Must See Architecture Films

Louis Kahn

My Architect: A Son's Journey is a documentary film by Nathaniel Kahn on his father, Louis Kahn (1901-1974), detailing the architect's extraordinary career and his family legacy after his death. Click here for a detailed look.

The Urban Fabric

Urbanized is a documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. Click here for a detailed look.

Industrial Design

Objectified is a look at the creative work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. Click here for a detailed look.

Architecturally Beautiful

Inception is a contemporary film where dreams within dreams can be manipulated by "architects" who can construct an imaginary reality in order to get into someone's subconscious. Just imagine being able to create environments just using your mind as the resource and ignoring physics and the reality of building in the corporeal world.

Spirit of the Rural Studio

The documentary, Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio, follows architecture students as the cross the threshold of poverty to create a better world through the sense of community. This Rural Studio spirit creates a better world through architecture, not just structure. A powerful and memorable documentary about the lives of people in need.

The Fall of Public Housing

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a 2011 documentary film detailing the history of the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri, and the eventual decision to implode the entire complex in 1976. This documentary argues that the violent social collapse within the Pruitt-Igoe complex was not due to the demographic composition of its residents, but was a result of wider, external social forces, namely the declining economic fortunes of St. Louis and the resulting impact upon employment opportunities. Some can also argue that the fabric of a city neighborhood was also missing from the complex creating a unsafe sense of place. Refer to Jane Jacobs book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Must See Architecture Films

Louis Kahn

My Architect: A Son's Journey is a documentary film by Nathaniel Kahn on his father, Louis Kahn (1901-1974), detailing the architect's extraordinary career and his family legacy after his death. Click here for a detailed look.

The Urban Fabric

Urbanized is a documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. Click here for a detailed look.

Industrial Design

Objectified is a look at the creative work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. Click here for a detailed look.

Architecturally Beautiful

Inception is a contemporary film where dreams within dreams can be manipulated by "architects" who can construct an imaginary reality in order to get into someone's subconscious. Just imagine being able to create environments just using your mind as the resource and ignoring physics and the reality of building in the corporeal world.

Spirit of the Rural Studio

The documentary, Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio, follows architecture students as the cross the threshold of poverty to create a better world through the sense of community. This Rural Studio spirit creates a better world through architecture, not just structure. A powerful and memorable documentary about the lives of people in need.

The Fall of Public Housing

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a 2011 documentary film detailing the history of the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri, and the eventual decision to implode the entire complex in 1976. This documentary argues that the violent social collapse within the Pruitt-Igoe complex was not due to the demographic composition of its residents, but was a result of wider, external social forces, namely the declining economic fortunes of St. Louis and the resulting impact upon employment opportunities. Some can also argue that the fabric of a city neighborhood was also missing from the complex creating a unsafe sense of place. Refer to Jane Jacobs book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Film: Design Trilogy - Objectified

Objectified is a feature-length documentary film on industrial design, directed by Gary Hustwit. It examines the role of everyday non-living objects in our daily lives and the people who design them. According to Swiss Dots Production, the film is the second part in a 3-film series Design Trilogy, the first film being Helvetica which is about the famous typeface and the third film being the documentary Urbanized which discusses city design.

Objectified is a look at the creative work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It's about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It's about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.

The movie leaves the viewer having been sensitized to what is perhaps its strongest invocation: the notion of intention. This film outlines the ephemeral experience of every designer, who has their dreams and desires that motivates them. The most important aspect is how every designer does things intentionally. Everything is designed and design is synonymous with intention, a lesson that designers and non-designers should understand. This movie is available on Netflix.


  

Film: My Architect

My Architect: A Son's Journey is a documentary film by Nathaniel Kahn on his father, Louis Kahn (1901-1974), detailing the architect's extraordinary career and his family legacy after his death.

Louis Kahn is quoted in the film saying “When I went to high school I had a teacher, in the arts, who was head of the department of Central High, William Grey, and he gave a course in Architecture, the only course in any high school I am sure, in Greek, Roman, Renaissance, Egyptian, and Gothic Architecture, and at that point two of my colleagues and myself realized that only Architecture was to be my life. How accidental are our existences are really, and how full of influence by circumstance.”

The film includes interviews with renowned architects, including Frank Gehry, Shamsul Wares, I.M. Pei, Anne Tyng and Philip Johnson. Throughout the film, Kahn visits all of his father's buildings including: The Salk Institute, The Yale Center for British Art, Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.