Housing innovative explorations in filmmaking, the Northwest Film Institute explores architecture through cinematic artifice. To the north, the unbroken narrative is expressed in section as an undulating ribbon, containing the building’s creative spaces. Each shift in plot provides a functional metamorphosis: the diagonal transition from wall to floor holds a lecture hall, the gently upward curve from floor to wall becomes an infinity cove for film shooting, and the unfurling movement from ceiling to floor again holds a theater mezzanine.
Within the southern half of the building, the continuous narrative’s expression shifts to plan –a Möbius strip drawn upwards, with programmatic functions placed within and without. Diagonal steel columns puncture the floor plates throughout while giving complete freedom of expression. Lateral forces are mitigated through a concrete service core along the southern perimeter.
