Authors : Mbianda Tentchou Emeline Clarisse; Bwemba Charles; Mbessa Michel; Ndi Jean-Baptiste; Petchuekeu Wilfrid

Volume/Issue : Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 8 - August

Google Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/tp689yw2

DOI : https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26aug960

Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.

Abstract : Cinema and architecture have shared, since the birth of the seventh art in 1895, an indissociable history in which the built environment conditions the emergence, legitimation, and diffusion of the moving image. Yet in many African cities, and in Yaoundé in particular, this dialogue remains underexploited: historic cinema halls have progressively disappeared, and no contemporary facility articulates, within a single architectural program, the technical requirements of film exhibition with the promotion of a plural and living culture. This article presents a systematic literature review structured around three interconnected axes: the historical and theoretical foundations of architecture, from its earliest principles to its social, cultural, economic, technical, and functional roles; the evolution of cinema, from its technical and narrative principles to the specific architecture of the movie theater; and the concept of culture and cultural promotion as a framework through which a cinematographic facility can become a vector of collective identity. Drawing on architectural theory, film studies, cultural sociology, and museology, and supported by a comparative analysis of two international precedents, Le Grand Rex in Paris and the Koninklijk Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam, the review identifies a persistent gap in the literature: the difficulty of reconciling technical performance, sensory experience, and cultural rootedness within a single facility, particularly in tropical, Sub-Saharan urban contexts. The article establishes four founding principles technical rigor, spatial narrative, cultural inclusiveness, and climatic and material adaptation that ground the conceptual and programmatic basis for a cinematographic complex capable of reconnecting the population of Yaoundé with its cinematographic heritage and reinforcing cultural promotion in Cameroon.

Keywords : Cinematographic Architecture; Cultural Promotion; Movie Theater Design; Film Industry; Cultural Identity; Cameroon; Yaoundé.

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