space comprising a plaza and a two-tiered loggia. For egress, all vertical circulation was pulled out of the building and incorporated into a newly added structure on the east side. The outdoor stairs, which lead visitors to the second floor as if slipping up inside a suspended stainless-steel mesh screen, act as a device that amplifies the allure of a deep urban experience—one in which passersby find themselves unexpectedly drawn into a new world.

Inside as well, the extensive use of metallic surfaces and gloss paint around the lobbies weaves a cinematic experience into the finishes, blending visitors’ reflections with ambient light. The ground floor, where the tone of inheritance runs strongest, fragmentarily references and recomposes the design of the former theater—its bright red vinyl-tile floor and mirrored ceiling—while the second floor, expressing renewal, assembles familiar elements whose textures and dimensions have been subtly modulated: an iridescent mesh ceiling, enigmatic rows of round tiles, an oversized handrail. The main theater on the ground floor carries on the lineage of the former hall, with seats faithfully remade by Quinette of France—maker of the original chairs—along with the perforated wall panels and the stage curtain. On the second floor are two theaters of contrasting character: a black box open to experimental works and an intimate, small-scale screening room. The spaces are laid with subtle devices that reveal themselves only to longtime regulars, while remaining tolerant of a cluttered, lived-in atmosphere.

Kujo Street once marked the edge of Heian-kyo, where the Rajomon gate stood as a boundary with the otherworld. On this site we raised the movie theater as a boundary between the everyday and the extraordinary, designing a thrilling, alley-like place that draws people from the street toward the screen.