Archinect - News

Wes Anderson-inspired short film explores Singapore's diverse built environment

2021-10-26T18:07:00-04:00

A short film by architectural photographer and filmmaker Kevin Siyuan explores the built environment of Singapore through the unique style and lens of Wes Anderson.

Titled “A Wes Anderson-ish Singapore,” the film is a culmination of a year of exploration around the Asian city-state. Made with zero budget, the film focuses on the diverse architecture, urban planning, places, and people of a post-pandemic Singapore. Iconic structures, such as the Apple Marina Bay Sands, Singapore Changi Airport, and Golden Mile Complex, along with the country’s green spaces and street art are displayed in the peculiar cinematographic style and direction of Wes Anderson films.

As described by Siyuan in the video’s description: “The scenes were framed using mostly flattened symmetrical perspective with focus on architecture but contextualized and told with elements that are uniquely Singapore.”

Signature Wes Anderson films such as “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Life Aquatic by Steve Zissou,” “Moonri...

Liam Young presents vision for high-density sci-fi metropolis with 10 billion inhabitants

2021-10-08T11:40:00-04:00

The director and speculative architect Liam Young has launched a new project, speculating on the future of urbanism within the context of climate change and urban sprawl. The project, titled Planet City, presents a future world in which urban sprawl is reversed, and humanity retreats to one densely populated city, allowing the world beyond the city’s borders to re-wild and rejuvenate.

The hypothetical project is presented through a 15-minute short film and an associated book publication. Young also presented the project in a TED talk released in August of this year. The film presents scenes from life in the city, which sees a population of ten billion people supported by renewable energy sources, pumped hydro storage, and the utilization of algae as a food and filtration system. Young has designed the city as a “closed-loop system” which is waste-free and constructed entirely of recycled materials.

Algae lakes. Image: Liam Young

For Young, the city is a critique of hundreds of years...

RUR Architecture will premiere two films at the 2021 Venice Biennale

2021-05-18T16:00:00-04:00

RUR Architecture will premiere two films at this year’s Venice Biennale. Responding to the social, political, cultural, and environmental upheavals of 2020, the two ten-minute films, Grassroots Institution and Carbon’s Cultural Footprint, came from the mind of firm principal and Princeton University professor Jesse Reiser.

RUR Architecture's Taipei Music Center Performance Hall. Photo courtesy of RUR Architecture

Frustrated with architecture’s tepid responses to the events of 2020, Reiser began exploring ways the field could more forcefully position itself culturally and politically, while mobilizing the full breadth of its expertise.

“As architects, we should apply our hard-earned knowledge and mobilize the full cultural force of architecture to larger issues,” said Reiser. “In the films, we respectively use the example of the Seagram Building and architectural programming to show that architecture, particularly good architecture, plays a critical role in our society, and much is ...

New film narrated by Brad Pitt explores Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple

2020-10-22T14:01:00-04:00

Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright's Modern Masterpiece is a new film by Lauren Levine that is narrated by Brad Pitt. Streaming October 30th to November 15th, the documentary will look deeply into Wright's first public commission in the early 1900s and the efforts to restore it 100 years later.

From the film website: The dedicated team of historians, craftspeople, members of the Unitarian congregation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation reveal the history of one of Wright’s most innovative buildings that merged his love of architecture with his own spiritual values.

Check out the trailer below:

New streaming platform to focus exclusively on architecture and design content

2020-07-21T18:01:00-04:00

Australian actor-producer and entrepreneur Dustin Clare is launching Shelter, a new streaming platform for architecture enthusiasts. The platform is targeting a global audience and will carry a mixture of films, TV shows as well as its own originals.

Shelter's "Inspired Architecture" series will include six fifteen-minute episodes that explore six Australian structures including JR's Hut in Gundagai, Permanent Camping in Mudgee, and Hart House at Great Mackerel Beach. The series explores the narrative of the buildings and their creators, accompanied by interviews with the architects and their clients.

Curated from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, United States and South America, Shelter will feature more than 200 hours of content upon launch, with new content to be added every month. The service will launch with the following:

Festival favorite Tadao Ando: From Emptiness to Infinity (2013) pays homage to one of the world’s most renowned architects: the Japanese ‘Master of Minimalism’ Tadao Ando. The film introduces viewers to his famous buildings and offers an exclusive look into his work process, inspiration and motivations.
Winner of Best Documentary at the Atlas Awards International Film Festiva...

'Lair' book explores the radical homes and hideouts of movie villains

2019-11-01T12:58:00-04:00

From Atlantis in The Spy Who Loved Me to Nathan Bateman's ultra-modern abode in Ex Machina, big-screen villains tend to live in architectural splendor. The villain’s lair, as popularized in many of our favorite movies, is much more than where the megalomaniac goes to get some rest. Instead, the homes of the villains are places where evil is plotted and where, often, the hero is tested...

By Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim and editor Andrea Gollin, the new publication explores the architectural designs from fifteen films through architectural illustrations and renderings, photographs, essays, film analyses, and interviews. Some of the films featured include Dr. Strangelove, The Incredibles, Blade Runner 2049, and You only Live Twice. It will be released on November 5th.

Screening of "100 Women Architects in the Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright" on June 28th

2017-06-22T20:03:00-04:00

Featuring a talk by Dr. Ann Rubbo on the artist and architect Marion Mahony Griffin, this screening of "A Girl is a Fellow Here: 100 Women Architects in the Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright" at the Center for Architecture in New York on June 28th at 6 p.m. investigates Wright's history of working with women, focusing on six ladies who worked with the architect, including Marion Mahony Griffin, Isabel Roberts, Lois Gottlieb, Jane Duncombe, Eleanore Pettersen, and Read Weber. Here's a trailer for the film:

MoMA celebrates Frank Lloyd Wright's 150th birthday with comprehensive exhibition of his archives

2017-06-06T13:58:00-04:00

If you've ever wanted to see the original physical model of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in person, you're in the luck: starting June 12th (with a live-streamed press preview on June 8th, which you can watch here), the Museum of Modern Art will display its Frank Lloyd Wright archive to celebrate the legendary architect's 150th birthday. Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive, which includes drawings, building fragments, never before seen photographs, film clips and other iconic leavings, will be publicly viewable until October 1st. (PS: For further Frank Lloyd Wright coverage, keep your eyes peeled: Archinect is working on some special pieces for FLW's actual birthday, June 8th.)

AIA launches 2017 “I Look Up” Film Challenge

2017-06-01T20:44:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects just launched their third annual I Look Up Film Challenge with the theme “Blueprint for Better”. The competition invites U.S.-based architects to team up with filmmakers to tell the stories of projects that are making a positive impact on their communities. The theme serves as a reminder of the social impact that architects can create through their designs.

Registration is open now until Monday, June 26. All film entries submitted by the August 13 deadline will be reviewed by a jury panel, including architects Rosa Sheng and Michael Ford, AIA President Thomas Vonier, film producer John Montague (associate producer of “Moonlight”), and Benjamin Moore Design Director Priscilla Ghaznavi.

From August 21-October 6, the public will get a chance to vote for their favorite entries. The winners will get to have their films screened at the Architecture and Design Film Festival in early November, and will also be rewarded with cash and distribution prizes.

Nee...

An exquisite drone tour over Apple's new campus reveals the pond, furniture, + a new theater

2017-04-20T12:35:00-04:00

Like a miniature perfectionist city, the new Apple campus in Cupertino is made up of several different buildings: there's the familiar Norman Foster-designed "spaceship," as well as a massive parking garage that features gleaming solar panels atop the roof.

This drone video reveals that very little of the landscaping has come in yet--a few trees, in their boxy planters, hang out outside the main building, and only a few plants have been installed in the equipment-strewn courtyard--but it offers an excellent tour of the Steve Jobs Theatre which is slated to open this summer:

Geoff Manaugh's "A Burglar's Guide to the City" headed to TV

2016-10-04T19:31:00-04:00

CBS has given a put pilot commitment to "A Burglar's Guide to the City," a television series based off the book by BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh, who interviewed former bank robbers like Joe Loya to explore the role of architecture in crime, and the corresponding shifts in privacy in both the physical and virtual realms. An article by Deadline describes the thrust of the series thusly:

"Written by Grellong, A Burglar’s Guide to the City centers on a team of modern-day Robin Hoods, led by a brilliant architect with a troubled past. They use their unique skills to gain access to any stronghold in order to steal from rich criminals and give to those who have been wronged by a corrupt system."

Listen to our conversation with Geoff about the book, recorded earlier this year:

For more on the intersection between architecture and Hollywood:

Vote now for the AIA 2016 I Look Up People's Choice Award film

2016-09-09T18:41:00-04:00

Architects and filmmakers team up in the AIA's yearly I Look Up Film Challenge to create a short film responding to the open-ended prompt of “demonstrating architecture as a solution”...the second edition made its return with double the number of submissions. While the competition jury will decide which submissions will win the top prizes (expected to be announced this month), the public can take part in the People's Choice Award.

Voting is open now until October 3. Find more details on Bustler.

Documentary seeks funding to finish tour of UK-engineered social utopias

2016-09-01T13:03:00-04:00

What are dreams made of? More importantly, how are these dreams executed, and how do we live in the corresponding gap between vision and reality? For the residents of the U.K. towns Basildon and Essex, who dwell in post-World War II "New Towns" designed to be social utopias, their struggles to thrive in a globalized reality are being chronicled in the documentary "New Town Utopias." The filmmakers, who have shot over 100 hours of footage, are currently seeking funding via Kickstarter to help them complete the film.

While the film centers around the creative community, it also investigates the larger historical questions of place and belonging. As the Kickstarter description notes, "It is a meditation on British social history that asks the question: do people make the place… or does a place make the people?"

For more on innovative architectural documentaries:

20 excellent films that feature cities as principal characters

2016-08-30T14:58:00-04:00

What would "Lost in Translation" be without Tokyo, or "In Bruges" without, well, Bruges? This engrossing Taste of Cinema piece selects 20 films released from the 1930s up to the cinematic present in which the city and its surrounds play a vital role in the narrative. The piece then delves into the beauty, power, and ambiance of that particular locale as it relates to each film's plot. Unsurprisingly, Jim Jarmusch's work makes a few appearances, as does the original 1997 version of "Insomnia," which qualifies as pretty much the most noir movie ever shot entirely in daylight.

Screenshot from "Insomnia."

Screenshot from "Night on Earth."

Screenshot from "Mystery Train."

As a kind of thesis statement, the piece explains that:

"The films listed rely on the narrative space and its geographical and sociological specifications. The plots of these films are formed by numerous references to the spatial and temporal phase in which the story is taking place."

For more on the intersection of cinema an...

A remarkable time lapse video of Los Angeles

2016-08-18T13:56:00-04:00

From the Venice Canals to the detritus-strewn cliffs overlooking downtown to the interior of a hospital, this time lapse video by Mason Thibo surveys the edgy splendor of Los Angeles, allowing a glimpse not only of the city's extraordinary variety of neighborhoods, but the way people (and vehicles) interact with each zone. It's a kind of gorgeous panorama of how infrastructure, recreational areas, institutional facilities and residential neighborhoods combine to form the U.S.'s second largest metropolis:

How does an architect reflect the life of a city in an abstract skyscraper?

2016-07-06T12:46:00-04:00

Ole Scheeren wanted to meet his client's request for a skyscraper that would stand out in the already hyperbolic architecture of Bangkok primarily by designing something that wasn't trying so hard. Instead of going for a wild, crazy shape, Scheeren started by vertically extruding an abstract square.

However, as he notes in this CNN video, "Of course, this move exactly exemplifies the problem of the skyscraper. It is an abstract silhouette in a skyline that has no relationship to the city, and does not speak at all of the people that actually live in it or inhabit it. So I wanted to open up the new shaft of the tower and reveal the grain of its inhabitation. Through the usage of it, the people that will live in these three dimensional units will start to define the image of the building. The building will project the life of the people back to the city that gave it."

Watch the full video on CNN

A video tour of Shigeru Ban's Aspen Art Museum

2016-06-09T14:15:00-04:00

In this video that blends time lapse and slow-motion techniques to fully showcase the visual splendor of the building, director Heidi Zuckerman of the The Aspen Art Museum speaks about how the "modesty" of Shigeru Ban's signature preferred materials perfectly suited the Colorado-based institution, while Shigeru Ban explains, among other things, how he carefully designed the visitor entrance to feature a mountain view.

Here's the full video (with requisite plinky yet inspirational soundtrack):

Jørn Utzon's saga with the Sydney Opera house coming to the big screen

2016-06-08T13:12:00-04:00

With the working title Utzon, The Man Behind the Opera House, the film will tell the story of Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who was just 38 years old and relatively unknown when he won the international competition to design an opera house on Sydney’s Bennelong Point in 1957... The Sydney Opera House was completed by Australian architect Peter Hall – a handover which ostracised Hall from the architectural community, and which his family believe led to his ruin.

With a screenplay by Oscar-nominated Petter Skavlan, the film promises to get into some thorny emotional terrain. As producer Jan Marnell explains, “We have a world wonder. We have its creator – who wasn’t allowed to see his dream fulfilled. We have creativity versus bureaucracy and political manoeuvring ranging from friend to foe. We have an outstanding architect with streaks of megalomania and genius, and his vengeful opponents who plot to get him out of the country. What do they want? In the end, they want to take back what they believe should have been theirs in the first place.”

What else is going on with the Sydney Opera house?

A video tour of MVRDV's "The Stairs"

2016-05-26T17:12:00-04:00

It's not exactly a staircase to heaven (more of a "symbolic arising of the city after World War II"), but the intimate rooftop views provided by MVRDV's "The Stairs" of Rotterdam are spectacular. Plus, the gleeful discussion of temporariness by architectural video duo #donotsettle's Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost is worth a watch alone, along with a cameo by MVRDV co-founding director Winy Maas:

Stahl House documentary plagued by extortion, suicide, and lawsuits

2016-05-19T16:57:00-04:00

The Los Angeles Business Journal reports in this week's issue that the filmmaker, Steven Slomkowski, sought to get out of the project after the suicide of Mark Stahl, one of three siblings who control the property, also renowned in architecture lore as Case Study Home #22. Slomkowski sued in 2014, alleging that the surviving siblings, Bruce and Shari Stahl, got cold feet over depictions of Mark and their late father, Buck. The Stahls countersued...

When it's not involved in documentary-driven legal feuds, the iconic Stahl House frequently serves as a backdrop for a variety of fictional films, including Atom Egoyan's "Where The Truth Lies," and "Galaxy Quest:"

For more on the intersection between architecture and cinema:

Bêka & Lemoine's cinematic canon acquired by MoMA

2016-04-20T14:08:00-04:00

The way a building is envisioned to interact with people versus the way it actually does can be dramatically different, which is why the 16 films of Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are both aesthetically stunning and humanistically delightful. MoMA has acquired the pair's entire collection of work, from their first film, "Koolhaas Houselife" to their latest, ""The ∞ happiness."

Beka & Lemoine has filmed the work of a variety of well-known architects, from Bjarke Ingels to Frank Gehry to Renzo Piano. Here a few stills from "Living Architectures" and "Spiriti":

And here's the trailer for "The ∞ happiness":

Naming names: how do architecture firms choose what to call themselves?

2016-03-02T14:12:00-05:00

Unlike industries such as automotive, which spend big bucks hiring branding and naming experts, architects often name themselves – sometimes on the fly. There’s the story about ARO (Architecture Research Office) in New York. The name is generic, but what can you expect from the partners who named themselves on the way to a meeting, said Christian Unverzagt, design director at Detroit-based M1/DTW, a multidisciplinary studio specializing in design.

Architects spend years designing a single project, so it may come as a surprise that they sometimes name themselves in only a few minutes. While some firms have chosen a more clever approach to naming—Design, Bitches and BIG (with web address BIG.dk) spring to mind—many firms seem to choose from the oblique vowel-less bin, sounding less like design entities and more like grim governmental agencies. Many of them just cut to the chase:

What's the ideal architectural name? A while back, Archinect's forum commentors took a crack at naming:

Daydreaming: Your studio/firm name?

John Lautner hits the silver screen

2015-12-30T17:34:00-05:00

The 1990 documentary "The Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner" screens in Beverly Hills on January 2, and it includes not only dramatic images of the buildings, but also interviews and insights from the builders, owners, and the architect himself.

Like the fine wine of architecture, the work of John Lautner only gets better with age. Whether experienced in exhibition form (the Hammer Museum's 2008 show was a marvelous introduction for those unfamiliar with his canon) to documentary film, Lautner's fearless yet elegant exploration of space and material continues to captivate decades after his death in 1994. What better way to start off 2016?

FILM: The Northparker signals change in a once-blighted San Diego district

2015-04-17T14:49:00-04:00

Breadtruck Films captures a glimpse of The Northparker's impact in the booming Northpark neighborhood of San Diego in the nearly 6.5-minute film, "The Northparker". Designed by architect/developer Jonathan Segal, the monolithic mixed-use structure has 27 stylish residential units tucked inside in addition to four hipster-friendly restaurants that offer craft beer and street food. Plus, the building received a 2015 AIA Housing Award yesterday.

Watch the whole film right below. (Adorable-kid commentary included.)

Buckminster Fuller tells the tale on His Geodesic Life in a mini storybook-style audio interview

2015-03-17T13:40:00-04:00

Quoted Studios — the creators of the acclaimed animated interview series Blank on Blank — introduced The Experimenters, a brand new mini interview series that offers a peek into the minds of iconic figures in science, technology, and innovation. The first episode, which aired today, shines the spotlight on ol' Buckminster Fuller on His Geodesic Life. The other two episodes will feature anthropologist Jane Goodall and theoretical physicist Richard Feynman.

Like a storybook, the short film features a recorded audio interview with Bucky by renowned broadcaster Studs Terkel from 1965 and 1970. "Everyone aware of his work agrees that Buckminster Fuller is one of the original minds of our time," Terkel remarks in the introduction. Colorful animations by Jennifer Yoo accompany Fuller's distinctive run-on conversational style and maintain a sense of charm as Fuller talks about how his own environment — particularly his own personal struggles and painful experiences — catapulted his architect...

Henning Larsen Foundation launches Architecture and Film Competition

2014-10-09T15:32:00-04:00

The Henning Larsen Foundation just launched their international Architecture + Film Competition, which aims to revive the use of architecture on film and garner new innovation in the unique genre. Based on the similarities between architecture and film, the competition focuses on the experience of architectural space over time.

Entrants must create a film sequence of 1-5 minutes that animates architecture by embracing time as the primary dimension. Submissions can be uploaded starting Feb. 1, 2015 until the deadline on March 12. Competition results will be announced on the foundation's website on August 20.

Evaluation committee:

Troels Troelsen, Architect, Chairman, Henning Larsen Foundation
Christian Braad Thomsen, Film Instructor and Author
Bente Scavenius, Master of Arts and Board Member, Henning Larsen Foundation
Peter Møller Rasmussen, Architect, Head of Programming, Copenhagen Architecture X Film Festival
Jette Lehmann, Production Designer
Vinca Wiedemann, Principal, The National Film School of Denmark (Alternate)

For full competitions details, head over to Bustler.

For more about architectural film on Archinect, check out our Cutting Room feature series and other related posts here.

“Unfinished Spaces” documentary receives 2014 SAH Award for Film and Video

2014-04-18T15:10:00-04:00

Unfinished Spaces by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray continues to gain recognition since its initial release in 2011. In addition to previous grants and awards, the documentary film recently won the 2014 Society of Architectural Historians (SAH) Award for Film and Video at the 2014 Annual Conference in Austin, Texas. Established in 2013, the annual award is given to the most distinguished international work of film or video on the history of the built environment.

Reflective of its Cuban Revolution setting in 1961, Unfinished Spaces tells the complex tale of Cuba's historic National Art Schools project commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to visionary architects Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti, and Roberto Gottardi. Construction of the school complex immediately began and artists from all over the country attended the school. But the project was abruptly halted as soon as the Revolution came to fruition.

Forty years later, the schools continue to operate but have remained unfinished. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finally complete their unrealized dream.

See the official trailer below.

Also check out Archinect's previous coverage of Unfinished Spaces here.

Steven Holl Architects presents two new films with Spirit of Space on the Sifang Art Museum

2014-03-11T15:39:00-04:00

Perhaps you remember Spirit of Space's Art in the City film from back in summer of 2013, meditating on the interplay between city life and public art in Chicago. More recently, the architectural film-making creative agency produced two short films showcasing Steven Holl's work for the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, China. SOS has previously worked with Steven Holl on five film pieces, featuring his work in both China and the U.S.

The films follow SOS's tried-and-true style -- one with Holl explaining to the camera his design choices, interspersed with languishing shots of the now-open museum:

Sifang Art Museum: A Conversation with Steve Holl

...and a second, more contemplative film that in turn dwells on the architecture itself:

Sifang Art Museum