Forum

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

Introduction

CINEMA Het Forum, 1929. Built in a businesslike expressionist style, commissioned by H. Martens, to a design by architect Jos. Wielders of Sittard. The reinforced concrete structures were calculated by N.V. Bouw- en beton Mij. Limburgia of Blerick. The building is located in the closed facade wall of the Engelenkampstraat. In 1976 the original cinema hall was divided into a large hall with a small upper hall. The front facade was originally not rendered.

Description

Cinema, consisting of a rectangular building volume on a rectangular plan, covered by a flat roof behind gable ends. The street volume with entrance and foyer has a basement plus three storeys; the cinema hall behind it was originally undivided up to the roof trusses, since 1976 there is an intermediate floor. The cinema hall has partly a basement, partly a crawl space. The former stage was entirely cellared. The cinema is entirely constructed in brick. The facades on the street side in white rendered brick (not original), brickwork in Flemish and half-brick bond. Other facade sections are unrendered. Rectangular wooden windows and shop windows, all originally provided with wrought-iron grilles. Plastic doors. The expressively designed front facade is characterized by a number of mutually projecting facade sections, which moreover vary in facade height. Centrally in the first storey the symmetrical entrance section under a concrete canopy, which carries the large projecting facade section above it. In this entrance section two recessed double entrance doors, between which the till is placed. This entire entrance section is recessed in a niche with rounded facade sections, in which two rectangular and curve-following facade windows. The large, projecting facade section in the second and third storey is dominated by the centrally placed series of five vertical window sections of the foyer, placed between six brick projections. In these window sections steel windows with horizontal glazing bars and frosted glass. On either side of these window sections, in the second and third storey each two horizontal windows with vertical division, partly provided with wrought-iron grilles. This window series is interrupted in the left facade half by a cylindrically built-up, high above roof level projecting brick projection, on which the remains of the original flagpole and the renewed fascia inscription "Forum". The aforementioned window series continues in the adjoining slightly projecting and relatively high above roof level continued corner volume. The cylindrical projection and this corner volume are further supported by a concrete canopy, under which there is now a rectangular display window with fanlight.

The unrendered side and rear facades are, as far as visible, blind.

Cinema Het Forum has a roof structure of iron trusses. The interior layout of the cinema in the entrance volume with foyer and small upper apartments is partly preserved, above the large hall an intermediate floor has been laid and the stage removed.

Valuation

Cinema Het Forum has cultural-historical value as a distinctive expression of a cultural and typological development. The cinema has architectural-historical value because of its building style, of particular importance for the oeuvre of architect Wielders, because of the aesthetic qualities of his design and because of the distinctive relationship between exterior and interior. The Forum is connected through its location with the development or expansion of Sittard in the first half of the twentieth century and of particular significance for the appearance of the district. The cinema possesses a reasonable degree of integrity and is important in relation to the visual integrity of the urban environment. Moreover, the building possesses considerable architectural-historical, typological and functional rarity value in a supra-regional context. Cinema Het Forum represents general interest because of the entirety of the aforementioned values.