MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND FILM A research between architecture and film industry
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Copyright@University of Virginia School of Architecture Yichun Xu M.Arch Candidate 2021 yx3bk@virginia.edu
THESIS DESCRIPTION This architectural research at UVA in the Spring of 2021 is titled: Modern architecture and film. The research is mainly focus on how modern architectures and films are interconverted. Architecture gives people a true space. People can walk and do activities in it, with a real feeling. While film is a way of narrative. Different from architecture with integrality, film is more focusing on details, instant feelings, and the unreal spatial creativity. To amplify those feelings, filmmakers usually use shooting angles, colors, depth of fields, and a frame to express everything in an “invisible” way. People will only notice what filmmakers want you to see. Thus, to some extends, the spatial construction in films is not completely real. But it does not mean that cinema and architecture are two different fields and cannot be combined. Many architecture elements can usually be seen in movies, which are very important for creating specific film scene and delivering the feelings and atmosphere that the film trying to express. Also, filmmaking also provides some inspiration and techniques for architecture design. In so many types of architectures, modern architecture is selected to be one of the most representative styles and period to contribute to the film industry. So, the research is mainly about what kind of feelings and atmosphere do modern architectural elements bring to the movie and what “invisible” techniques or strategies used in the film to express modern architecture. The research will be separated into four steps: Interdisciplinary research; ramification of modern architecture analysis; case study, and future architecture design consideration. In terms of several analysis of the films and real architecture, how the strategies are applied can be seem very clearly. Although there are not a lot of research about people’s attitude or feelings of a film related to modern architecture, it is still can be figured out to some extents. The film “Play Time” is mainly used as an example to be analyzed. It is a movie about traveling through the street of “Paris” during 1960s. The “Paris” was designed based on Le Corbusier’s city of tomorrow. The shooting angles and the movie plots express the irony to the modern architecture, even the modernism world.
MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND FILM RESEARCH TIM Yichun Xu M
WEEK 1
T W
Speak to Shiqiao Li
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TA office hour
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Design book Due
General background research
S M
Grant writing workshop
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WEEK 2
Design book presentation
Research organization
Start the research
Organize more on research
Book structuring & design workshop
W T
Speak to Esther Lorenz
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Site visit France, Paris, Villa Savoye
S M
Determine the topic
WEEK 3
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Synthesis workshop
W T
Speak to Earl Mark
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Prepare for the site visit, collect backgraound source
S S M
Mid review
Idea cloud
WEEK 4
T W
Visit LA Hollyw
Speak to people major in film
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FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
Self-study
JUL SUMMER BREAK
2021 SPRING Class Assignment
JUN
Important deadline
Site visit
Speak to people
ME SCHEDULE Speak to thesis advisor
Speak to thesis advisor Finalize the reseach
Design development
e data, nline h Speak to thesis advisor
Visit UVA film studio
Final presentation Design development
Speak to thesis advisor
Speak to thesis advisor
Speak to people major in film
Review
Interview to various people about the feelings and thoughts about movies
A, wood
AUG
SEP
OCT 2021 FALL
NOV
DEC
JAN
WINTER BREAK
RESEARCH QUESTION -What is the relationship between modern architecture and film? -What "invisible" artistic strategies used in the film-making to express architecture? -What effects and emtions do the modern architecture express in the films? -What shooting strategies can be applied in architecture design as well?
EMBRANCHMENT
INTERDISCIPLINE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND FILM SPATIAL FEELINGS IN THE FILM
RAMIFICATION WHAT IS MODERN ARCHITECTURE?
FILM SCENE AND CAMERA SET “INVISIBLE” STRATEGIES USED IN THE FILM
CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE
COMPARISON BETWEEN FILM SCENE AND REAL ARCHITECTURE
WHAT IS THE ARTISTIC MEANING OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN THE FILM?
INTERVIEW OF PEOPLE MAJOR IN FILM
WHAT SHOOTING STRATEGIES CAN BE USED TO EXPRESS THE SPATIAL FEELINGS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE? INTERVIEW OF PEOPLE MAJOR IN FILM
MATERIALIZATION
APPLICATION
CASE STUDY URBAN SCALE MOVIE -”Play time”, 1967
SINGLE BUILDING SCALE MOVIE -”Parasite”, 2019
ABSTRACTION MOVIE
ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION WHAT CAN WE LEARN FOR FUTURE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN? DESIGN OPTION 1 - SMALL SCALE: HOUSE DESIGN
-”The cube”, 1997
DESIGN OPTION 2 - MEDIUM SCALE: PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN OPTION 3 - LARGE SCALE: URBAN DESIGN
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'It is when we touch the depths of personal and collective memory that architecture and cinema reveal their constructive force. It is when architecture and cinema deploy their physical means, their interactions and their assemblage that they show their mythopoetic inspiration. The production of images by cinema is the epitome of the physical construction of space by architecture.' —— Pascal Schoning
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EMBRANCHMEN
INTERDISCPLINE
INTERDISCIPLINEArchitecture and film RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND FILM SPATIAL FEELINGS IN THE FILM
RAMIFICATI
WHAT IS MODERN FILM SCENE AND CAMERA SET “INVISIBLE” STRATEGIES USED IN THE FILM
CHARACTERISTIC TECTURE
COMPARISON BETWEEN FILM SCENE AND REAL ARCHITECTURE
WHAT IS THE ARTIS MODERN ARCHIT
INTERVIEW OF PEOPLE MAJOR IN FILM
WHAT SHOOTING USED TO EXPRESS OF MODERN ARC
INTERVIEW OF PEO 13
RELATIONSHIP Both film and architecture try to give us a more physical reality rather than form of art, although they are using a artistic perfection “lies” to reach the reality. No matter how different strategies and ways they are using, there is an inextricable link between the creation of films and development of the built environment, at least in the exploration of volumetric space in time. They provide people a stage to perform, but still leave a gap and encourage people to fill it by their imagination. One difference between them is the element of the gap. Architecture is a 3d space, with flexible material and construction. While film, to some extent, is 4d because it adds sound, background music, and time. The actual experience in an architectural space within that space has many similarities to the viewer’s perception of a chosen sequence in a film. Film exaggerates and portrays a larger then life view, this require the film to create their own worlds, in a more imaginative way.
“Film's undoubted ancestor...is -- architecture.” ——Sergei M. Eisenstein
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Drawing 2D
Architecture 3D
Film 4D 15
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The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014
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Architecture provides people space, where people can walk around and do activities in there, with a real feeling. While film is a composition of a series of frames. Different from architecture with integrality, film is more focusing on details, instant feelings, and the unreal spatial creativity. It uses some shooting strategies to create an unreal effect that people are personally on the scene. Thus, to some extent, the spatial construction in films is not completely real, but it does not mean that film and architecture are two different fields and cannot be combined. Many architectural elements can usually be seen in movies, which are very important for creating specific film scene and plot. While filmmaking also provides some inspiration of architecture design. In terms of architecture style, modern architecture is selected to be one of the most representative styles and periods to contribute to the film industry. It usually drives the story forward vividly because of its special material and cubic shape. The research is mainly about the relationship between architecture and film, and what kind of strategies can be used to express modern architecture in the film, and how film-making concepts can be applied on the modern architecture. And this essay is mainly focus on the question that what artistic strategies can be used to express spatial feelings in the film.
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Rear Window, 1954
SPACE The frame in film, cutting off most of the visual field, provides the audience a manmade situation, by means of synecdoche and metonymy (Al-Saati, Botta, and Woodbury, 2010). Although filmmakers only show the key sequences to the audience, through this kind of tropes, it brings people into an abstract idea of space, and people can even mentally fill in what they don’t see. Sometimes, people might gain more feelings and information in just one successfully depicted frame than a pale experience in a real space, because the atmosphere that the filmmakers try to reach even surpasses the normal feelings in our daily life. Art comes from life but is also above life. The place setting seems one of the most important parts of movie experience. The filmic space is a three-dimensional imaginary space where the action takes place, while the image is two-dimensional which shows only in the frame (Cetin, 2006). In other words, all the settings need to be photographed. Although the final work shown to the audience is two-dimensional, like a painting, various strategies and settings such as shooting angles, depth and lightings need to prevent it to be not like a painting, but still keeps as spatial and dynamic. Helmut Weihsmann, who wrote ‘Built Illusions: Architecture in Cinema’, considers most of the filmic set design as ’disposable architecture’, created for an instant and for on-screen effect rather than for material solidity or longevity (Bergfelder, Harris, and Street, 2007). That is to say, the cinematic space is different from the real space in architecture. They mostly depend on the stage settings to give people a sense of substitution. 20
Rem Koolhaas, 1972 'Exodus, or the voluntary prisoners of architecture'
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INVISIBLE EXPRESSION TECHNIQUES
One of the most different things between film and architecture is that filmmakers usually use some “invisible” settings and strategies to lead people focus on what they want people to focus on, and even neglect other views. The settings are accurately calculated and carefully prepared, but they are unimpressive and won’t be noticed at all. The audience will not realize that these are actually well-designed. They rather concentrate on the primacy of storytelling, other than on visual effect. They often take them for granted as unconsciously registered background, such as materials, and natural or artificial lightings. But in fact, most of the emotions and feelings that films try to express are mostly from those kinds of settings. Since most of the filmic architectures are usually single-use and disposable, created for an instant and for onscreen effect, so they can be exaggerated, unpractical, and do not need to take people’s feeling inside the space into consideration. While in architecture, people might stay in the space for a quite long time. And the space will exist for years. They use their own body and eyes to feel and see the surroundings almost every day. Small tricks and montages can not be used to “lie” to people. But are there any strategies from films can also applied to architectures? Maybe it doesn’t as effective as in the film, but it does attract people’s attention in a actual space, and enjoy their experience in the space, without even noticing the design thoughts from architects.
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Blade Runner 2049, 2017
Parasite, 2019
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Prague. Filming on location for Mission Impossible IV
To deliver such beautifully designed sequences to the audience, setting design is very important. “Mise-en-scene” is a French term means placed in the stage. It includes settings, props and all the elements and details behind or in front of the camera. These substantive reference points can be thought of as maintaining mood and style to keep the line in focus, thus keeping the viewer's attention and engagement when every single frame is predetermined (Swathika, Yoon, and Uddin, 2006). It seems to be acting as the role of material in architecture, since it determines the basic style and the uniqueness of a film. It provides people a background of the story, as far as most of the audience will take the information from the settings for granted and keep unconsciousness (Bergfelder, Harris, and Street, 2007). The Austrian-born art director Oscar Werndorff declared in an article in 1933 that: “good art direction must give you the atmosphere of the picture without being too noticeable. The best ‘sets’ in my experience are those which you forget as soon as the film is over and the lights go up again in the theatre. The first essential in the film is the action of the characters. The art director’s job is to provide them with a background—— and a background it should remain at all costs.”
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Lighting
Blade Runner 2049, 2017
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Camera Angle/ Color
Blade Runner 2049, 2017
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Depth of Field
Parasite, 2019
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Frame
The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014
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PEOPLE'S FEELINGS Different spaces give people different feelings obviously. If the room is wide and bright, people will feel cozy and comfortable, just like a bedroom. If the space is narrow and long, people even can’t see the end. Does this kind of corridor give people a sense of desperation and anxiety? Usually, in horror movies, there might be some corridor settings like this. Even, in the same corridor, or the space like a tunnel, if there is light at the end of the way, or what is waiting at the end, if people can see the end, will also affect people’s feeling. This is about the space, not only space, but the light and settings as well. The length of the shadow will also give people different feelings in different situations. Also, in a space, the position of the camera, or the position of the audience’s eyes are different, what they will see are also different, and the feelings are also various. And this is the interesting part of the film settings. This depends on what story and what feelings do the filmmakers want to deliver. Even one small angle, it is another story.
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Different room sizes
Different camera positions
Different light settings
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FILM SCENE AND REAL ARCHITECTURE
In the “mise-en scene” in filmmaking, lighting and color is a common strategy that is used to make people focus more on the spatial experience. Rudolf Arnheim, who is known as his book ‘Film as Art’, believes that lighting is crucial to the art of cinema, creating visual depth and transcending the two-dimensional nature of the image. Various lighting techniques are essential to be applied in order to complete the narrative of storytelling (Colin, 2019). Natural light goes through the windows to make the interior space brighter. It usually comes with the very dark shadow to make a strong comparison, which depicts the spatial boundary clearer. While this needs a very high quality of the angle of the sun. In the film” Parasite”, the position of the sun was taken into consideration. The direction of the sun is one of the important factors when looking for outdoor building sites. The time interval tends to photograph needs to be kept in mind and it is used to determine the position and size of the windows. The large windows in the dining room, from the floor to the ceiling, facing the courtyard, is a key element in the film. Its transparency and the natural light make the whole dining room brighter and opener, which surely adds more dramatic effects on the film. According to the director, the final scene, where the father comes out of the house and into the garden, was shot in strong sunlight, and it was shot entirely by natural light. Such emotions and images are hard to get with artificial lighting, which is why they put so much effort into building this scene.
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Barozzi Veiga, Neanderthal Museum, 2010
Blade Runner 2049, 2017
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New York City Hall, 1811
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Metropolis, 1927
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VIEW FROM PEOPLE WORK IN FILM INDUSTRY
What do you think about the application of architecture (or spatial feeling) in the film?
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Zoey, LSE Filmmakers usually use camera techniques to establish a sense of space. For example, when to show the verticality of a skyscraper, the camera may do a quick tilt. When filmmakers want to show the openness of a landscape, they may use a wide shot, instead of a medium shot or a close-up.
Hou, Communication University of China Space is the most basic element on which material reality is restored. It is presented as the objective existence of the positional difference between all exhibits and objects. Any "realistic" movie cannot be made without the most basic space. In the movie, buildings are used for viewing, with a sense of distance. The space is for experiencing, and it is integrated with the emotions of the characters and the audience in the narration. It introduces the viewer from the outside to the inside, requiring them to experience the space inside. Therefore, the building and the audience are separated from each other, and the space is using an inviting posture to entice the audience to enter it all the time. For example, in "The Grand Budapest Hotel", when the Grand Budapest Hotel appears as a pink building, it exists as a clue throughout the film. The audience is enjoying the building at that time; when we follow the camera into the interior of the hotel, we immediately established a general impression of the character image and the background of the hotel, and the audience was experiencing the space. When we are still at the exterior of a building and only looking at the building’s appearance, the role of “space” has not yet occurred. We rarely recognize this complete building directly with the concept of space, unless it is compared to the surrounding environment; but as we enter the interior of the building, when wandering around the room or stair platform, the original concept of "architecture" is replaced by "space", we can only say that we are experiencing space Instead of experiencing architecture.
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What’s the difference between the film scene and the real architecture?
Zoey, LSE First, many film scenes are taken not in real architectures but constructed scenes. What looks like a wall on screen may in fact be a thin wooden board. Second, cameras can experience perspectives different from human eyes. For example, a fly-on-the-wall style of camera angle can be vastly different from how human beings usually experience the space.
Hou, Communication University of China Movie scenes serve the story and characters, and the more consideration is given to how the space participates into the narrative. While the real architecture serves the people living in it, and the more consideration is given to the functionality and the comfort of the occupants. Therefore, the space design in the movie scene may not be suitable for real life. For example, in "Amélie", the heroine Amélie’s room is highly saturated red. The red color shows the protagonist Amélie’s enthusiastic and lovely character in the narrative of the film. However, this kind of space design will make in reality People feel depressed and irritable, so it is difficult to be adopted by designers.
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What professional strategies can be used when shooting a spatial scene?
Zoey, LSE Different shot sizes, panning, tilting, rack focus, crane shot, tracking… anything….really depends on what kind of space you are shooting.
Hou, Communication University of China Shooting space scenes requires many different shooting techniques, and the specific shooting plan depends on the scene and the content of the performance. When expressing a complicated internal space, you can use a long lens to follow up a certain character (refer to the long shot of "See you up there" showing the trench space in the opening scene, and the long scene showing the heroine's family living space in the opening scene of "Moonrise Kingdom"), or use multiple fixed lenses for montage stitching (refer to the "The Grand Budapest Hotel"). When expressing the openness and grandeur of the scene, you should use a large-scale distant lens to shoot (refer to "The Last Emperor"). To show fictional large-scale buildings or fictional In large spaces, you can use digital models or miniature models to shoot (refer to "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "Blade Runner"). Aerial photography can be used for urban vision.
Ella, NYU The 180 degree rule is a guideline that most filmmakers use to ensure that the on-screen spatial relationship between the characters are consistent and that their eyelines match. By picturing an imaginary axis through the characters that are in conversation, the camera must be kept on one side of the axis and crossing that axis would distort the scene’s spacial order.
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"To endow with a poetic value that which does not yet possess it, to willfully restrict the field of vision so as to intensify expression: these are the two properties that help make cinematic decor the ideal setting for modern beauty." —— Aragon
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ERDISCIPLINE
TIONSHIP BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE FILM
AL FEELINGS IN THE FILM
EMBRANCHMENT
MATERIALIZ
REMIFICATION
Modern architecture in the film RAMIFICATION WHAT IS MODERN ARCHITECTURE?
SCENE AND CAMERA SET
SIBLE” STRATEGIES USED IN THE FILM
CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE
PARISON BETWEEN FILM SCENE AND ARCHITECTURE
WHAT IS THE ARTISTIC MEANING OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN THE FILM?
VIEW OF PEOPLE MAJOR IN FILM
WHAT SHOOTING STRATEGIES CAN BE USED TO EXPRESS THE SPATIAL FEELINGS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE? INTERVIEW OF PEOPLE MAJOR IN FILM
CASE STU
URBAN SCALE -”Play time”, 1967
SINGLE BUILD -”Parasite”, 2019
ABSTRACTION -”The cube”, 1997
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MODERN ARCHITECTURE
MOVEMENT SIMPLE TRANSPARENCY GLASS MECHANIZATION RE-INFORCED CONCRETE 42
BAUHAUS
STEEL
MINIMALISM
FUNCTIONALISM REJECTION OF ORNAMENT INTERNATIONAL STYLE 43
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CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE -Lack of ornament: Decorative moldings and elaborate trim are eliminated or greatly simplified, giving way to a clean aesthetic where materials meet in simple, wellexecuted joints. -Emphasis of rectangular forms and horizontal and vertical lines: Shapes of houses are based boxes, or linked boxes. Materials are often used in well-defined planes and vertical forms juxtaposed against horizontal elements for dramatic effect. -Low, horizontal massing, flat roofs, emphasis on horizontal planes and broad roof overhangs: Modern homes tend to be on generous sites, and thus many, but not all, have to have meandering one-story plans. Many examples hug the ground and appear of the site, not in contrast to it. -Use of modern materials and systems: Steel columns are used in exposed applications, concrete block is used as a finished material, concrete floors are stained and exposed, long-span steel trusses permit open column-free spaces, and radiant heating systems enhance human comfort.
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Barcelona Pavilion, 1929
-Use of traditional materials in new ways: Materials such as wood, brick and stone are used in simplified ways reflecting a modern aesthetic. Traditional clapboard siding are replaced with simple vertical board cladding used in large, smooth planes. Brick and stonework are simple, unornamented, and used in rectilinear masses and planes. -Emphasis on honesty of materials: Wood is often stained rather than painted to express its natural character. In many cases exterior wood is also stained so that the texture and character of the wood can be expressed. -Relationship between interior spaces and sites: Use of large expanses of glass in effect brings the building’s site into the building, taking advantage of dramatic views and natural landscaping. -Emphasis on open, flowing interior spaces: Living spaces are no longer defined by walls, doors and hallways. Living, dining and kitchen spaces tend to flow together as part of one contiguous interior space, reflecting a more casual and relaxed way of life. -Generous use of glass and natural light: Windows are no longer portholes to the outside, but large expanses of floor to ceiling glass providing dramatic views and introducing natural light deep into the interior of homes.
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G L A
CONC S T E 46
S S
CRETE E L 47
MEANING OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE Film and modern city almost happen at the same time. They are always being mutually inspirational and complementary. In many films, we can see that the filmmakers tend to depict modern architecture as satiric and insipid. Usually, it represents indifferent people relations or doctrine society. In the late 1920s, the International Association of Modern Architecture declared that "rationalization, standardization, and then production of the most efficient buildings". The buildings constructed according to this principle only use simple and neat shapes, remove all redundant decorations, devoid of humanity, and
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lose vitality. The aim of a modernist was to establish an international architectural style: such a situation could only annihilate their native society. In France, the architect Le Corbusier, an exponent of realism, is seen as the agent of an "urban antiseptic virus": his lifeless buildings have invaded cities such as Paris, Marseille, and Longchamp. Le Corbusier stripped of all simplicity and the energy of his work can be seen in the name he gave his buildings: "units of residence". Tati finds this form tragic, just as he always juxtapositions of two realities -- modern architecture and vernacular architecture -- for example, in the opening sequence of My Uncle.
“Certain structures stir the emotions, are admired, loved, and accpeted; or conversely, they are rejected. It is at this juncture that architecture becomes a socially relevant topic, and one begins to speak of quality and aesthetics, functionalism.” ——Sabine Thiel-Siling "Icons of Architecture: the 20th Century"
My Uncle, 1958
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Church of the Light, 1989
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"What is the sense of ritual?" Consciously making a moment different from other moments is something that only people can do and a gift that only people can give themselves. Is a sense of ritual necessary in life? Maybe not. But through the spirit, physical strength, time, money, material input, the formation of some complex activities, behavior, or atmosphere, we can express some intention, show some particularity of this behavior, at this time, people feel, is the so-called "sense of ceremony". For architecture, the generation of ritual sense relies on the design of space and the creation of atmosphere, which produces a certain echo and resonance in people's mind. People also feel the charm of space in this fit, and find the language of dialogue with space, and spontaneously want to carry out some behavior or activity. In modern architecture, the role of concrete is to bring you to the quiet atmosphere. Just like the Church of light, the fair faced concrete is used. Although it is not as beautiful as before, it gives people a bleak feeling, as if isolated from the world.
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VIEW FROM PEOPLE WORK IN FILM INDUSTRY
What do you think about modernism? Are there any modern elements (or modern architecture) can be used in filmmaking?
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Zoey, LSE Many films have dealt with modernist literature, art, and ideas. In terms of architecture, many films featured modernist buildings, depending on the film’s inclination in storytelling and messaging. Hou, Communication University of China The application of modern architecture in movies is common, and one of the most famous cases should be "Blade Runner 2049". The cities in "Blade Runner 2049" make extensive reference to the brutalist architecture and the futuristic architecture of the former Soviet Union. Brutalist architecture is a type of modern architectural genre, which emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1950s and runs through the entire post-World War II city and architecture reconstruction period. The term "Brutalism" means raw concrete. The architectural feature of Brutalism comes from the roughness, heaviness and roughness of the rough reinforced concrete. It is developed from "functionalism" and advocates the use of non-plastered reinforced concrete components; refuse to add decorations, and express its simple beauty. Dennis Villeneuve used this kind of architecture extensively as the main external architectural form in the utopian world in his movie "Blade Runner 2049". In the world of "Blade Runner 2049", nuclear winter caused a large area of cloudy clouds to block the sun, so the temperature in the interior dropped sharply, and the population density in the city increased, and a lot of acid rain and poisonous fog were produced in urban areas. Thick concrete walls can withstand the erosion of low temperature and acid rain. While the dense living spaces of Soviet-style buildings can accommodate a larger population. The Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in 2049 in the movie reminds people of a classic Brutalist architecture: the National Library of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The interior space of the highly designed Wallace Building in the film also absorbs many modern architectural elements. We can see the clues of the works from American architect Louis Kahn and Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The practice of the platform circled with water in the Wallace office is also more common in modern buildings. This kind of space quality is often minimal and quiet, and it is an effective design method, but the maintenance cost is relatively high.
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"It is undeniable that the cinema has a marked influence on modern architecture; in turn, modern architecture brings its artistic side to the cinema.... Modern architecture not only serves the cinematographic set [decor], but imprints its stamp on the staging [mise-enscene], it breaks out of its frame; architecture 'acts.’” ——Robert Mallet-Stevens
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EMBRANCHMENT
MATERIALIZATION
RAMIFICATION WHAT IS MODERN ARCHITECTURE? CHARACTERISTIC OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE WHAT IS THE ARTISTIC MEANING OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN THE FILM? WHAT SHOOTING STRATEGIES CAN BE USED TO EXPRESS THE SPATIAL FEELINGS OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE? INTERVIEW OF PEOPLE MAJOR IN FILM
CASE STUDY
Urban,CASE architecture STUDY and abstraction URBAN SCALE MOVIE -”Play time”, 1967
SINGLE BUILDING SCALE MOVIE -”Parasite”, 2019
ABSTRACTION MOVIE
ANALY
WHAT C ARCHITE DESIGN
- SMALL SCA -”The cube”, 1997
DESIGN
- MEDIUM SC
DESIGN
- LARGE SCA
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From 3D to 2D, what’s the difference between films and architectures? Without time and movement, what still can be learned from movies? Case Study---- Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye Montage & Spatial narrative -Space The subtlety of the space lies in the interraltionships, the composition, the gathering and the series of moments. -Movement -Walkiing in the building -Ramp -Conneting up and down to the vertical traffic with stairs. -The ramp is for the host. -It organizes the streamline of Villa Savoye -Camparism to the streamline of Acropolis of Athens in ancient Greece, -"Only when the observer is moving can he see the gradual development of the architectural arrangement". - Horizontal windows People can see different views while walking along the windows. -Frame -Windows and camera Windows are the frame of a building, while camera is the frame of a film. The scale of the fram. The direction of the frame.
Film in Modern Architecture
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te rre la tio n
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2D -3D
Metaphor Detail
Material
Modern Architecture and Modern City in the Film Feature Strategy
Modern Architecture and Modern House What are the features of modern architecture? How are these features applied in the film? What’s the meaning of modern architecture in the film?
Modern Architecture Abstraction What kind of abstraction do films use? Whate does the abstraction mean? Case Study---- THE CUBE, 1997 Background: A series of people are stucked in a massive cube. -Form A large amount of square windows, small boxes, form to be a massive cube. -Relation to the storyline One of the character built the cube, ironically, he was stucked in it. -Metaphor People are stucked in the machnized modernism world.
Case Study---- PARASITE, 2019 Background: A story happens in a rich family. -Material -Concrete -The expression of the spatial art (visually). -Gives people a sense of coldness. -The architectural style of Andou Tadao. -Glass -Light and shadow -Sight and view -Relation to the landscape (Jean Baudrillard) -Geometry Simple outlook of the house -Furniture style -Dining room Single function, no manoeuvrability, stately, hierarchical label.Each piece of furniture grows, stands close to each other, and takes part in a whole in which the moral order overrides the spatial order. -Bedroom -Staircase -Artificial light
What’s the modern city look like? What’s the modern architecture look like? How did modernism develop? How does the camera show modernism? What’s the meaning of modernism in the film?
Case Study----- PLAY TIME, 1967 Background: After WW2, story in Paris. A city full of glass boxes (Airports, hotels, houses....) -The reflection of the glass. -Glass has no privacy. (Farthworth House by Mies Van der Rohe) -The city is convenient, but monotonic The camera follows the leading character, being personally in the city, and feeling out of the place. -Metaphor From modern architecture to the form of modernism, which goes from the avant-garde ambition to the superficial transformation of the middle class, satirizing the dogmatic understanding and use of modern architecture. -The city in the film and Le Corbusier’s City of Tomorrow -Contrast The contrast between the highly efficient, hight ordered city and some ridiculous details, such as the upturned world because of the window reflection. -The soul of the city Eiffel Tower and Sacre-coeur Cathedral reflect on the glass.
-The requirement to the camera -Division Path to the garden, staircase to the second floor, the way to the basement... -Natural light -The direction of the sun -Time -The size of windows -Color
Modern Architecture in the Film
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PLAY TIME, 1967 Mr. Hulot who comes to Paris for business is shocked by the super modern building when he first enters Paris. Mr. Hulot is soon lost in this amazing high-tech building. The latest and most advanced equipment, the splendid expo landscape, and tourists and customers from all over the world are all eye openers for Mr. Hulot. It was getting dark when Mr. Hulot finally thought of the person he was going to look for. After business, he came to the newly decorated nightclub. The phantom of midnight is like day, in which men and women are in high spirits. Of course, Mr. Jules joined the carnival. On the spur of the moment, Mr. Yu Le took down the newly decorated roof decoration, leaving the house in a mess. How do you know that instead of feeling disappointed, the guests are playing more crazily. It's early morning, and Paris has a special charm after a night of revelry. The comedy "Playtime", written, directed and performed by Jacques Tati, a famous French comedy director, uses a nearly monochrome tone and a huge picture scroll of 70mm to transform the coldness of the reinforced glass world into an out of place surreal image. This film has almost no dialogue, but the clever use of sound effects, coupled with the performance of the actors' body movements, has a strong early silent style.
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The story takes place in Paris. But all the buildings are based on Le Corbusier's contemporary urban design, rather than using the real scenes of Paris. All the high-rise buildings look the same, lined up in the center of the city. The architectural concept of "new city" or "future city" therefore assumes a more practical and urgent function, because cities do need to be rebuilt. Different European cultures discuss the problems of design, theory, practice, purpose and results of use from different perspectives. In Tati's view, the French seem absurdly attracted by the novelty designed to turn post-war affluence into a strange puppet life. Therefore, the concepts of architecture, interior design, urban planning, transportation, industrial design, consumerism and the growing leisure industry are integrated into the appearance, feeling and sound of his films.
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Le Corbusier, City of To-morrow, 1929
“If you want to shoot scenes of reflected clouds moving across the glass panes of a skyscraper, you will have to have the skyscraper all to yourself.” ——David Bellos
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ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
Tati's "Playtime" is a critique of modernism and its contemporary architectural style shows what he wants to express perfectly.
can be bleak, even desolate, but you can't ignore their simple beauty, which is not accidental, because it is planned to the most subtle details.
Because it was shot entirely in the built scene, Tati has integrated steel, glass and concrete into almost every shot, which is the "Holy Trinity" of modernist building materials.
Tati thinks that modern architecture lacks personality and spirit, which becomes very obvious in the design of office buildings. It shows a very orthogonal and repetitive language in the overall shape, color and material
Tati's attention to the physical composition of the space we live, experience and travel requires us to analyze and pay more attention to the modernist world around us and how it changes the way we interact with each other in this world. Tattville's metal and glass landscapes
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In the 1950s and 1960s, many of these sealed "glass boxes" were built in New York, expressing the city's commercial and cultural dominance.
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Lever House, NY, 1952
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Jacques Tati in NY, 1958 Tati was probably inspired by the American modern architecture that he saw during his visit to the US, when Mon Oncle got released there.
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FILM SCENE SETUP
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The “LA DE FENCE DISTRICT” Modernist buildings today
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Tati’s set structure which he used as a perspective map for scene shooting
Not many filmmakers have been able to build their own cities, but Jacques Tati, the French film director, did it in his masterpiece playtime. In an open space in the east of Paris, Tati created a complex of air terminals, city streets, shops, high-rise office buildings and traffic Roundabout - all designed in the most perfect and shining blank space of international style. It does look like a real city. The large-scale building, called "Tativelle", was built on land leased by the Paris City Council and is located in an open space near the southeast corner of Paris, which is called "Gravelle, Joinville".
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The audience will notice what filmmakers want them to notice, but some other details that filmmakes don't want people to notice might be fake...
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SAME CITY LOOKS, SAME BUILDINGS, SAME CARS, SMAE CLOTHES... 72
Playtime clearly depicts the rise of modern architecture and the corresponding modern way of life at the beginning of French society. Paris is a city designed purely for aesthetic power and modernization, but it is not suitable for human habitation. In this modern version of Paris, built entirely for film and almost beyond recognition, audiences repeatedly see the absurd relationship between man and modern environment, in which everything is standardized. Most of the scenes in the film take place in the cold, barren and dead ultra modern buildings, as well as the artificial furniture composed of bean pods, box shaped offices and apartments. The carefully considered environment of the film shows the characteristics of the modernist movement at that time: repetition and regularity (the result of industrialization), from the smallest indoor object to the larger scale urban planning. His film is about how human beings walk in the city without human feelings and rigid buildings with confusion and hope. Modern industrial technology has been accepted by the society, and Tati is the obstacle of daily life and interference of human natural interaction.
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Circulation
Glass
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Long corridor
Color
Glass Reflection
Show-window Housing
Light and shadow
INTERESTING SEQUENCES 75
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The real Paris is reflected on the glass...
When Mies van der Rohe created the glass skyscraper, he proclaimed a little predictively that the charm of future glass buildings lies not in their transparency but in their reflectivity. Reflection is used in many places in this movie. The most obvious is when Babara opened a glass door to enter the building, she saw the Eiffel Tower reflected on the glass door, so she stopped and opened and closed the door twice. And it also reflects the Arc de Triomphe, the other reflects the Sacred Heart Church. Modern architecture is to use this to clarify its meaning. It seems that Mies said that glass architecture reflects other buildings in the city on itself, so it is in harmony with the environment. However, is this harmony really as real as the architect said? We saw the protagonist Hulot bumping into each other in the geometric labyrinth of modernism; seeing the most efficient "modern man" Gifferd got hit by a glass door on his nose in order to find Hulot; we saw living in a glass apartment People are "exhibited", which is a great irony of privacy. What exactly do standardization and efficiency aesthetics bring us? Do we want to walk to the same building everywhere, like a car factory-like parking lot, and the same briefcase with the same outfit?
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FILM MAKING METHOD
“Film making is a pen, paper, and hours of watching people and the world around you. Nothing more.“ ——Jacques Tati
In order to understand the unique style parameters of play time, we must first recognize Jacques Tati's technical choices during film production and post production, and his complete control over these choices. Playtime is famous for its huge tativelle scenes, as well as Tati's unique subtle and complex visual comedy effects and creative sound effects; Dialogue is often reduced to the level of background noise. Tati not only created an architectural City, he used square photography, long lens and deep focus photography like an architectural photographer, which not only highlighted the content of architectural style, but also emphasized the way of film production. Since play time relies heavily on visual comedy and sound effects, Tati chose the expensive high-resolution 70mm movie format (with spectacular widescreen clarity and depth) and complex stereo soundtrack. The big movie format allows the capture of huge space and fosters the director's obsession with long shots, deep focus and dense scenes. The 70mm has a space (5mm) of six track magnetic sound, carefully recorded, edited and mixed by Tati and Jacques maoumont.
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The soundtrack of play time is made entirely with magnetic sound in post production. This kind of magnetic sound can create a very stylized and highly defined soundtrack, which is mainly characterized by the diffusion of high-frequency loud sound effects. High definition magnetic sound promotes the creation of multi rhythm and multi phoneme, as well as the dynamic processing of different track elements (dialogue, music, sound effects and ambient sound). As a film from the pre Dolby era (before 1975), "Playtime" can achieve such a complex timbre is really amazing.
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SPACE POTENTIAL The shooting angle of each scene in the movie is accurately calculated, so it should be the best way to express the space. One feature of this film is that the time of each freeze-frame is much longer than other films. The filmmaker barely uses close-up lenses to specific character, but he shot the whole setting space, and we can see the panorama view and what all the people are doing. It seems more like a documentary than a storytelling. So the spatial potential is massive. Architects could found some idea of deconstruction from it. I choose several scenes in the film randomly, and simplify them by diagrams, and overlap all the diagrams together, a vivid space is showed. If some iterations are made, and some strategies and tricks are added, it will become an architectural space immediately.
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INTERVIEW Mingrui Jiang University of Michigan Master of Architecture
-What kind of role does architecture play in the film? The architecture in modern style reflects the hustle status of modern life. People are busy with their own business and work like machines. Furthermore, the transparency of architecture exhibits modern nightlife, which creates a playful atmosphere. All these make architecture merge into the film and generate their individualist narratives.
-What kind of role does modernism play in the film? From my perspective, Tati set modernism as the general background for Playtime and he discovered the humanity inside the glass-steel cold society. He tried to place modernism in a controversial position to express the public’s loss and frustration with the modern architectural world.
-What do you think about the application of architecture in the film? I really like the way how architecture is related to modern urban life. And like the moments when the director uses the glass façade to show the contrast. Overall, it is a wonderful combination of the plot and the architecture.
-Small description of your movie review. In a world, I like film a lot. In a time when classic architecture was gradually replaced by modern architecture, what attitude should we hold towards modernism? Did the simplicity of modern architecture overshadow the design creativity? Could we have playtime in the busy modern cities? I think the film did not give specific answers to these questions. Rather, it invited people to explore the experience by watching the film and have their judgments. It is a film worth rumination about architecture and modernism.
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Zhuzhen Zhang University of Michigan Master of Architecture
-What kind of role does architecture play in the film? Architecture is regarded as the medium to present how people interact with the new material technology and the space created in an urban scale.
-What kind of role does modernism play in the film? The modernism is playing in an irony and exaggerate way to show the repetition and regularity character of the its impact on architecture, from both small objects to the larger scale.
-What do you think about the application of architecture in the film? Architecture is applied in a similar way to reflect the rapid development of modernism and steel structure building that blurred the line between private and public realm in different types of buildings.
-Small description of your movie review. The movie reflects the architecture impact in human living ways that the activities are decided by the space and the prevalence of modernism and materiality. Building space are settled in repeating typology and forms to manipulate the character and participators inside. Playtime was filmed as a reflection on the massive influence of modern architecture and its possible negative result in its spatial organization.
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PARASITE, 2019 Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May 2019, where it became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d'Or. It was then released in South Korea by CJ Entertainment on 30 May 2019. The film was considered by many critics to be the best film of 2019 as well as one of the best films of the 21st century, and is the 46th highest-rated film of all-time on Metacritic. It grossed over $258 million worldwide on a production budget of about $15 million. Ki Woo was born in a poor family, and lives with his sister, Ki Ting, and his parents in a cramped basement. One day, Ji-woo’s classmates came to visit, and he told Ji-woo that he was teaching their daughter in a rich man’s home. His wife was a simple-minded and generous woman. Because she was going to study abroad, she would be a tutor. Temporarily transfer it to Ji Yu. In this way, Ki Woo came to President Park’s house and met his wife. Not long after, Ki Woo’s sister and parents also entered President Park’s home to work like parasites. However, their ambitions did not stop there, and Jiyu fell in love with Missy. Over time, the secrets hidden in President Park's house gradually surfaced.
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"INVISIBLE" TECHNIQUES
Comparison
One of the most frequent strategies used in Parasite is comparison. Because of the storyline, there is a sharp contrast between the poor and the rich, so the comparison shows everywhere. From the material of the houses, the dining room and the basement, and the interior somber light and the sunlight at the courtyard outside the large glass… All settings just exist in the background, the audience would not necessarily notice some of the details, but from the strong contrast, people may have different feelings in different spaces. They are not necessarily know why, but they just feel it.
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Material The rich family uses concrete, glass and steel, which gives people a sense of high level. The reflection on the glass and floor even makes the space larger. While the poor family uses broken tile, makes the bathroom small and old.
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Windows Both families have this element—— long window, which is one-fifth of Le Corbusier's five points of architecture. The first one, with no partitions, gives people a complete and large view to the green outside. The second one in the poor family, thick window frames break the not-that-good view outside. And because of the semi- underground house, the view is from the bottom to the top, and the first one looks from top to the bottom.
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Interior Furnish The interior furnish of two houses are completely different. In the first frame, the depth of field is deeper, more elements and furniture are included in just one shoot. While in the second sequence, in the poor family, everything's crowded in one small space, and even no space for the camera...
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Way The first image is from the way that Ki-woo walks from his home to the rich family. The way is from lower level to higher place. The second one is at the rainy night, the poor family run away from the rich family, it is all way down...
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Light In the rich family, there are a lot of lights, large or small. It is very bright even in the evening. Adding the reflection of the floor, the whole space seens large and bright. In the basement, there are only three somber lights in this shoot, which give people a sense of pressure. We can never image how people can live in such a poor place.
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CIRCULATION
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INTERVIEW Tianling Li University of Pennsylvania Master of Science in Education
-What kind of role does architecture play in the film?
The house in the style of modernism illustrates the social status of the boss and his family. The base color of the architecture also adds to an atmosphere of gloomy which is aligned with the emotional tone of the movie and sad story. Some bright and lifely decorations such as the glasses, exquisite lights the green grass in the yard contrast the story to make the sadness even more negative. -What kind of role does modernism play in the film?
I feel that the application of modernism in architecture designing, especially for personal or private projects, is kind of connected to the money and social status. It differs from traditional commercial architecture as it emphasizes much more on the design and aesthetic. So modernism in the house facilitates to convey the social status and richness of the family. I also think that the design is really beautiful and attracts the audience. -What do you think about the application of architecture in the film? I think the architecture applied in the film helps to render the atmosphere, pave the background and set off emotions of the characters.
-Small description of your movie review. Architecture, the design of the house in this moving is the most directly visible feature for the audience to notice and it hit me at first glance. As a Korean black comedy, it illustrates the huge gap between the people from different social status and the resulting conflicts which led to a real sad story ending. The movie presents this social issue in the face of the audience and foreces them to reflect on it.
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Meng Chao University of Virginia Master of Landscape Architecture
-What kind of role does architecture play in the film?
The architecture works as an important background story teller to symbolize the hierarchy of rights. Both from the different living condition between rich and poor, and the different material and light condition used in this architecture. (Contrast between the living room and the basement) -What kind of role does modernism play in the film? This building has very obvious modernism characteristics. Large area of glass is used on the facade, with horizontal strip windows that bring the large outdoor courtyard and well-maintained lawn view into the interior, which reminds me the Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier. Besides, The whole design also show the idea of “less is more”, the material use such as fair-faced reinforced concrete also is a typical modernism production. -What do you think about the application of architecture in the film? As property, it shows the different living condition between rich and poor, which is a metaphor og the class of life, increasing the rationality of the plot. Consideration of movement lines, lighting and layout also promotes the development of the whole film. Like there are many long shots that follow the movement of the characters, and the traffic flow naturally helps the scene transition.
-Small description of your movie review.
The film tells the story of a poor family with unemployed and walking around father and optimistic eldest son, came to home of the rich and powerful family to apply for job and trying to take advantage and parasite in the home of the rich, and involved in a series events.
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Mengzhen Xu Washington University in St. Louis Master of Archietcture
-What kind of role does architecture play in the film? Two different habitations make a strong comparison between the living conditions of two families, by means of location, spatial scale, proportion and indoor fitment. The characteristics of the architecture respond to the positions of human characters, and bring up their personalities and behaviours. -What kind of role does modernism play in the film? The large housing owned by the Park's family is a prototype of modernism. Innovative technologies of construction are used throughout the housing, such as the reinforced concrete walls, large glass openings and firm steel components. The combination of opaqueness and transparency ensures the spatial refuge and prospect, creating a comfort living condition. Compared to the enclosing basement with little outside view, the modern-style housing can strongly display the family affluence. The minor use of facade and indoor decoration also fits the minimalism language of modern architecture. The space thus presents certain order and conciseness. Overall modernism architecture in this case serves as the background of characters, the induction of variable mental activities and carries the movie plot. -What do you think about the application of architecture in the film? The application of achitecture straightly visualizes the socio-economic status of two families. The shabby and compact single space presents poverty, while the capacious housing presents affluence. The multiple archietctural spaces, such as basement and courtyard, accomodates the engagement of characters and promotes the development of plot.
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In the eyes of the French philosopher Baudrillard, "The typical bourgeois interior expresses the patriarchal system: that is the complete set of furniture required for the dining room and bedroom. All furniture has different functions, but can be closely integrated into the whole. Centered on the big kitchen and the big bed located in the center of the square. Single function, no mobility, solemnity, and hierarchical labels. Each piece of furniture has no signs, close to each other, and participates in a moral order that overrides spatial order. The whole. In this private space, every piece of furniture and every room internalizes its function at its own level, and wears its symbolic dignity-in this way, the whole house is successfully completed in the semienclosed group of the family Integration of people and relationships." The so-called bourgeois culture is a middle-class culture. The middle class has a stable occupation and objective income. They are morally conservative and rigorous, follow the existing social order and life order, and are rich in professional ethics. Culturally, it represents the mainstream value and popular taste, and it is a kind of cultural order of "rules of the people".
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CUBE, 1997 'Cube' is a Canadian science fiction film produced in 1997 and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Seven people who didn't know each other were put into a cube maze, but they didn't know how they got here. They were forced to try to escape the labyrinth together, and in the process, they encountered various (partly terrifying) things. Although this is a low-cost film, it has achieved relatively good commercial success and has also won the title of Cult (Cult Film). Most of the appeal of this film lies in its surrealist style. There is not much content in the film to explain how and why this cube maze was created, and it is also impossible to figure out how to select the people who are locked in. This is a bit stuck. Fuka style. The "outside world" is mentioned in the film, but the imagery is extremely abstract. The outside world is vast dark or bright white
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MEANING OF MODERNISM The whole movie takes place in a giant cube, where several characters are trapped and struggling to survive while gradually losing their sense and humanity. In the film, although not directly, the modelling of the steel structural formula is easy to let a person associate to modern architecture, a cube of average division of the lattice is a symbol of a window, through the door and back to the same cube is a symbol of the infinite circulation of repeatability, the big cube facade has become a modern socialist building,The cube, in turn, was designed by an architect, who is one of the trapped men.
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This is also a good example to express the sarcasm of modernity. People seem are trapped in a massive cube. They want to escape from it, but no matter how they move, they are still in it. All the rooms look like the same, just like the modern city, all the buildings look like the same. Is it good for people? No. In this kind of environment, people become dull and with no thought. They will no longer try to create something new. They become machines. Personally speaking, in the story, one of the trapped men, the architect, designed this cube is a very clever setting. This even makes the sarcasm more ironic. Architects even don’t know what they are doing, what the houses they designed are used for. The big environment drives them to do something mechanized, but no design, or their own concept. So this is might be the role of modern architecture in the movie. Although in Cube, it only uses the element of the modern architecture——countless cubes and squares, people can still feel that kind of helpless. So is there any possibilities for people to get out from this massive array, just like the fool man in the film?
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'Compemprary doctrines that question the possbility of the Whole and the Real as viable categories and resign themselves to architecture's supposedly inevitable disassembly and dissolution.' —— Rem Koolhaas "Bigness, or The Probelm of Large"
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LIZATION
TUDY
ALE MOVIE
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LDING SCALE MOVIE
ON MOVIE
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APPLICATION
ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION
ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION Cinematic architecture, and future application WHAT CAN WE LEARN FOR FUTURE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN? DESIGN OPTION 1 - SMALL SCALE: HOUSE DESIGN
DESIGN OPTION 2 - MEDIUM SCALE: PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN OPTION 3 - LARGE SCALE: URBAN DESIGN
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FUTURE DESIGN
ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR FURNISH WINDOW POSITIONS MATERIAL CHOOSING CIRCULATION VISITORS LIGHTING SYSTEM CONCEPT DESIGN MASSING VIEW 104
FILM STORY TELLING MISE-EN SCENE MONTAGE SPATIAL NARRATIVE FRAME SETTING SHOOTING ANGLE COLOR AUDIENCE FEELING CHARACTERS 105
OPTION 1- Small Scale
House
In filmmaking, the camera usually needs to move will the characters. To make sure the enough space for the camera and the perfect shooting angles in the camera, the space needs to be as moveable as the lens. How to connect one scene to another, or one program to another, is one thing that can be learned from the film shooting. It is essential to provide a clear and interesting circulation for people in a building design. The first design concept is about the vertical circulation and the material use. Precedented by Le Corbusier and Rem Koolhaas, both use special ways to enrich the interior movement. Also, apart from the circulation, the material use is another thing needs to be learned. The comparison between the concrete and glass provide people a “frame” to enjoy the view outside, which is similar to the lens in the film.
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Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, 1929
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Le Corbusier—— Villa Savoye Concept of Architectural promenade
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Rem Koolhaas—— Maison a bordeaux The use of elevator
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DESIGN THOUGHTS - Site: Open natural space, green space - Function: House - Material: Glass & Concrete - Concept: Moveable circulation (Ramp, elevator) Material comparison Frame of glass (windows): view to the outside Free standing columns - Case study: Koolhaas: Maison a Bordeaux Le Corbusier: Villa Savoye
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OPTION 2- Medium Scale
Public Architecture
This design thought is mainly focus on the horizontal circulation in the plan. It is also kind of similar to the thought of ‘architectural promenade’, but in a larger scale. Since the space is bigger, there are more possibilities to show the positions of the cameras. And it is a public space, so it is important to observe the activities, movement, and positions of people. According to Bernard Tschumi in his ’Manhattan Transcripts’, deconstructivism is likely related to the use of montage. Different things, such as straight lines and curves, can be clipped together and gives people a new feeling. Also, the use of lights can be shown in this design in different corners and angles. The function of this design is a memorial hall, where needs a serious atmosphere, which can be reflected by the use of lights, materials and landscape such as water. The Jewish Museum by Daniel Liberskind is a very good precedent to see the deconstructivism in an architecture.
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Bernard Tschumi—— 'Manhattan Transcripts' Deconstructivism and Montage
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Daniel Liberskind—— Jewish Museum/ Berlin Deconstructivism and Montage
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DESIGN THOUGHTS - Site: In the city - Function: Memorial Hall - Material: Concrete/ Metal - Concept: The position of the camera (Storytelling) The activities, movement, and position of people The use of light The use of montage (deconstructivism) - Case study: Jewish Museum by Daniel Liberskind Tschumi ‘Manhattan Transcript’ Suzhou traditional garden Circulation
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Camera Position
Landscape
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OPTION 3- Large Scale
Urban Design
High rise building is one iconic architectural style in modernism. In a lot of movies, it shows for various meanings. The steel structure with glass, seems can be reflected the whole world, and it gives people a more concrete and multi-dimensional way to understanding the surroundings and the film story. In ‘Metropolis’, which is the film from 1927, has already depict a very modern city with various metropolis. And a lot of real buildings can be found alike to those in the movies. The group of buildings give people a sense of urbanism. If we can focus more on the vertical or horizontal connections between them, that would be very interesting. Also, Hongkong is famous for its large number of high-rise buildings. In the film ‘Chungking Express’, the escalator in the city street gives people a special feeling that city can also be a large architecuture.
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Metropolis, 1927
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‘Chungking Express', 1994
The use of vertical circulation in the city
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DESIGN THOUGHTS - Site: Along the river - Function: Office building - Material: Steel+ Glass - Concept: Metropolis Vertical circulation Cyber city Urban design - Case study: ‘Chungking Express', 1994 (escalator) ‘Metropolis’, 1927
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Metropolis, 1927
Eisenstein once mentioned, "It is as large as the urban scale, and as small as the encounter between materials." Many of Koolhaas's projects have the complexity of urban life such as infrastructure congestion as the core theme. He emphasized these elements through conflicts between opposite elements. "A city can achieve continuity by organizing fragments and building systems in a planned way.
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CONCLUSION People enjoy staying in a continuous space or a continuous story. Different strategies and montage are used to make the space or story more vivid and active. The narrative design of architecture is different from the design starting point of form and function. It pays more attention to the creation of human activities and event scenes. In the same space, with the migration of time, the number of people will change unpredictably, the content of people's activities will be different, and the feeling of internal space will be very different. This feeling of space changed by people is not completely controlled by the building itself but depends on the behavior of people in the space scene. The same space, which used to be a rest room with only a few people, can become a crowded conference in a twinkling of an eye. The unpredictable change of space atmosphere makes the architectural creation more subtle and interesting. The key to narrative design is to pay attention to the content of human activities and to think about the possibility of behavior. People become the developers of activities in the architectural space. Architecture is only defined as providing the scene of activities, just like a stage, which does not change itself, but the people on the stage are not the same, doing different things.
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