Cinemas, “Skyfall” and how about your next company perk?

Qandor member Luke Crutcher is the Director of Living Home Technology. In this article, he talks about the advantages of installing a cinema in your company offices.

Well, what a year that was. It feels as if spring 2021 has an extra special meaning. This year, it isn’t just the birds, trees, plants and insects coming back to life with the lengthening of the day.

For most of us, life in general is starting to get back to normal, the latest marker being the opening of our pubs (outdoors only, just in time for April snow!). With this reinvigoration of life comes a new lease of life in general. Plans that have been put on hold suddenly seem possible, likely even.

This is exactly the case with one of our more recent projects, a wonderful home set in the hills above Marbella, Spain called “Skyfall”. We’ve completed projects all over the world – St Lucia, the US, Portugal and Spain – but never in the midst of a global pandemic… Now, regardless of our opinions and thoughts on how this has been handled or whether the lockdowns were needed at all, I think we can all agree that business is much more difficult whilst they are in operation.  

Add into the mix designing and installing a project in another country whilst they are still in severe lockdowns and restrictions. Add to this the political games being played before our eyes – “Your vaccine is awful and dangerous” and then “Give us your vaccines now” coupled with the more usual Brexit games around import/export and we have what can best be described as the perfect storm.

The project itself is a wonderful opportunity to flex our design muscles. The owner being a fan of 007 (if you hadn’t guessed by the project name), we got to work some of this theme into the look and feel of both the cinema and the adjacent bar and vast entertainment area. The views are of course absolutely stunning and the architect has done an amazing job of maximising both the view and the privacy from room to room. There are no less than four pools, a gym, BBQ terrace and huge open plan living areas.  

This is truly a home fit for Bond, or more likely a Bond villain, Scaramanga style, from The Man with the Golden Gun, although it would be equally at home in a futuristic TV series like the Thunderbirds. Living Tech have of course been employed as tech consultants throughout, but we are fast moving towards the installation phase of the project, so our attention has turned to logistics.

Whilst we’re on the subject of our “design muscle”, over the past couple of years we’ve seen a trend towards clients asking us to install a home cinema within their business premises, using us to design a company branded home cinema experience for their employees and clients. It can be an extremely fun and effective way to provide a perk or talking point with their own customers and clients.

Over the years we’ve used neon lighting, embossed leather, brand colour lighting, sourced props and parts from movies sets, sporting events – you name it, we’ve likely done it. The guys are currently working on a dual cinema install for a well-known video games giant based in London. More to follow on this one as things progress.