1. Postmodernism: The Substance of Style
This film features some of the most important living Postmodern practitioners, Charles Jencks, Robert A M Stern and Sir Terry Farrell among them, and asks them how and why Postmodernism came about, and what it means to be Postmodern. This film was originally made for the V&A exhibition 'Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 - 1990'.
2. Frei Otto: Spanning the Future
The life and works of Frei Otto told in his own words and by those he inspired. An in-depth look at the rise of lightweight architecture, form finding, and its continued relevance for the future of architecture.
3. Son of Torum (Toorumi Pojad)
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
4. Charles Vandenhove, architecte de l'art (Charles Vandenhove, architecte de l'art)
(Charles Vandenhove, architecte de l'art)
5. The Chola Heritage
The film highlighting the Dravidian temple architecture and bronze sculpture which attained the creative pinnacle during the rule of the Cholas in the 10th and the 11th centuries. Cholas were great temple builders. The temple of Vijayalaya Cholesvara is one of the finest examples of the early Chola style. The temple of Nagesvara at Kumbakonam is remarkable for the sculptures found in the niches of its outer walls. The Brihadesvara temple at Thanjavur is a landmark in the evolution of building art in India.Among several such unique temples, Tribhuvanam is the last important temple belonging to the Cholas. Besides temple architecture,the bronze sculpture of the Cholas holds a unique place in the field of art. One of the most important and famous of all Hindu icons,that of the cosmic dance of the Nataraja is intimately associated with the Chola bronzes.
6. St. Peter's and the Papal Basilicas of Rome 3D (San Pietro e le Basiliche Papali di Roma)
The unveiled treasures in the year of the Extraordinary Jubilee. The Papal Basilicas of Rome seen as never before: St. Peter's, St. John in the Lateran, St Mary Major, St Paul Outside the Walls and the works of art enshrined within them. A film tour shot from previously unseen points of view with the latest-generation 3D and 4K technology.
It has an average vote of 8.5 on TMDB.
7. Restoring a Masterpiece: The Renovation of Eastman Theatre
Take a look behind the curtain to see the vast history and recent renovation of one of Rochester, New York's most famous landmarks. Architects, theater personnel, historians, community leaders, and citizens provide in depth insight from start to finish in one of the most extensive renovations the city has ever seen.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
8. The Amateur (L'amatore)
The memory of Piero Portaluppi, a Milanese architect who reached the peak of his fame during the 20 years of the Fascist regime, comes back to life, both through the rediscovery of his work today and in a previously unpublished film diary in 16 mm, shot and edited throughout his lifetime. A man of great charm and power, Portaluppi lived through a grandiose but tragic era with ironic detachment, as if dancing across things as he created beauty. History marches on implacably, radically transforming the arena in which the eclectic artist and his large family lived and worked.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
9. Concrete Forms of Resistance
Filmed in Tripoli, Lebanon, Concrete Forms of Resistance is a documentary centred upon the city’s abandoned ‘Permanent International Fair’, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the mid-1960s. Progress and crisis, labour and capital, material and memory, are reflected through a very intelligent rhyme between image and sound. The touching voice and words of Niemeyer as a call for life, and the beautiful camerawork as a weaving of ghosts in the present landscapes.
10. Ralph Erskine
The British architect based in Stockholm looks back on major projects of a long career inspired by European Modernism combined with his personal sensitivity to nature and community. Erskine is especially valued for his vital understanding of social interaction, exemplified in commissions for universities and housing complexes built from Scandinavia to Italy. The architect takes the camera on a tour of his buildings while offering revealing comments and interpretations.
11. Bowlingtreff (Bowlingtreff)
The “Bowlingtreff” is a bowling alley situated right in the centre of Leipzig opened in July 1987. At that time the quality of life in Leipzig and the whole GDR got worse. Houses collapsed because of poor conditions, public life and amusement was on a very low level. The “Bowlingtreff” was not merely an urban entertainment centre but a revolution in those days. Built with the help of hundreds of volunteers without permission of the state authorities in Berlin the building expresses a free and international architecture known as postmodernism. It is an architecture that was never seen before in Leipzig. Marble and parquet on the floor, a glass roof and beautiful pink pillars. The atmosphere was western as time witnesses remember it.
12. REM
Architecture is often seen from the outside, as an inanimate object represented in still imagery. ‘REM’ exposes the human experience of architecture through dynamic film.
13. These Four Walls
A short documentary that takes a look at Pratt Institute's Architecture program and how the first years handle the rigorous workload.
14. Bauta (Bauta)
Bauta is a short documentary that explores public, monumental buildings in Norway - stone and concrete buildings. By the public they have the desire to be torn down, or are not given particular aesthetic value. But what about when people are out of the buildings and they get to stand for themselves? Bauta provides a new experience of space and architecture.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
15. Saint-Pierre : la basilique de tous les records (Saint-Pierre : la basilique de tous les records)
(Saint-Pierre : la basilique de tous les records)
16. Palace for the People (Дворците на народа)
The life and death of socialist architectural monsters. An epic fairy-tale in five chapters.
It has an average vote of 8.7 on TMDB.
17. The New Apartment (Die neue Wohnung)
A commissioned film for Schweizerischer Werkbund , Die neue Wohnung was produced for the Basel architectural and interior design exhibition, WOBA, to demonstrate innovative aspects of modern architecture and highlight their differences from the event’s highly conservative approach. Despite its ad campaign roots, Richter's touch is not absent; The surviving version, aimed at a "bourgeois" Swiss public, presents decluttered, functional architecture and decor as superior to the traditional and luxurious "ancient" ways of living.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
18. Secrets of the Parthenon
For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, and disfigured by catastrophic renovations. To save it from collapse, the modern restoration team must uncover the secrets of how the ancient Greeks built this icon of western civilization in less than nine years without anything resembling an architectural plan.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
19. Ben Building: Mussolini, Monuments and Modernism
Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini. His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today. Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.
It has an average vote of 6.5 on TMDB.
20. Katedrála zázrakov (Katedrála zázrakov)
(Katedrála zázrakov)