Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern in the former Ryff factory

About the building

On Sandrainstrasse in the Marzili stands an exposed-brick factory complex built in several stages between 1890 and 1914 for the firm Wiesmann & Ryff. Its core is a three-storey building with projecting central sections on the south and north façades; a first extension to the east adopts its forms. The somewhat later west wing now dominates the picture: here floors of reinforced concrete were used, and the continuous concrete slabs form the lintels of the rectangular windows, with a wave-like ribbed surface. The balcony and stair railings show Art Nouveau.

The Bauinventar compares this west wing with the pioneering European industrial architecture of the time around the Paris architect Henri Sauvage and gives it a special place among Swiss factory buildings. For the individual stages it names the architects Lindt & Hünerwadel, J. Ryff, and Horace Ed. Davinet with Friedrich Studer. Demolition was considered for a long time, but renovation began in 1983. Since the 1990s the rooms have been used by, among others, a drama school, a joinery and studios.

Since 2012 the Lichtspiel has also been at home here. It was founded in 2000, when an association took over the endangered collection of the Bernese cinema technician Walter A. Ritschard, who had died in 1998, with more than 100 projectors and 500 film reels. From it grew a film archive, a cinema and a museum. On 9 September 2012 many volunteers hauled most of the old projectors by hand into the new building, where the Lichtspiel became part of the Filmhaus Bern. It has been a member of the international federation of film archives FIAF since 2006 according to the German Wikipedia, since 2005 according to the English one.

Today the archive holds about 30,000 reels, mainly regional amateur, documentary and educational films. Since its opening the Lichtspiel has shown two reels of short films from the collection every Sunday evening. Behind the Lichtspiel stand some 700 association members and many volunteers. In 2011 it received the culture prize of the Burgergemeinde Bern and in 2016 that of the canton of Bern.

From the street, look at the window lintels of the west wing: their ribbed concrete surface shows how early the new material was used here.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Sandrainstrasse 3, 3A, 3C–3E · Wikipedia (de): Lichtspiel / Kinemathek Bern · Wikipedia (en): Kinemathek Bern · Wikidata: Q681911