History

When RISE Design Studio's friendship with the Lexi Cinema began in 2016, we thought our contribution would come in the form of general advice and the design of a beer garden... Cut to 2021, and the Lexi Cinema has inaugurated The Hub - a new screening room - and opened the doors to the beloved existing venue after a renovation from head to toe.

It has been a road of many twists and turns: from mundane problems like funding, to the existential battle of obtaining planning permission (a siege of no less than two years), to the fundamental deliberations of design. In the end, this has been a model project of team working and individual efforts from the community, the Lexi team, the council of Brent, suppliers, friends turned advisors, foes turned helping-hands, and a construction team that put all their love and more time than they had to spare into making the faraway dream this project once was into a reality made of brick and mortar - and stainless steel.

The Lexi Cinema is a home for films, but also for the community of Kensal Green and for all the cinema-goers and specialised groups the venue caters to. It has been our job and a true joy to enhance this experience through conscious design, sustainable materials, a community-oriented mindset, and the conviction that, like the Lexi Cinema itself, sometimes the smallest details make the biggest impression.