Ufa-Kristallpalast, Dresden, Modern cinema in Dresden, Germany.
Ufa-Kristallpalast is a movie theater in the center of Dresden, built from concrete and glass with eight screening rooms spread across several floors. The building is one of the more talked-about examples of deconstructivist architecture in Germany, with its angular, fragmented shape standing out sharply from the street.
The building was designed by the Vienna-based firm Coop Himmelb(l)au and opened in 1998, making it one of the first major new constructions in Dresden's city center after reunification. The firm was already known for pushing against conventional architectural forms, and this project became one of their most visible works in Germany.
The glass prism is likened to a twisted crystal twin of a mineral similar to aragonite, and this crystalline shell gives the building its name. Inside, the Sky Bar is a raised, diabolo-shaped bar with translucent metal-grid walls, reached by a footbridge; it belongs to artist Kiki Smith, a friend of Coop Himmelb(l)au. Temporary sculptures in the prism advertise films.
The building occupies a right-triangle plot between Prager Strasse and St. Petersburger Strasse, next to the Rundkino; the glass prism holds two main entrances, and a third entrance is on the concrete side facing the tram street. Two of the eight halls are below ground level, reached by stairs, ramps and lifts inside the prism. The metal-mesh outer facade carries the film posters and shelters the exterior staircases that also serve as emergency exits.
The glass prism has no base: its facades run glazed all the way to the ground, and the steel frames are numbered because each panel has a different size and shape. The concrete wall facing St. Petersburger Strasse has no windows, since it backs directly onto the auditoriums.
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