1. Folkhemmets Estetik (Folkhemmets Estetik)
Documentary about the architecture of the Swedish housing boom in the 1960s and how it's viewed today.
2. Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Modern Masterpiece
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Modern Masterpiece, Unity Temple is an homage to America’s most renowned architect. The film pulls back the curtain on Wright’s first public commission in the early 1900’s to the painstaking efforts to restore the 100 year old building back to its original beauty. The dedicated team of historians, craftspeople, members of the Unitarian congregation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation reveal the history of one of Wright’s most innovative buildings that merged his love of architecture with his own spiritual values. The film intersperses the architect’s philosophies with quotes narrated by Brad Pitt.
3. The Real Thing (Archi-faux)
A smaller scale Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysées can be found just outside Shanghai; a copy of St. Peter’s in Rome can be found in Yamoussoukro, in the Ivory Coast: a journey over three continents to see the architecture of imitation, the uncanny world of the fake.
It has an average vote of 7.6 on TMDB.
4. 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.
5. Teatro Amazonas: The Art of Sound and Nature (Teatro Amazonas – Musik im Regenwald)
The history of the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, an opera house located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, whose construction, between 1884 and 1896, depended on the labor exploitation of the local indigenous populations, provides an insight into the cultural, social and political situation in Brazil.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
6. The Builders of the Alhambra (Los constructores de la Alhambra)
Kingdom of Granada, al-Andalus, 14th century. After recognizing that his land, always under siege, is hopelessly doomed to be conquered, Sultan Yusuf I undertakes the construction of a magnificent fortress with the purpose of turning it into the landmark of his civilization and his history, a glorious monument that will survive the oblivion of the coming centuries: the Alhambra.
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.
7. Chair Times (Chair Times)
"Chair Times" charts a course through an ocean of chairs. In the focus are 125 objects from the Collection of the Vitra Design Museum. Arranged according to their year of production, they illustrate development from 1807 to the very latest designs straight off the 3D printer, forming a timeline to modern seating design. The film features many people whose vocations involve design and who are experts in the field, such as designers Hella Jongerius, Antonio Citterio and Ronan Bouroullec, architects and collectors Arthur Rüegg and Ruggero Tropeano, architect David Chipperfield, Director Emeritus of MAK Vienna/Los Angeles Peter Noever, Mateo Kries, Director of the Vitra Design Museum, Vitra Design Museum curators Amelie Klein, Jochen Eisenbrand and collection curator Serge Mauduit. And your guide through the history of chairs is Rolf Fehlbaum, Chairman Emeritus of Vitra.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
8. Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line
Diller Scofidio + Renfro has long been at the forefront of design with provocative exhibitions that blurred the boundaries between art and architecture. This film captures their extraordinary evolution and unique process in reimagining the public identities of Lincoln Center and the once derelict High Line railroad tracks.
9. Operation: Jane Walk
The war zone of a dystopian multiplayer shooting game is used to embark some urban explorers on a winter walk, avoiding the combats whenever possible, as peaceful observers, inhabitants of a digital world, which is a detailed replica of Midtown Manhattan.
It has an average vote of 4 on TMDB.
10. Cambodge, la magie khmère (Cambodge, la magie khmère)
(Cambodge, la magie khmère)
It has an average vote of 7.5 on TMDB.
11. 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.
12. La Alameda (La Alameda)
Following a commission from the College of Architects of Seville, for the production of a documentary about the La Alameda de Hércules area of the Sevillian capital in a debate about its possible destiny and urban planning challenges, the filmmaker Juan Sebastián Bollaín, offers this visionary realistic and critical, at the same time experimental and iconoclastic, portrait of the problem of the transformation of historic centers in our cities.
13. The Little Church That Could
Amidst a mostly Catholic community, a small tiny Anglican church offers more to the community of Placentia than people may think, and holds many connections and history to the rest of the world.
It has an average vote of 10 on TMDB.
14. Palais de Monaco, les secrets de construction (Palais de Monaco, les secrets de construction)
(Palais de Monaco, les secrets de construction)
15. Architecture of Infinity (Architektur der Unendlichkeit)
How can structures, which take up defined, rigid portions of space, make us feel transcendence? How can chapels turn into places of introspection? How can walls grant boundless freedom? Driven by intense childhood impressions, director Christoph Schaub visits extraordinary churches, both ancient and futuristic, and discovers works of art that take him up to the skies and all the way down to the bottom of the ocean. With the help of architects Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, and Álvaro Siza Vieira, artists James Turrell and Cristina Iglesias, and drummer Sergé “Jojo” Mayer, he tries to make sense of the world and decipher our spiritual experiences using the seemingly abstract concepts of light, time, rhythm, sound, and shape. The superb cinematography turns this contemplative search into a multi-sensory experience.
It has an average vote of 6 on TMDB.
16. Coast Modern
A core group of architects embraced the West Coast from Vancouver to LA with its particular geography and values and left behind a legacy of inspired dwellings. Today, architects celebrate the influence established by their predecessors.
It has an average vote of 8 on TMDB.
17. High Rise and Fall
Documentary about Queen Elizabeth Square, Sir Basil Spence's block of Brutalist style flats built to replace the Gorbal's tenements in Glasgow during the 1960s. His vision was based on architect Le Corbusier's ideas and inspired him to transform the Gorbals into a Modernist Utopia. The film is about the life and times of one building told by some of the people involved in its history. The block was dynamited in 1993 amidst controversy and the death of a spectator. It is mentioned in Pevsner's Notable Buildings of Britain. This film was shown on BBC Scotland's Ex-S strand in 1993. Produced by May Miller and directed by Conrad Blakemore. This film is posted for educational and research purposes only and is copyright of BBC Scotland. Archive material courtesy of the Scottish Film Archive and the film's contributors.
18. Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs
Southern California’s Coachella Valley, including the communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, boasts hundreds of extraordinary midcentury modern homes, public buildings and commercial structures. Modern designers such as William F. Cody, Albert Frey, William Krisel, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams left their collective mark on this desert paradise. Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs traces the history of modern architecture in Palm Springs from the first bold forays into modernist design to the preservation challenges facing the region today. Director Jake Gorst’s film features rare archival images and footage as well as interviews with historians, homeowners and the architects who helped create this mecca of modernism.
19. Genie Français – Les Fortresses de Vauban (Genie Français – Les Fortresses de Vauban)
(Genie Français – Les Fortresses de Vauban)
20. Les Trésors du Paris haussmannien (Les Trésors du Paris haussmannien)
(Les Trésors du Paris haussmannien)
It has an average vote of 7 on TMDB.