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Architecture & Design in the Movies

By Rain Noe - July 31, 2013

in Object Culture | Architecture

I recently saw the Tom Cruise flick Oblivion, which people apparently hated; but one thing I really dug was the shot you see above. Director Joseph Kosinski, depicting New York City in the year 2017, gives us our first glimpse of the completed One World Trade Center. The movie was released in April of this year, but as we saw earlier, in reality it wasn't even until May that the spire was raised. And just this morning, I looked up to see the real deal still has glasswork to be done, and still has a construction elevator running up its side. Oblivion was the first convincing depiction I'd seen of the completed structure.

Kosinksi is an architect by training, and until recently was still teaching 3D modeling as an adjunct assistant prof at Columbia, so it's no surprise that he took the time to get One WTC right. (Amusingly, had he swung the camera just a bit to the left in the shot above, we'd see Gehry's ugly 8 Spruce Street; thankfully the framing precludes it, and I wonder if it was intentional.) But even directors with no architectural background are in a prime position to educate, or at least familiarize, the general public with different styles of architecture. With that in mind Architizer's Zachary Edelson has written "A Brief History Of Modern Architecture Through Movies," where he ticks off a list of flicks with such iconic backdrops that any layperson who's seen them can get an instant frame of reference for what Art Deco, Art Nouveau or Modernism looks like.

By necessity Nelson's list is far from complete, but it makes me wonder what films you guys would use to describe not just architecture, but entire design movements to laypeople. I first saw Blade Runner, with Deckard chilling out in the Ennis House, before I even knew who Frank Lloyd Wright was.

That movie's exterior shots do a good job of illustrating, via Syd Mead's conceptual designs, a grim Futurism.

Incidentally the Ennis house was also used in The Rocketeer, whose titular character's costume provides descriptive shorthand of what the Streamlining movement was about.

Sadly, finding someone who portrays an industrial designer in the movies is a lot tougher. So, trivia style: Here's four actors who have played ID'ers (vaguely) in movies, can you name the titles? Orlando Bloom, Julia Roberts, Eva Marie Saint, John Malkovich.

If you've got any well-known, visually strong movies that provide a good summation of a design movement, let us know in the comments.

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Anthony Cord

10 years ago

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A Summer Place (Troy Donohue and Sandra Dee) featured an original Frank lloyd Wright designed residence by-the-sea (originally the Clinton Walker house) located near Carmel CAL. Dorothy McQuire turns to her 'daughter" during an inspection of her new home (after alighting from a white Jaguar roadster) and offers that "Frank Lloyd Wright designed our house." However the lower level of bedrooms in the movie was actually built on-stage by the film studio production staff - interestingly FLW did actually design later alterations including additional bedrooms for Mrs Walker. I managed to inspect the house some years ago while visiting from Australia. A great example of 1950's modernism...a number of movies have also featured John Lautner designed residences.
i managed to walk around the house when i was vistingf rom australia some years ago
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Chris Horning

11 years ago

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Eva Marie Saint states she is an Industrial Designer in the movie "North by Northwest".
But really..she is....a SPY!
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pier

11 years ago

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Brainstorm (1983) Scientists develop system of recording and playing back dreams,memories, experiences of people. Hire industrial designer played by Natalie Wood to miniaturize it from a helmet with a cart of electronics to a "Google Glass" like device (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3262420992/tt0085271). Ms. Woods last movie, she died just prior to completion. It was important to me as I just entered ID school so entire class watched it: a real Industrial Designer, in a movie, and it's a woman!

Ruthless People (1986) was hilarious with Bette Midler as Dany Devito's wife and her mansion stuffed with every piece of Memphis furniture and curio. The scene with Danny Devito flopping into Sotsass' weird blue hoop chair with balls for armrests is a classic.

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Sten Ryason

11 years ago

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The Gattaca building itself is the Marin County Civic Center near San Rafael, California, by Frank Lloyd Wright. The scenes set on the roof of the Gattaca building are (I believe) a dam in Southern California, and the solar array is out in the SocAl desert somewhere. I'm not sure where the other houses are, but they're all real places that (as far as I know) had to be altered very little (if at all) to appear in the film.
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Stephanie

11 years ago

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Blade Runner's visual design contains an atmosphere that to me is still unequalled in sci-fi cinema. It feels futuristic while other films are interesting but hanging on to 60s futurism. Blade Runner shows the cyclical nature of design influences without seeming to borrow so much from the past that it's trapped by the period in which it was created.
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thomas

11 years ago

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Alex - Gattaca is also a heavy Frank Lloyd Wright location: the Marin County Civic Center (http://bit.ly/1csdACl), hands down one of my favorite buildings. And one of the weirdest things, general, in northern California.
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Jaime Sanchez

11 years ago

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In a similar vein the AV Club has a series on real locations used in movies, for example Ferris Buellers Chicago:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/chicago-the-ferris-bueller-high-school,57337/
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TR

11 years ago

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You forgot Ewan McGregor in "The Island"
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Andrew

11 years ago

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He didn't get 1 WTC completely right...they're not going to clad the antenna in a shell anymore.
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Alex Efimov

11 years ago

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My favourite movie with strong visual and architectural part is Gattaca.
I think it's in Turkish (?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6dlwa4RQL8
Cheers,
Alex
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