In 2010, London-based architecture and design collective Assemble set out to draw attention to the over 4,000 disused gas stations across the U.K. by converting one in Clerkenwell, London, into a pop-up cinema. Technically, though, the Cineroleum was more of a roll-down, as it was created by draping an "ornate curtain" made of roofing material around the station. Using only reclaimed, donated, and low-cost materials (the seats were made from old scaffolding boards), the firm imagined the space as an "improvisation of the decadent interiors that greeted audiences during cinema's golden age."
The designers go on to note that "at the end of the film the curtain would rise, ending the audience's suspension of disbelief," ejecting them right back into their immediate urban environs. This novel structure was a temporary one, but The Guardian's Rowan Moore recently described it as an "amuse-bouche" that led quite quickly to works of "greater size and social impact." Tour said works—among them a temporary rehearsal space with walls made from dirt and stones found on site—this way.
· From Derelict Structure to Urban Cinema [Arch Daily]
· Assemble: from pop-ups to grown-ups [The Guardian]
· All Abandonment Issues posts [Curbed National]
· All conversions coverage [Curbed National]
All London coverage [Curbed National]