Trimensional Space: A Cinema That Blurs Reality and Fiction

Designers CM Jao and Ken Cheung Create an Award-Winning Cinema Experience

The design concept of Trimensional Space is rooted in Japanese animation and comic culture, where 'three-dimensional' refers to the real world and 'two-dimensional' to the animated world. The designers aimed to blur these lines by creating a space filled with irregular pyramids and flat rectangular prisms. With the aid of light and shadow, the interior space is visually distorted, creating an intriguing illusion for the audience.

The distortion of space begins at the outdoor façade area, primarily in white and light grey, harmonizing with full-length curtain walls with grey glass and matte surfaces. This design choice makes the space appear larger than its actual size, expanding the visual space and offering a better view from the inside. The same concept is applied in the lobby and book café area, where irregular triangular frames in the ceiling and LED lighting strips on the walls create a visually impactful space.

The cinema houses two types of screening rooms: the Typical House and the VIP House. Both are based on a triangular shape, but with different outcomes. The Typical House uses equilateral triangles of varying sizes, colours, and materials for decoration. The VIP House, on the other hand, draws inspiration from a tangram, with core colours of grey, dark and light purple, and warm spotlights in the ceiling highlighting the wide, cozy, dark grey leather seating.

Despite the focus on visual illusion, the designers ensured that the lavatory is significantly brighter, providing a place for the audience to refresh and return to reality. The lavatory features beige tile floor finishing, white tile wall finishing, white marble skirting and basin, and wood finishing with pattern. The light colour tone and bright lighting serve to wake the audience up, pulling them back to reality after immersing themselves in the fictional world of the cinema.

Trimensional Space is a testament to the creative prowess of designers CM Jao and Ken Cheung. Their innovative design not only provides a unique cinema experience but also serves as a bridge connecting the fictional world and the real world. Their work, which started in May 2016 in Xian, China and was completed in September 2017, truly embodies the essence of cinema as more than just a place for entertainment.