Fantastic Architecture in Cinema

Abstract

Movies represent society's dream, which is to tell a story; characters interact with each other to create this story, their mere presence on screen creating space. Thus, filmmakers become architects in their effort to communicate these spaces, whether they are interior or urban, to enhance and add to their story telling. They are not constrained by the limits of the architect nor, especially in the case of Sci-fi and Fantasy movies, even by the constraints of reality, imagining and creating architecture from a wholly different perspective: a story perspective. The characters interact with their hypothetical spaces and this shows what they require of the architecture to convey their story. Thus, the hypothetical spaces represent people's aspirations and their deepest fears for architecture. Part of an architect's job is making dreams a reality. However, in the architectural industry, design is accomplished in a step-by-step process that has undergone little change since its establishment. While this makes the job easier, it also leads to recycling, putting limits on architects' imaginations. This research analyzed an array of fantasy and sci-fi movies from an architectural point of view and explored the inspirations behind them. Patterns were found in the arrangement of spaces and the urban characteristics in the films. Then, the themes and messages behind the architecture were explored. Findings indicate how the cinematic architectural designs have played off of real life architecture and inspired one another since the creation of moving pictures. From a practical lens, these findings reignite architects' imaginations, proposing new tools to achieve the fulfillment of society's dreams.