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Inside the stunning Nordic hotel from Succession’s latest episode

2023-04-27T08:01:00-04:00

As the hit HBO series Succession reaches the midpoint of its final season, viewers of episode five’s Norwegian negotiations were treated to an architectural backdrop worthy of the show’s millions-strong audience. The Nordic eco-resort featured in the episode is in fact a seasoned pro in the film world, having previously been used as a prominent location in Alex Garland’s 2014 sci-fi thriller Ex Machina.

Still image from Succession, Series 4, Episode 5. Image credit: HBO

The building in question is the Juvet Landscape Hotel, which sits between the UNESCO world heritage Geiranger Fjord and the dramatic road and viewing point Trollstigen on the Nordic coast. Designed by Jensen & Skovdin Architects and completed in 2010, the 24-bed hotel is spread across seven minimalistic landscape rooms, two smaller ‘bird houses,’ and a four-bed ‘Skrivarstua’ or ‘Writer’s Lodge.’ Along a river bank, the hotel also features a bathhouse ...

Is Tim Burton's Beetlejuice the best Halloween movie for design students to watch?

2022-10-29T09:00:00-04:00

Every season has its own set of iconic movies, and within that set, there are those that stick out for their portrayal and elevation of architectural issues. Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, Beetlejuice, is perhaps the fall’s best example — an ever-trendy classic Halloween tale that showcases and offers some critique of the period’s salient design trends. Even the scale model of the town has some architectural qualities, and its central star — a shopworn Victorian-style home — has become an inspiration to aspiring designers around the world.

The conceit of Beetlejuice has essential elements that design students would be well-served to evaluate. Two families fighting for the creative control of a structure with radically different agendas. Its conflict is based on a disagreement about preferences in residential architecture: The “good, sturdy country craftsmanship” of a rural Victorian run up against a vacuous amalgam of 80s high design.

Opening title sequence from the film. Image courtes...

A look at the process behind David Korins' dazzling set design for the 94th Academy Awards

2022-03-29T20:43:00-04:00

As the 94th Academy Awards returned to Los Angeles' famed Dolby Theatre for the first time since 2020, creative director David Korins took center stage with what is now his second design for perhaps the most important part of Hollywood's annual celebration of film culture and the cinematic arts.

Artist rendering of the concept for the Act 1 "Cascading Spiral" stage. Image courtesy David Korins Design.

From concept to implementation, the overall project took four months to complete, finally offering the awards’ 16.6 million viewers a sequel to his inclusivity-themed 2019 effort based upon subjects like the future and communities that can imbue each member with the ability to shine on their own individual stage.

Act 1: Cascading Spiral. Image courtesy David Korins Design.

Act 2: The Wave. Image courtesy David Korins Design.

Act 3: Crystals. Image courtesy David Korins Design.

Act 4: Triangle. Image courtesy David Korins Design.

The design incorporated some 90,000 individual Swarovski cry...

Glass box theater? Designers like Es Devlin are making the Fourth Wall out of something new

2021-10-21T17:59:00-04:00

Even before Covid-19, many ambitious productions had been taking place not in the three-sided black boxes that defined the experimental zest and emerging punk of the late 1970s, or […] theater-in-the-round pioneered in ancient Greece and Rome, but in elaborately engineered glass cubes that evoke the International Style’s high Modernism and the minimalist penthouses of the contemporary metropolis. There would not seem to be a more flagrant violation of dramatic immediacy.

Glass cube sets from Miriam Buether, artist Todd Knope, and Expo 2020 Dubai British Pavillion designer Es Devlin have been popular among directors like Sam Mendes. One of Devlin's previous designs was based on a temporary Rachel Whitehead installation in East London from 1993. The artist's work will take center stage once again with the reopening of Mendes' The Lehman Trilogy, which plays at New York's Nederlander Theater until January 2nd.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway (@lehmantrilogybway)

“There’s a message embedded in a single room,” the three-time Olivier Award winner told the Times, “that architecture itself is the vessel through which history — whether intimate or monumental — is enacted. Glass helps you make that message explicit: A room is more than just a passive container. It remembers life.”

Wes Anderson remade a small French city into the perfect setting for his latest film

2021-09-13T18:30:00-04:00

“While the film’s cast is a long list of recognizable names (Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright) one of its biggest stars is the city, showcased in a tour that makes up one of the segments. Rather than creating multiple town exteriors on a backlot, the filmmakers found a real French town, Angoulême, and used it as the movie’s beating heart, dressing it up or down as needed.”

Wes Anderson and his crew for "The French Dispatch" transformed the city of 42,000 into 125 different individual sets including a former knitting factory, which it was able to successfully reshape into a multipurpose studio space complete with a carpentry mill and three stages.

Anderson’s movies are well known for their bespoke and inspirational designs. The 52-year-old Francophile has also teamed with none other than Rem Koolhaas on the design of a bar featured in OMA’s plan for the Fondazione Prada that was completed in 2015.

The film, set to be released on October 22, was in part inspired by the work of cultural journalists like Rosamond Bernier. The New York Times has a view of the overhauled town here.

The set design from 'Parasite' is getting top billing at next month's Milan Design Week

2021-08-13T14:30:00-04:00

A large wooden table located at the center of the Park family's luxurious living room, which the Kim family hides beneath after their break-in, is one of the key props visualizing the theme of socio-economic class divisions. The table, designed by Bahk Jong-sun, is one of 126 pieces of Korean craftworks that will be on display next month during Milan Design Week 2021, the world's biggest annual design and furniture fair since its inception in 1961.

The Oscar-nominated "Parasite" set was created by production designer Lee Ha-jun based on a sketch from director Bong Joon-ho. Lee is a graduate of Korea’s National University of Arts stage design program. He was introduced to Bahk Jong-sun by the artist Seungmo Park, who also created original pieces for the set.

The Milan Design Week exhibition is themed "All about Attitude" and includes 20 other works by Korean artists and designers in a five-day show that opens September 5th at the Palazzo Litta. Bahk Jong-sun produced several 3D models of the fake mansion and interiors before constructing the set. Vulture has a closer look at the 2019 movie’s production design here.

A Las Vegas theater company knows the value of having an interior architect on board (and they're hiring one right now)

2021-08-07T09:00:00-04:00

Having a background as an architect offers a specific level of expertise that can be used outside of traditional employment formats. Archinect has been connecting with architects and design professionals from various backgrounds since 1997.

Our industry-leading job board publishes approximately 150 new opportunities every week. Employment offerings from numerous locations and thousands of firms, organizations, creative companies, and institutions offer a mix of career opportunities for architects and design professionals from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Beyond traditional employment openings from small, medium, and large firms, Archinect Jobs also showcases a selection of unique job opportunities for architects.

Last week, our editorial team highlighted an exciting job opening to work as a Treehouse Designer. This week, renowned American theater company Spiegelworld is searching for an Interior Architect or Interior Designer for a remote position with their team.

Im...

AMO undertakes set design and video art direction for Bulgari's summer 2021 fine jewelry show

2021-06-28T13:14:00-04:00

AMO, the research branch of OMA, has revealed its designs for Italian luxury brand, Bulgari’s, Summer 2021 fine jewelry show.

Photo: Agostino Osio/Courtesy of AMO

The firm carried out the show’s set design and video art direction. It is being presented at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a major landmark in Milan and Italy’s oldest active shopping gallery. The project is led by OMA Partner Ellen van Loon and Giulio Margheri.

Photo: Agostino Osio/Courtesy of AMO

Striking uses of light and color create a dramatic atmosphere that compliments the grandiose, classical nature of the iconic building.

As stated in the project’s press release, “In manipulating scale and time, the show creates a mutually reinforcing encounter between the splendors of fine jewelry and architecture.”

Photo: Agostino Osio/Courtesy of AMO

“We conceptualized the production as an interplay of the lyrical and the mechanical,” says Ellen van Loon. “We wanted to create scenes that resonate with the design of fine je...

Frank Gehry to work as scenic designer for jazz opera

2021-05-04T14:01:00-04:00

Frank Gehry has joined forces with legendary saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter and fellow jazz musician Esperanza Spalding to serve as the scenic designer for the jazz opera Iphigenia. The architect even opened up his kitchen for work and rehearsals of the project.

Based on Euripides’ play Iphigenia in Aulis, the opera is Shorter’s first plunge into the classical space, the realization of his lifelong dream to compose an opera since he was a 19-year-old music student.

As mentioned on New Music USA, “...these three singular artists are creating on a truly unique theatrical vision that seeks to deconstruct this classic text, transposed onto a modern, Black-American family, and disrupt the script of stories about gender, race, and family that we’re told can never change.”

Archinect's Orhan Ayyuce and Frank Gehry in conversation, from An Interview with Frank Gehry, Who Turns 90 Today, Upon Receiving the Neutra Award for Professional Excellence

Iphigenia has been a work in progress f...

Can you recognize these blockbuster movie hotel rooms?

2018-12-26T15:39:00-05:00

Architecture and film have had a longstanding partnership. Many iconic blockbuster hits would not have been the same without the magic of talented set and stage designers. If you're planning your next movie marathon, check out these 7 famous hotel rooms that have dawned the big screen. Thanks to the creative imaginations and talents of architects Jelena Popovic and Barbara Lew, these famous hotel rooms were brought to life.

↓ Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA

From the film Pretty Woman - Image courtesy of Expedia

Staring Julia Roberts and Richard Greer, the film takes place in this Los Angeles hotel. In the film, the onscreen chemistry between Roberts and Greer depicts a classic Cinderella story where two unlikely people fall in love.

↓ Park Hyatt Hotel Tokyo in Tokyo, JP

From the film Lost in Translation - Image courtesy of Expedia

In Sophia Coppola's romantic comedy, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson display platonic love in the alluring city of Tokyo. As the two s...

Interior color schemes from iconic TV show set designs

2018-08-23T13:42:00-04:00

From the mid century modern world of Mad Men to the traditional English aristocratic look of Downton Abbey, the designs behind our favorite productions play a vital role in creating authentic backdrops viewers can delve into. Compare the Market and Neomam Studios have brought these set designs to the forefront by highlighting color schemes from some of the most iconic TV shows to air.

Take a look below at these familiar scenes with their accompanying color palettes:

Jerry's living room from Seinfeld

Don and Megan’s living room from Mad Men

The drawing room from Downton Abbey

Penny’s living room from Big Bang Theory

Ted, Marshall, Lily and Robin’s living room from How I Met Your Mother

Jess Day and roommates' living room from New Girl

Walt’s living room from Breaking Bad

An LA architect has recreated Kubrick's infamous "2001" bedroom scene

2017-03-30T13:01:00-04:00

Although the LACMA exhibition a few years ago featuring props from Stanley Kubrick's films was, as cineastes say, "nifty," there's something even niftier on view at The 14th Factory: an elaborately detailed, fully inhabitable set recreated from the still-powerful ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Architect Paul Kember worked with artist Simon Birch to put the set together.

Instead of gazing at individual pieces from the films, you can now essentially occupy the film in a completely new way. As Adam Woodward over at thespaces.com notes, "With its stark white walls, luminous floor and ornate Renaissance decor fit for Louis XVI, the room is instantly recognisable as the centrepiece of arguably the most pored-over ending in movie history. It’s also a superlative piece of set design." To visit, make sure to make reservations for tickets, selected by date and the time of day of your visit, through the website.

The real-life architecture of "Ex Machina"

2015-05-28T10:29:00-04:00

Whether you think Alex Garland's film "Ex Machina" is a mind-bending classic or a future camp hit (the Dancing Scene, anybody?), one thing is certain: the architecture of the real-life Hotel Juvet is stunning. Designed by Jensen & Skovdin Architects, the hotel is located in northwestern Norway near the town of Andalsnes in a place known as Valldal.

The Hotel Juvet has been designed to feature the splendor of the neighboring mountains and rushing river: each of the distinctive nine rooms features at least two walls made entirely of glass to give the best possible views. Additionally, no one room looks into another, creating a sense of privacy while immersing guests in nature.

The officially branded "landscape hotel" was designed and built in two principal stages: seven rooms and a spa building were erected in 2010, while an additional two rooms were added by 2013. The plan, which allows a total of up to 28 rooms to be built, was created with sustainability in mind. Conservation author...

Christopher Hawthorne reflects on the spatial design in "Citizenfour" and other Oscar nominees

2015-02-23T13:12:00-05:00

"Citizenfour," in fact, enlarges and underlines ideas about architecture, privacy and culture that run more subtly through a number of Oscar nominees. Several [...] movies exploit the dramatic appeal of the constricted, labyrinthine, tightly packed, claustrophobic or paranoid space: the crowded backstage corridors of "Birdman" by Alejandro G. Iñárritu; the tunnels, hallways and dollhouse-like spaces of Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel"; the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Ava DuVernay's "Selma."

Related: Julia Ingalls' Material Witness series on Archinect

How HBO Recreated The Studiedly Zany Offices Of "Silicon Valley"

2014-04-25T18:12:00-04:00

Silicon Valley is a meticulously researched show [...] and the work spaces that appear on screen are no exception. Production designer Richard Toyon, the man responsible for the visual storytelling, called up friends all over Silicon Valley to get a peek inside the offices of Facebook, Google, Zynga, and others. Security often prevented Toyon from taking pictures inside the buildings, so he made due with mental notes.

'Mad Men': The story behind Don Draper's new digs

2012-04-06T11:39:00-04:00

Apartment 17-B, right, set decorator Claudette Didul said, is "in a high-rise that feels like it was built in 1960 with a white-carpeted sunken living room and a fascinating fireplace and a Case Study-style kitchen with two pass through windows." It also sports walnut cabinetry with a built-in television set and one of those new-fangled-for-the-time push-button phones.

Oliver Twist's Workhouse Discovered

2012-02-06T17:19:00-05:00

It sparked a thousand childhood nightmares – now the original workhouse from Oliver Twist has been discovered. But a row has erupted over what to do with the building.

Rafael Viñoly Takes The Stage

2011-08-26T19:13:00-04:00

Leonardo da Vinci was an architect, painter, musician, and more. Corb was an architect and watchmaker. Recently, we've seen celebrity designers David Rockwell, Santiago Calatrava, and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron take an interest in set design for theater. And most recently, Rafael Viñoly, one of the world's most renowned architects today, takes center stage, yet again, at Bard SummerScape for the Festival's first fully-staged production of Richard Strauss's opera, Die Liebe der Danae.

An Illusion of Familiarity

2011-07-19T18:06:42-04:00

Based upon the woman's story and Moulin's research, Mabon and Hayes constructed a film-style set for the chronic déjà vu sufferer, complete with marks on the floors, visual instructions and specially-designed objects. They also created a very detailed schedule to give a feeling of continuity and help the woman go through the day with as few surprises (hence risks of déjà vu) as possible.