For three decades, the “Moderne” in Lausanne was a symbolic location for pornographic cinema. Now it is to be converted into an extracurricular care facility. The authorities confirm that the building permit has been granted.
Author: Elio Sottas and Katia Bitsch / RTS
21.09.2024, 10:04
There is less need for porn cinemas and more need for childcare facilities. That is the simple idea behind the rather unconventional conversion of the last porn cinema in western Switzerland.
Only the historic façade of the “Moderne” in Lausanne will be preserved, explains the responsible architectural firm on the western Swiss radio station RTS. Inside, the projection rooms and individual booths will be replaced by reading or play rooms. With the daycare center near the train station, the city is responding to the growing demand for extracurricular childcare places. The building will also be raised to create living space.
The Vaud-based architecture firm Rivier Architectes cannot yet say when the renovation work will start. However, the construction plan is slowly taking shape.
It used to belong to «Porno Edi»
The “Modern” was not always a temple of sex. In 1968, classic films were shown here, including those by Jean-Luc Godard, who was often seen there.
It was not until 1987 that Edouard Stöckli bought the building and converted it into a porn cinema. At that time he already had branches in Zurich and Basel, was also a producer and shot up to 240 films a year, which is why he is still nicknamed “Porno Edi” today.
Caption: The porn cinema has served its purpose. Instead, schoolchildren will soon be looked after here. Keystone
He started his business by buying erotic films and tried to distribute them in Switzerland, but no cinema owner wanted them. “They were afraid to show pornographic films, so I was forced to buy my own cinema,” he explained in 2015 on the RTS program “Vertigo.” It was a phenomenal success: “It was always full from morning to night.”
Competition from Pornhub & Co
With the end of the “modern era,” there will only be two cinemas left in Switzerland that show films for adults, one in Bern and one in Zurich. Competition from the Internet is making things difficult for the establishments. But ten years ago, this type of cinema still found its audience, says Edouard Stöckli, who owned twelve of these cinemas at the time.
“The Internet has a different function,” he says. “I want to socialize people. The Internet individualizes them a little, pushes them into a corner. I bring them together, and I do that in both mainstream cinemas and porn cinemas.”
For Edouard Stöckli, the closure of the last porn cinema in western Switzerland marks the end of an era.
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This article first appeared in French on RTS and was translated by the «dialog» editorial team. The original version can be found on RTS read.
“dialog” is the SRG’s offering that builds bridges between the language regions in Switzerland and the Swiss abroad through debates and the exchange of content.
