The Mirage Cinema is a new space on Petrograd Side in St Petersburg; it has emerged as part of the rethinking of an iconic and historically important urban location. All implemented solutions are unique within the existing building, which contained many historical and cultural layers, thus, an important task was to create a new open space while maintaining the spirit of the place.

A lot of work was put into creating a new structure for the cinema, which resulted in redesigning the space and introducing numerous additional features. The main space of the project, the two-storey lobby, which gathers all the spectators and from where they disperse to the auditoriums, was completely redesigned. We also radically changed the main staircase that connects the two floors, adding a visual connection between them and making the space more open and viewable. As part of the renovation of the cinema, it was possible to reorganise not only the external flows of visitors, but also the internal service areas for staff, projectionists, and waiters. A new MKitchen format was introduced: food service and delivery directly to the cinema.

At the core of the new image concept was the light that united, inspired and upon which the history of film technology was built. Light became the source for building the relationship between the new space and the viewer, the latter’s navigation from the entrance to the seat in the cinema. The space of the two-storey lobby is made as clean and laconic as possible, welcoming guests with silver colour on the ground floor and smoothly fully painted in the signature red colour on the first floor. Thiscolouring creates a spectacular backdrop and amplifies the emotion.

Yet, the most important thing here is the filling of this pure base with large-scale light cubes. All cubes change their colour and can be adjusted to suit different tasks. The basic scenario we see on the shoot - the cubes are lit with even white light and fulfil the function of navigation, drawing attention to the key functional areas of the space. During the premiere, however, the light settings change and adjust to the main colours of the film. The cubes shimmer and change colour, creating a spectacular backdrop for the action. It is a very vigorous and vibrant space that can be adapted through flexible lighting control to the atmosphere of different events.

The chamber staircases that lead to the cinema halls have been historically constructed, and we have added a red light to refer to the film developing rooms.  The venue is designed to interact with the emotions that people go to the cinema for. The cinema can change and adjust to premieres and further absorb bits of new films or iconic cinematographic works in the form of passages. Mirage on Bolshoi is a place where every trip to the cinema will be completely new.