Cinematic Architecture

This course focuses on the idea that architecture can be conceived, understood, and presented as a narrative (i.e. a story about a building). Similar to poetry, myth, or story-telling architecture can be conceived not only as a process that spans throughout the design, construction, and occupancy stages of a building but also as a dialectic relationship between people and space. In that context, a narrative is not only an explicit description of a space (i.e. a photo-album or a VR fly-through) but, most importantly, a stage for the exploration of human emotions. The objective is to develop short movies that capture the emotional relationship of humans to their inhabited space as well as the implicit power of space in shaping the emotional status of humans. Ideas involved in theatrical stage, its evolution into cinematic space, and its recent transformation into interactive virtual spaces will be explored, studied, and developed as reference, context, and inspiration. Besides offering the technical knowledge to develop films using digital media the course will also engage in critical discussions on the ontological nature of films, their power as implicit communicative devises, and their potential as design tools.