The first new venue to be built since the arts centre’s opening 30 years ago, Barbican Cinema is a ‘satellite’ insertion within the wider listed fabric of the Barbican estate. In response to the bold scale of the brutalist complex and drawing upon the same clear language of AHMM’s earlier Barbican reconfiguration projects, the elevations of the former Exhibition Hall – previously opaque and impermeable – are transformed into fully-glazed, active frontages. Accommodating two new cinema screens, a coffee shop and a restaurant, the addition asserts its presence on this prominent street corner at the junction of Beech Street and Whitecross Street. AHMM designed the exteriors only; interior layouts are by cinema specialist designers NBDA.
