Hopkins Architects, Expedition Engineering and ISG - Leisure General - London, Regents Park

Date: 26 Jun 2008

Hopkins Architects, Expedition Engineering and ISG have collaborated with Swedish artist Annika Eriksson to create The Smallest Cinema in the World - For the Wealthy and the Good, part of Portavilion by UP Projects', launched during the London Festival of Architecture (www.portavilion.com) on Friday 20 June.

Portavilion is a portable public art project for London's parks that will see a group of leading international artists creating temporary pavilions for a park environment, as a celebration of London's most treasured public spaces.

Annika Eriksson was intrigued by the concept of a "Royal Park" designed by crown architect John Nash that was originally destined to be an estate for the rich - a private, picturesque residential setting for "the wealthy and the good". The plan was never fully realized as pressures of the expanding city raised concern in Parliament about the need to use such open spaces for recreational purposes. Regents Park was therefore developed as a public park and is now one of London's most popular public spaces.

Hopkins' brief was to create a six-seater mobile cinema that could screen a series of films made by Annika in the park over the last few months; these record spontaneous activities of park visitors.

The practice looked at historic mobile cinema concepts ranging from caravans with interior seating, to vans whose rear doors open to reveal a screen for an exterior 'auditorium'. The aim was to create an enticing, sculptural container that would offer visitors an intimate and unique cinema experience. Hopkins worked with Expedition Engineers to generate an eye-catching, curved plywood mobile space. The structure has been constructed by contractor ISG plc's Special Works division which specialises in carefully crafted projects for small and distinctive works, with specialist joinery by Wood Newton.

The Smallest Cinema

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