Archinect - News

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...

Architect Julia Koerner blends design, technology, and fashion to help Black Panther win an Oscar in best costume design

2019-02-25T14:43:00-05:00

Beyond the silver screen buzz and Hollywood glam, the Oscars highlight professionals in non-acting categories like best original soundtrack, set design, and costume design. This year, a film, which received several awards and nominations, shined through its use of 3D printing and architectural design concepts. In the film Black Panther, architect Julia Koerner used traditional techniques combined with digital technologies to create the intricate accessories worn by Queen Ramonda.

Left, a Zulu woman in the traditional headdress of a married woman; center, a conceptual costume sketch by Ms. Carter (design) and Ryan Meinerding and his team (concept artists); and right, the headdress as worn by Angela Bassett designed by Julia Koerner and Ruth Carter. Credit Getty Images; Marvel; Marvel/Disney

Inspired by African patterns presented in the initial design sketches of Ruth Carter, Koerner's Zulu hat and shoulder mantle were designed to look as though it were created by technology from the f...

The designer that Columbus, a film featuring numerous Modernist icons, forgot about

2017-08-25T16:11:00-04:00

The Miller House and Garden, now owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is acknowledged as one of the greatest Modernist collaborations. This thirteen-acre property was developed between 1953 and 1957 as a unified design through the close teamwork of Kiley, architects Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche, interior designer Alexander Girard (who is acknowledged in the film), and clients J. Irwin and Xenia Miller.

The recent film Columbus is centered around a love story of a son of a renowned architecture critic stuck in a small Midwestern town and a 'young architecture enthusiast' who works at the local library. Taking place in mid-century Modernism mecca, Columbus, IN, the motion picture spares plenty of spectacular views of iconic Modernist sites: the Miller House, North Christian Church (1964), Cummins Inc. Irwin Office Building (1954), First Christian Church (1942), and Columbus Regional Hospital Mental Health Center (1972). The characters, surprisingly, do not fail to acknowledge the architects at each location—there are mentions of Eero and Eliel Saarinen, James Polshek... However, Dan Kiley, whose landscapes are often the movie's pivotal settings, got left out and never once credited.

Kiley designed more projects in Columbus than any architect—over thirty landscapes which among many others include the Art Institute of Chicago, South Garden (1962), Jefferson National Expansion Expansio...

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