Marfa Drive-In

Drive-In Theater in the Desert of Texas, 2006
Design by Ole Scheeren

Drive-in movie theaters helped define West Texas for much of the 20th century. Set amidst sweeping plains, distant mountain ranges, and dark night skies, the design evokes impressions beyond the confines of architecture by imagining the Drive-In as a moment of inexplicable density within the open landscape, a traffic junction in the emptiness of the terrain. A continuous road is split, resulting in a midstream pooling of cars. Two circles, nested in plan and offset in section, re-configure the traditional cinema to carefully embed it in the existing topography and create smooth, dynamic entry and exit paths.

Tina Di Carlo

Client: Ballroom Gallery, Marfa
Design: Ole Scheeren
Guest Curators: Tina Di Carlo and Josh Siegel, Museum of Modern Art, New York