Films & Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

Going back to the times when cinema was recorded with no colours or sound, the German film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” by Robert Wiene is a masterpiece that utilizes fully stylised sets with abstract spaces to represent different scenes. It’s considered one of the most influential movies of German expressionism, since many of the film’s unusual characteristics (from the geometric nature of the sets to the actors’ costumes) were decades ahead of their time.

Have you seen this classic? What do you think about how silent-era films depict space?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

What if your house, neighbourhood, even your city were part of a TV set? This is the fake world - a kind of suburban utopia - where Truman Burbanks lives, tricked by loops of spaces and stuck in routines. The film questions the idea of a “perfect” reality, and troubles the predictable scenarios of suburban life. From the perspective of urban planning and architecture, the film makes you wonder: to what extent should we have control over our environments? To what extent should we design out choice, or randomness, or disorder, in the name of “perfection”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Stanley Kubrick is one of those contemporary filmmakers who needs little introduction. For this week’s edition of Films & Architecture, we’re taking a look at The Shining, considered by many to be a masterpiece – not just for its story, but also for the way Kubrick uses space to instill a sense of madness.

Many of you  have probably already seen it, but if not, now’s the time to enjoy this classic of suspense. And let us know your thoughts about the relationship between space and horror in the comments below – do you think there’s such a thing as an architectural typology of suspense?

The Lake House is a film that shows many of the daily issues of architects’ lives. A successful architect whose two children decided to follow the same path but in really different ways. The movie presents architecture as a transmitted skill through generations, a kind of familiar heritage. Which is actually a repetitive situation in our practice.

Have you seen it already? Let us know if you feel touched by any of these subjects. What generation of architect you are?

Cube is a movie that cannot be highlighted by its cinematographic features. However, the idea of a perfect space driven by geometrical logics seems an attractive subject for us, architects. Along the film, the characters try to solve the twisted organisation of this “cube” in order to find their way out.

Have you already seen this movie? Share your thoughts about idealisation of space, or let us know any other reference that comes to your minds. As usual, we wait for your comments.

Let us know your thoughts about this never ending contrasts between artificial/natural, and ancient/contemporary environments.

We jump back to the end of 1940′s to remember the film based on Ayn Rand’s acclaimed book, The Fountainhead. The movie talks about the architectural debate between the industrialisation of the profession and the individual creation. An issue that we can consider still questionable nowadays.

I guess most of our readers have seen this classic or have read the book instead. Let us know your thoughts about the “creation” concept in architecture.

This week we want to propose the 1998 Alex Proya’s film considered part of the neo-noir sci-fi movement. The movie shows a city that is an experiment in itself, in which the entire place have been forced to maintain in darkness. A work that make us remember classics as Metropolis or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Do you think there are some places like this nowadays? Do you imagine it as a possible future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The Architect, is not a renowned film. We have to admit that there’s not that much unique about it in terms of cinematography. However, for us the plot of this movie is quite relevant. The director uses an specific example, one built utopian residential complex in United States to illustrate the issues that were not considered during design of these uniformity-driven blocks.

Tell us your thoughts about this topic, and what is the kind of responsibility that relies on architects, or on the whole profession of architecture?

Koyaanisqatsi is the first from a saga of three films directed by Godfrey Reggio. Followed by Powaqqatsi (Life in Transformation) and Naqoyqatsi (Life as War), Koyaanisqatsi got the subtitle of “Life Out of Balance”, showing us only through impressive images the confrontation between natural and human development processes.

The film frames urban landscapes in their different types, commercial, residential, industrial, or infrastructural, as an infinite repetition against nature. Talking somehow, already in the ’80, about the environmental issues that the development model represents in the way it was deployed at that moment.

What do you think about the current development model, have this changed from the last decades or still breaking the balance with nature?

Mehruss Jon Ahi and Armen Karaoghlanian combined their educational backgrounds with Interiors, an online journal that marries architecture and film.

Interiors is an online journal, published on the 15th of each month, in which films are analyzed and diagrammed in terms of space. Interiors focuses on how space is used throughout a particular scene and how the architecture of the film impacts its narratives and characters.

This week we propose you to see this interesting film that came to the big screen from the sci-fi animation serie of the same name. Locations for the movie were carefully selected to generate the futuristic environment where the story takes place. Recorded mainly in Germany, from a crematorium and parks, to an embassy and a world cultures centre were used in the different scenes.

I guess most of our readers already know this movie. If not, it is time for you to find it, enjoy a great film and tell us your thoughts!

The first film of George Lucas is without any doubt a master piece in terms of how to represent futuristic spaces. In THX 1138 the underground spaces are absolutely controlled. People’s behavior is driven by different drugs depending on the physical effect required. The movie contained a catalogue of spatial experiences and explore new forms of spaces that are many years forward the ’70 ideas.

We invite you to enjoy this magnificent film and let us know your comments below!

Equilibrium shows a city of the future where all feelings have been suppressed in order to avoid war. Any means of expression that could urge a sensorial response is censored and terminated. Diversity and free thinking have been replaced by uniformity and an unquestionable authority of a “Father”, who guides lives in this new society. The entire city organization is prepared for accommodating spaces needed by the administration, including public space for citizens to congregate, and several kinds of facilities for control.

Do you think we could deal with this kind of cities in the future, or maybe they already exist? As always, we wait for you to enjoy it and let us know your thoughts in comments.

Not that many films can have the amount of high-end architecture as location for their scenes. In “The International” the characters goes to a secondary position – through architects’ eyes - since the movie is a showroom of well known buildings and cities.

The mythic Guggenheim Museum in New York by Frank Lloyd Wright serves as the space for one of the main scenes, jumping to the Phaeno Science Center by Zaha Hadid in Wolfsburg, Germany. Cities where the movie was filmed include Istanbul, Berlin, Lyon, Milan, and New York, showing us an impressive catalogue of “international” architecture.

Let us know your thoughts about the movie and international architecture. What does this concept mean today? Or was it only an utopian modern movement?

Two weeks ago we started proposing films relevant to our field for you to primarily enjoy and also to encourage its discussion. First with “The Belly of an Architect”, and then “Blade Runner”, this week is the turn for a slightly more contemporary movie written and directed by Andrew Niccol, Gattaca. The film presents a future were the human condition is already defined in DNA, therefore human’s opportunities for life development are pre-established. Beyond the interesting ethical issue, the architecture where this story occurs is carefully selected in order to fit the director’s image of the future. Locations include the Marin County Civic Center by Frank Lloyd Wright and the CLA Building by Antoine Predock.

In ArchDaily we have mentioned films, whether because of its content closely related with Architecture, or because of the space, photography, atmosphere, or any other relevant feature to our practice that could mean a certain value through an Architect’s eyes.

From this week and on, we will propose a film for you to watch – enjoy – and comment if you want to share your thoughts about the movie with us. We have already a starting list which still open for your recommendations.

The first movie to introduce is a classic from the ’80, “The Belly of an Architect” by the British director Peter Greenaway.

More info after the break.