Cineac

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

According to the principles of the New Building movement in 1934 commissioned by the NV Cineac (of the Algemeen Handelsblad) to the design of J. Duiker as a conversion (of the largely demolished Cafe Populaire/de la Paix from 1919) executed cinema building - originally intended as a newsreel theatre with continuous film performances - named Cineac, and at that time equipped with approximately 600 seats.

The more or less cubic, flat-roofed building is constructed as a steel skeleton - consisting of a series of rectangular portals increasing in size and at different distances from one another, interconnected by bracing between columns and beams and by truss girders as well as a cross-standing support frame of lattice columns - between partly existing and partly new brick walls, which were originally clad with grey-coloured steel plates, on an irregular ground plan, whereby a diagonally projected parabola (the auditorium) and the rooflines of the Reguliersbreestraat and the Regulierssteeg crossing one another at an obtuse angle determine the main form. The auditorium situated diagonally across the full height of the building has at approximately half-height a half-deep, stepped balcony, and is flanked by staircases - with spiral - and step staircases and service rooms. The latter are, apart from the already existing basement, housed on four different levels, namely the ground floor, the cabinet level (of the projectors positioned in the SW corner on the second storey), the office level (on the third storey) and the balcony level (on the fourth storey), which is reflected in the exterior.

The windows were originally all set in blue-lacquered thin steel frames, and placed in series each time, with vertical and sometimes also low horizontal, subdivision.

At the SW corner, at the intersection, the façade at ground-floor and cabinet level is set back according to a curved line, accentuated by the inclined, bent concrete canopy placed between the two levels, which, anchored in the floor slab, is applied across the full width of both façades, such that the left entrance (now access to the residential building Amstel 28 not included in the designation) is still covered by the canopy, which was intended to provide shelter to the queue of waiting patrons. This canopy was originally provided with eleven glass plates at the corner section, continuous into the cabinet floor. The overhanging, cubic superstructure is supported at the open corner by a thin, round steel column, which continues visibly within the superstructure. The rooflines are marked on the set-back ground-floor layer by a white tile floor.

The curved, diagonally positioned lower section contains on the ground floor a modern, octagonal ticket booth (in place of the original, free-standing, entirely cylindrical ticket booth, and therefore deviating from the original design and not worthy of preservation); on the curved wall to the left of it is the segment-shaped extended entrance portal to the auditorium, flanked by a shorter, similarly extended exit portal on the left side, and on the right the rectangular extended entrance portal to the staircase to the balcony; both entrances possess each a pair of double, blue-lacquered steel doors - provided at the top with a lightbox with milk-white glass pane and steel letters forming respectively the inscriptions ZAAL and BALKON - and a chrome-plated steel tube gate on the exterior. The intermediate wall sections possess shallow vitrines. At the cabinet level a series of in total thirteen narrow, tall windows is applied across the full length and width of this corner section. The superstructure projected parallel to the streets has at the office level at the corner a series of fourteen narrow, tall windows each in both façades. The upper section is blank and is closed on both sides by a narrow drip moulding and a thin steel tube gate.

The S façade adjacent to this lies with regard to the right half - except for the L-shaped portico projected at the extreme right almost entirely in the roofline of the Reguliersbreestraat. The ground floor level is here largely occupied by the portal to the main staircase, whereby the street wall is provided with shallow vitrines, and by the portico - provided with blue floor tiles in smaller format, and on the left the, now blocked, entrance to the bicycle storage in the basement, on the left at the step the access to the office staircase and on the right the side exit with double blue-lacquered, steel doors. Above the canopy is a series of recessed windows, originally subdivided into five. In the middle is transversely a recently modified illuminated sign with the name CINEAC applied in greatly simplified form in comparison to the original illuminated sign, which was continued on the roof - with its own steel support structure.

Far right, slightly projecting forward, to the exact roofline, the O façade adjoins the narrow intermediate alley; this cemented façade is broken only by three windows at the top; on narrow wall section at the Reguliersbreestraat a polygonal vitrine.

The W façade terminating at varying heights (rising in steps from left to right) lies, apart from the set-back, curved lower section at the SW corner and the entirely left-positioned exit portico, entirely in the roofline of the Regulierssteeg. The façade contains a two to three storey high grey tile dado and is on the ground floor further broken by the left service entrance, the now blocked window section of the former ventilation control room and the portico with two pairs of double, blue-lacquered, steel doors. At the cabinet level in the middle are two series of four standing windows placed next to one another each, above which at the office level two similar series of horizontal windows for the staff rooms located behind. Above the chimney positioned at the left front towers behind the square air-conditioning duct clad with zinc plates, whilst on the S side on the right a cylindrical concrete air duct is applied on the flat roof.

Internally the originally somewhat egg-shaped auditorium in which the steeply sloping, curved balcony extends to halfway and is supported by the cantilever wall of the cabinet rooms and the stucco-clad truss girder in the middle; the two square openings for the projectors are located south of it. In the director's office apart from the visible corner column a second steel column for support.

Cinema building of architecture characteristic of the New Building movement by virtue of the form determined entirely by function and the application of the then modern materials, construction and operation methods such as steel skeleton, semi-automatic opening doors and climate control system as well as by virtue of the striking siting of the service rooms with large glass façades at the street; built in the Netherlands as the first of its kind of a newsreel theatre with continuous film performance, and therefore of general interest by virtue of exceptional architectural and cultural-historical and typological value.