Nothing but aisle: OH.NO.SUMO's Stairway Cinema. Photograph: Simon Devitt

An Auckland-based design group are winning global plaudits for their rather cool invention of a pop-up cinema. A tiny pop-cinema (capacity: seven) that pops up on a stoop.

Created by the “experimental design collective” OH.NO.SUMO, Stairway Cinema was part of St Paul St Gallery’s Curatorial Season 2012.

It was based on the corener of Symonds and Mount Streets, “a place of ‘hard waiting”, in the designers’ words. “This project takes inspiration from the site and its inhabitants.”

From the OH.NO.SUMO site:

Bus stops and laundromats create a hard-scape of poor space for social interaction. Members of the public retreat individually into the media offered on their mobile phones. This in turn results in greater separation and dislocation from an existing community that is waiting to be activated. A community must be linked not only virtually but also physically.

Stairway Cinema offers a very simple programmatic response to recognise and counter this larger issue. Short movies previously shared online, are projected for the public to enjoy, offering similar media to that sought out on their phones. The individual experience is exchanged for the communal and social, leading to a shared, fun and architecturally framed experience.

Movies are collected from internet recommendations that have been shared by the public through social media. The public curate this virtual collection of media continuously and the cinema captures current trends and highlights within this realm. Stairway Cinema uses architecture as a way of engaging in a discussion about curatorial practice, urbanism and the role of Architects as place-makers and provocateurs.

The site of the Italian architecture and design magazine Abitare was first to big up the project. It has also won the attentions of ArchDaily, StyleSight and Architizer.

And Alex Davies, design writer at TreeHugger says:

By building the cinema in an existing staircase, Oh No Sumo took advantage of the built environment with the skill and creativity that marks the work of “urban hacktivist” Florian Rivère. It’s a great way to make cities- perhaps our best hope for a green future- more livable, social, and just plain fun.

Photographs below by Simon Devitt, courtesy OH.NO.SUMO.