The new Miracle of Bern
Swiss rely on profile systems from EPS

In Cinémas Pathé Westside, gangsters are chased and superheroes fly through the air. With 2400 seats in 11 of the very latest cinema halls, the Multiplex cinema in Switzerland promises pure experience and entertainment. Because of modern digital projectors, 3D films can also be shown in several halls, which makes the Pathé Westside the first digital cinema in Bern.

But that is not enough. The modern cinema, whose external advertising is realised with the EPS.CRYSTAL profile system, has another special feature. It is part of the Westside shopping centre and therefore contributes to the architectural handwriting of Daniel Libeskind. A true master of his subject, for the American star architect, with Polish origins, won the tender for the new World Trade Center in New York in 2003. In Bern, he has created a shopping mall of superlatives. It contains no fewer than 55 stores, ten restaurants and a leisure pool. Westside was opened in October last year and is already attracting more than 3.5 million visitors a year. The attractive mix of shopping and entertainment is clearly appreciated by the customers.

The architecture of the building itself – inside and out – is fascinating. For example, the shopping mall, including the cinema complex, has been planned and styled in detail. Form here is function, nothing is simply just for decoration - the spaces are well conceived and have a clear line. It is self-explanatory that much value has been placed on optic. The strictest benchmarks have also been applied, of course, to the cinema's external advertising. "We could certainly have used a tensioning profile from another provider, but our client insisted on finding a manufacturer whose profiles make it possible to illuminate the fabric in a straight line and cleanly, right to the edge. We soon came across the company EPS," explains Marc A. Meyer, production manager of the Swiss company Attilio Meyer, which was commissioned with realising the internal and external advertising for the building complex. A total of two large (6 x 8 metres) and three small (4.5 x 6 metres) advertising structure have been mounted in Bern, which in the evening are illuminated with LED's. The EPS.CRYSTAL profile systems guarantee an easy change to the cinema's external advertising with little effort. For the films are changed every 14 days. Marc A. Meyer explains, "The five cleanly tightened advertising spaces can be changed by two men in an elevating platform truck in a normal working day, despite their size. No ugly and cost-intensive scaffolding interrupts the optic. Quite genius."

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