Hayao Miyazaki's Vision: The Architecture of Studio Ghibli in the Pursuit of Contemporary Utopia //
This Dissertation critically explores the interconnected relationship between architectural and urban reality, film, and representation through the lens of an acclaimed Japanese animated filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki. By framing Miyazaki's works Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) within a larger and longer contextualization of Japan's urban realities and collective utopian representations, I delineate the key ideologies that are implicit in the filmmaker's response to post-war Japan's rapid modernization. Through this, we can observe the impressions his unique visions have left on the collective Japanese perspective towards images of utopia, and the possible impacts his ideas have had on the development of contemporary Japanese architectural ideologies.
This study received a First Class Honours. //
Julia Remington
Sheffield School of Architecture, Part 1 Graduate