Archinect - News

An animated high-rise reminisces about its life in the city in "The Secret Diary of a High Rise"

2024-01-05T15:48:00-05:00

A new animated short film titled The Secret Diary of a High Rise by UK-based animator and artist Stephen Ong uniquely depicts the life of a high-rise building told from the perspective of the building itself.

We follow the experience of the high-rise via its narration, by Sasha Goguel, as it reminisces about its life in the city, including an early romantic love affair with another high-rise and the growth and transformation it experiences as years pass.

The short culminates in a get-together between our protagonist and their friends, who catch up on their own journeys, from new functions to rehabilitation.

Warm, vivid colors create an exciting urban, nightlife atmosphere, which is complimented by the film’s jazzy soundtrack, composed by Jon Hugo Ungar. The Secret Diary of a High Rise has been screened at several British animation festivals.

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...

This beautiful short film celebrates Ukraine’s Soviet-era Brutalist heritage

2018-07-18T17:27:00-04:00

Kiev is a city of eclectic beauty, with modernist landmarks that dot the skyline. But as the capital grows and evolves, many of these Soviet-era gems are falling out of favour and into disrepair, with many already cleared away to make room for newer projects.

The short Soviet Modernism, Brutalism, Post-Modernism: Buildings and Projects in Ukraine from 1960 – 1990 was recently released in support of the upcoming book of the same title, examining some of Kiev's remarkable concrete architecture heritage.

Still from Soviet Modernism, Brutalism, Post-Modernism.

While focusing on Ukraine, director Roman Blazhan reflects on the universal conflict of each generation's ever changing appreciation and rejection of the previous generation's understanding of architecture.

Still from Soviet Modernism, Brutalism, Post-Modernism.

"Director of Photography Mikhail Volkov used a vintage lens (made in beginning of the 70s in the Soviet Union) in combination with a Japanese vintage anamorphic lense," reads the film description. "This setup made the picture not very sharp, very light, with warm anamorphic flares. And the fixed focal length of 75 mm enc...

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...

Watch Daniel Libeskind speak of his love for NYC's diversity

2016-12-14T14:42:00-05:00

Daniel Libeskind loves the multi-faceted nature of New York City's inhabitants; the rich, the poor, the successful, and perhaps most amusingly, the failures who think they're successful. Although the architect doesn't really break any new conceptual ground in this short video from the Louisiana Channel, one can enjoy Libeskind's merry musings intercut with scenes of the metropolis and its diverse denizens, who form "a very complicated microcosm" of the world:

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.

Watch (an animated) Frank Lloyd Wright talk about arrogance in this new short

2016-02-16T13:50:00-05:00

Frank Lloyd Wright stars in the newest episode of "The Experimenters", a mini interview series by Blank on Blank that gives a glimpse into the minds of iconic figures in science, technology, and innovation. Colorfully illustrated by animator Jennifer Yoo, this episode features snippets of an interview between Mike Wallace and a 90-year-old FLW in September 1957.

Blank on Blank found the interview in a collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin celebrating The Mike Wallace Interview, a show that ran in the '50s. Wright is as sharp as ever with his words as he talks about the timeless topics of success, arrogance, the Nature of architecture, and his role as an architect.

Watch the entire episode below. You can also find outtakes and more here.

Here's a previous Blank on Blank episode featuring Buckminster Fuller.

Feast your eyes on Do Ho Suh's immersive home installations in this short film

2015-05-29T14:05:00-04:00

Seoul-based cinematographer and photographer Nils Clauss put together a new film highlighting the works of esteemed sculptor and installation artist Do Ho Suh. Suh's site-specific pieces play with the boundaries of identity and revolve around the physical and metaphorical malleability of space, whether that's captivating viewers into monochromatic structures made of thin translucent fabrics or putting them on edge with houses teetering off the roof of a building.

Clauss' mini film highlights Suh's "Perfect Home" exhibition at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan from 2012-2013.

Spare a few minutes and check out the video below.

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.)

"Me and My Moulton", the Oscar-nominated film about being the daughter of modernist architects

2015-02-23T19:25:00-05:00

Nominated for best animated short at this year's Oscars, the Canadian-Norwegian film tells the story of two modernist architects' three daughters, who long for a bicycle.

Director Torill Kove previously won an Oscar in 2007 for "The Danish Poet".

How to depict the rules of attraction, according to the PARADOR film

2014-12-11T18:07:00-05:00

PARADOR is a collaborative project by Paris-based architect David Tajchman and filmmaker Benjamin Seroussi that fuses each of their signature styles and specialties. Starring dancer Olivier Mathieu and model Katya Pushkina, the short film's theme touches on the "complex rules of attraction and repulsion that end up creating energy, shape evolution, and anti-gravity," as mentioned on Tajchman's website.

Seroussi's experience in fashion film and music videos is obvious in PARADOR, which uses strong angles and slow-paced panning techniques seen in high-end fashion ads on TV. Mathieu and Pushkina, in all their conventionally attractive physical features, are decoratively armored in tetrahedral structures as they dance and pose around each other like two birds engaged in a courtship display. The futuristic structures they wear — which Tajchman and the design team created — hint at Tajchman's work methods of using digital tools and handcrafted models.

Watch the film in its entirety right b...

China censors sci-fi film about Hong Kong's political and social anxieties

2014-04-14T16:56:00-04:00

The video reveals Hong Kongers’ anxieties over political and social issues, such as their increasingly crowded and materialist city and the growing numbers of mainlanders since the city's transfer from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. It sends the opposite message of a very common view among mainlanders, that without China's economic support, Hong Kong would have been dead long ago.

"Hong Kong Will Be Destroyed After 33 Years" is a nearly seven-and-a-half minute video by local film studio G.V.A Creative. Set in present-day Hong Kong, the city has become the target of an approaching meteor expected to hit in 2047 -- the year when the Special Administrative Region of China ceases to have separate laws from mainland China. As nearly two-thirds of the population abandons the city, the city is reborn despite its doom.

You can watch the entire film below.

Announced! 2011 SMIBE Short Film Competition: "Building Revolution."

2011-10-10T20:46:31-04:00

We're excited to be the media sponsor again this year for the super-awesome SMIBE short film competition.

Films should be 3 minutes max in length and and can be produced in any motion image medium.

Entry is free.
Deadline is December 31, 2011.

Ten finalists will be selected to be featured on SMIBE.org and at a film screening in Los Angeles, Chicago and at the Image Festival in Florence, Italy. Of these ten, a grand prize winner will be awarded $500 and a unique SMIBE trophy.

Competition is sponsored by The Graham Foundation, Archinect, and Image

With its third annual competition, SMIBE continues to bring together a growing body of moving image stories about the built environment. We hope the competition will become a forum for the exchange and discussion of persuasive issues about the built world. For this competition, SMIBE welcomes moving image stories that investigate, explore, and entertain our communities about social, environmental, political, technological, and ...