Bringing Cinema and Architecture Together

 Abstract

The history of architecture is more than just documenting Architects' achievements and the evolution of building styles and construction. It is also a history of architectural imagery and representation in other areas of art and popular culture. The representation of architectural intentions and ideas, which is important in establishing dialogues during the design process, is critical because it influences the design's outcomes. The unique asset (or constraint) of architecture is that the means by which it materializes its concepts are also the means by which it expresses itself visually and socially.

To convey human experiences, we must look beyond architecture, because experiences are triggered by a variety of factors other than architecture.  Cinema is another medium that uses similar parameters of Space , Movement, and Time to express its narrative. To evoke emotions in viewers, cinematic narratives are effectively translated using architectural spatial cues. Understanding this process of storytelling, architects can draw parallels to the process of narrative translation in architecture .

Cinema and Architecture (Source- Archdaily)

Introduction

“One day, you decide to study architecture. You learn to draw plans, sections and axonometric · make models; discover structure, materials, and even composition. Still, you feel that there is something missing in much of what you read and learn. You are aware that architecture uses sophisticated means of notation - elevation, Axonometric, perspective views, and so on. But you soon realize that they don 't tell you anything about sound, smell, touch, or the movement of bodies through space.”

- Bernard Tschumi/ Architecture Concepts

Today's architecture is governed by the notions of form, aesthetic, and functional requirements posed by clients, as well as the "contextualism" that the architect strives for from design conception to materialization.  The direction of design that a project takes is determined at the critical juncture where architectural thought or ideas are translated from mind to paper.  Many of the architect's ideas are sometimes not portrayed during the conceptualization process due to a lack of communication language. Regardless of how precise and generative the plans, sections, and axonometric are, they all imply a logical reduction of architectural thought to what can be seen, and the exclusion of other concerns. We are imprisoned in a kind of architectural language prison. Choosing a single type or style of representation highlights the chosen subject matter and increases its relevance in the design process. As a result, the actual sense of space is reduced to the style of representation alone. To represent human emotions and sentiments in an architectural space, we need a systematic language.

Ideas are only reduced to what can be represented. (Source- Cinema in Architecture- Synergism by Preetika B)

We lack the linguistic tools required for an experiential understanding of place, as well as for communicating it and translating it into design. Architects are unable to account for the collective memories and experiences of the people who inhabit the designed space because there is no universal language for representing human experience. To add a layer of architectural understanding, we must add the missing elements of movement and time to traditional architectural plans, sections, and axonometric representations, so that the dynamism of the human body can be inscribed into the otherwise static representation of architecture.

Relationship between Cinema and Architecture (Source- Cinema in Architecture- Synergism by Preetika B)

We must look beyond architecture to convey human experiences, because experiences are triggered by a variety of factors other than architecture. Cinema is another medium that expresses its narrative through similar parameters of Space (frames), Movement (scenes and events), and Time (duration, time frames). To elicit emotions in viewers, cinematic narratives are effectively translated using architectural spatial cues. By dissecting the language used for narrative processes in cinema, architects can draw parallels to the process of narrative translation in architecture. They can be applied to architecture to create a new way for architecture and cinema to collaborate - not as tools for representing the finished product, but as part of the design process itself. It would help us shape the narrative in space in a more expressive manner.

Scene from the movie Inception by Christopher Nolan

Why Cinema + Architecture? 

Architecture has always sought connections with other fields of art such as music, painting, literature, sculpture, and so on. Films and architecture have a long history together, with the most common application being film analysis for architectural design education. Films have been studied in architecture because of the similarities in concepts such as light, movement, space, and sound, as well as their ability to immerse the audience in a virtual architectural experience. Recently there has been an increasing interest in cinema for discovering a more subtle and responsive architecture .Architects of the Modern and Post-Modern periods began to apply cinematic concepts to architectural theory and design. Bernard Tschumi and Rem Koolhaas were open to the idea of a marriage between two complementary fields of art, where one could inspire the other.

Emotional Connect

As viewers, we are easily captivated by films. While watching the film, we are transported to another place and time, we add our own interpretations to the director's translation of the plot as cinema, we visualize and mentally construct the spaces and places through visual and spatial cues onscreen, and we become one with the film if it strikes an emotional chord with us. Similarly, architects strive to elicit that emotional response in their users by creatively interpreting the prospective user's needs into their designs. Therefore, films offer a representation that could be helpful to architects in expressing the meaning of emotive places.

Scene from the movie Blade Runner 2049 by Luke Scott and Ridley Scott

Cultural and Social Connect

Cinema and architecture generate and convey pictures of life—they portray and create experience scenes of life in the context of culture and way of life of the era. Architectural historians should consider the imaginative architecture of films showing how the concept of the house, culture and politics of time, public places, landscapes, urban sites, etc. is interpreted by people. Both types of art determine life frames, human interaction situations and horizons for global comprehension.

Poster of Do Bigha Zameen by Bimal Roy

Examples of this Combination

To demonstrate this relationship , I would use two films as examples in which both cinema and architecture coexist and complement each other. The first movie is "Vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock and the other is "Parasite" by Bong Joon-Ho. These films are excellent examples of how cinema and architecture interact with one another.

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock- Architecture of Suspense

Alfred Hitchcock, one of the twentieth century's most acclaimed directors, attempted to incorporate abstract notions of space alongside our memories, dreams, and fears in everyday life. He is well-known for using architectural elements such as windows, staircases, and corridors to create cinematic suspense. In the 1954 film "Vertigo," Hitchcock uses staircases from various perspectives to create the sense of vertigo and ultimate suspense.

Scene from movie Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock

The staircase, a dynamic and spatially fragmented structure, is frequently used as a location of crisis and psychological tension in the film, and the skewed perspective Hitchcock employs evokes an unsettling feeling in the users. He photographed the staircases from above in order to convey vertigo, falling, or panicked escape. Every step upwards or downwards heightens the viewer's sense of suspense.

Parasite by Bong Joon Ho- Architecture of Inequality 

Bong Joon Ho is a well-known South Korean director known for his interpretations of social issues and class bias in contemporary South Korea. In this film, which was released in 2019, he attempted to demonstrate the social inequality and disparities between the rich and the poor peoples.

Scene from movie Parasite by Bong Joon Ho

The film highlights and contrasts the rich and poor's lifestyles, choices, living standards, and psychology. The protagonist leaves his cluttered semi-basement home and enters the planned architectural spaces. Overall, the film makes one consider the social biases of society and how they relate to the architecture of both parties.

Conclusion

"The architecture of today is fixated on the aesthetic of 'the image', in which a project is created by producing a drawing or a render, failing to design anything that can be truly 'experienced'. Designing architecture through the eyes of a director has a specific purpose, to design space through narrative structure and specifically address the inhabitation of the structure. The 'experience ' of the space comes from the events and the actions that occur within it, and whilst the architecture profession acknowledges this, its impact on the overall design is underwhelming."

Juhani Pallasmaa/ Architecture of Image

The dynamics of movie are combined with the spatiality of architecture to form a symbiotic relationship between two fields that aims to change the way thought is translated from mind to paper. This fusion also allows us to reimagine how we perceive architectural or urban conditions and their representation during the design process.