Flatpack Palais: Project Profile

PROJECT: Flatpack Palais
LOCATION: Old Deritend Library, Digbeth
COLLABORATORS: Flatpack Festival, Queen and Crawford, Ensell + Hall
PROJECT TYPE: design, construction, project coordination

Flatpack Festival is an annual event celebrating films, cinemas and everything in between in unique venues across the City. Co.lab instigated the collaboration with the festival to develop a proposal for their palais – one of their key venues for the event. The brief comprised of a multifunctional cinema space and bar in a converted library in Digbeth to accomodating over 120 guests per event

The project started with workshops in light, film and sound to develop a proposal that embraces the drama of theatrical space to accentuate the viewing experience. The ‘living room’ as a concept defined the emphasis of the design to make the seating as comfortable and intimate as possible whilst watching a film with 100+ other strangers. Ensell + Hall were commissioned to produce fabric covers for the seating with students from BA (Hons) Textile Design.

Co.lab developed the construction proposal as well as organising the pre-fabrication using the University’s own workshop facilities and logistical operations. Queen and Crawford, a local design fabricator, further collaborated with the students during an intense assembly period to complete the build to fit within a short time frame.

The Palais was open over four days for 14 separate events with over 700 visitors.

Additional photo credits: Mark Rhodes @ http://www.markerhodes.com

STUDENT PARTICIPANTS: Adejoke Adewunmi : Vishakh Alex : Jordanna Holton : Monika Lepkeviciute :  Poppy Palmer : Kinal Panchal : Jemma Sharpe : Leah Shutkever : Anastassia : Stupnikova : Maksims Uljanovs: Emily Wallin : Anoovab Deka : Russell Ingram : Daniel Bridgewater-Bagnal : Katherine Miller : Michael Ho Yung :  Olayinka Danmole : Fatema Bandali :  Miles Marshall : Katie Allen : Liam Barnett