The Lexi Cinema & Lexi Hub / RISE Design Studio
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Text description provided by the architects. RISE Design Studio has completed the renovation and expansion of London’s only social cinema house, The Lexi, in Kensal Rise. A prized asset within the local community, Lexi Cinema has commissioned Studio Rise Design to revive a 99-square-meter vacant lot in the back parking lot of a brick Edwardian Gable Theatre. RISE Design Studio and the Lexi team were used as a temporary bar by locals, and they consulted with Brent Council who advised the initial concept, a formal beer garden, which would not be possible due to noise limitations but a second closed screen might.
RISE Design Studio envisioned a second, environmentally driven cinema and bar to accommodate the growing community program and help raise revenue for The Lexi’s environmental charitable efforts. The Brent Council has played an instrumental role in supporting the project – called The Lexi Hub – through ongoing consultation and dialogue, ensuring that planning policy and community needs are balanced.
After a successful two-year fundraising campaign including grants from the Brent Neighborhood Community Infrastructure Levy, a £50,000 contribution from the London Community Trust, and local donations, The Lexi and RISE Design Studio submitted a planning application backed by 1,211 local sites, and construction began In July 2020. Located in a residential area, The Lexi Hub requires a sensitive design approach to exercise consideration for the nearby adjacent homes adjacent to the site.
In an exercise in community partnership, RISE Design Studio envisioned an extension that shares the same interest and intellect for the community that local sponsors have wholeheartedly shown for The Lexi. The architects designed a submersible extension, digging for 1.5 meters to reduce the mass of the new Lexi Hub, ensuring that the extension is located just two meters above the adjacent garden wall while enabling level access from the car park. This strategy hides mainly from reinforced concrete, services and thick acoustic insulation.
The Lexi Hub seats up to 30 spectators, with flexible accessible space for two wheelchairs or group discussions and events, and features a new bar and snack counter. RISE Design Studio further reduced the visual volume by echoing the adjacent sinuous surfaces in the shape of The Lexi Hub, creating a solid structure of on-site cast concrete arches that tilt away from the adjacent gardens at a 45-degree angle. RISE Design Studio used reclaimed London brick to anchor the extension in place and brushed stainless steel to reflect the sky above, envisioned as a natural cinema screen camouflaging the shape of the ceiling.
The green wildflower roof replaces the biodiversity lost during the construction process on a higher level. It also provides an additional level of insulation, and regulates stormwater drainage on the site, adding to the building’s sustainability credentials. When choosing sustainable-minded options where possible, the Lexi Hub is hermetically sealed to reduce heat loss and energy use, and also features a mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system. Lexi is one of the first cinemas in the UK to regulate temperature and air quality through MVHR rather than air conditioning.
During the design phase of The Lexi Hub, an electrical fire caused significant smoke damage to the original cinema, Screen One, requiring a complete renovation of the existing interiors. RISE Design Studio has salvaged original period details and character including pine parquet floors, which have been restored and brought back to the main entrance and ticket office. Studio Lexi and RISE Design saw the incident as an opportunity to create a new cohesive interior language throughout the cinema facilities and spaces.
Rough stucco and black walkways act as wayfinding devices, directing Box Office patrons to a glazed side extension to a newly renovated bar, and onto the second screen. Screen One now offers an airy interior in dark blue, while Lexi Hub’s Two Screen features emerald green seating. Additional services including graphic design, wayfinding, print design, and bar staff were donated by a network of enthusiastic locals, another testament to the community’s love for Lexi.
Lexi’s value extends beyond cinema, and extends to a range of community initiatives from film education, to seniors discussion groups, birthday parties, and safe social spaces for motherhood. This diverse group of users required a complex understanding of Lexi’s history as a local community hub, which RISE Design Studio was able to offer as local residents and long-term supporters, but as sensitive and contextual architects and designers.
