Space Architecture in Film Environ- Ments: an Opportunity Lost
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108 SEEKING THE CITY Defying Gravity: Space Architecture in Film Environ- ments: An Opportunity Lost TERRI MEYER BOAKE University of Waterloo INTRODUCTION Unlike architecture, fi lm spaces have never had to be realistic, nor have they been obliged to possess Film gives us the rare opportunity to completely a conscience. That is not to say, however, that question all that has come to be accepted in terms the notions of science or conscience have failed to of the language of architecture as well as cultural be vital motivations behind the creation of many and historic convention. It allows for educated fi lms. Film producers and directors though, can speculation on what may have been in the past, make a conscious decision whether to choose to and what the world of the future might become. respect scientifi c accuracy, and how to portray Current fi lm technologies provide such a high de- moral and political conscience. An examination of gree of realism in the product, that architectural scientifi c timelines can begin to allow us to un- education can use these fi lms as vehicles for criti- derstand the development of the space genre of cal discussion of the ethos of these environments. fi lm as it relates to accurate scientifi c invention.1 Much like, and yet experientially speaking, well If scientifi c knowledge was available at the time of beyond the efforts of the Visionary architects of the writing of books and making of fi lms, it will be the 18th century, fi lm can create speculations of assumed that such was purposefully ignored, for realistic feeling environments that can be used to either artistic or technological cause, if not shown reinvent the meaning and defi ning factors of ar- to be respected. chitectural expression. This paper examines innovation in architectural Where many fi lms have continued to freely ex- (set) design that has occurred in space themed plore “earthly environments”, unhindered by real- fi lms, from Aelita in 1924 to the fi nal installation ity and liberated by digital and f/x technologies, of the Star Wars Saga in 2005. Much will be seen another genre has stepped well beyond visions of to have changed as a result both of an increase an often dystopic future here on earth, and ven- in scientifi c knowledge, as well as the technologi- tured to imagine architectural and urban environ- cal advances in the fi lm industry. Knowledge and ments, “off-world”. technical innovation have given directors unlimit- ed potential for choice in representations of space Much of the development of the conventions and environments. Such choice also includes the will- expressions of our earth bound architectural and ful abandonment of science for fantasy. urban environment is based upon the existence of gravity and breathable atmosphere. The explora- THE EVOLUTION OF FILM tion of “space themes” in fi lm theoretically allows for free experimentation in an architecture that For the last century, the medium of fi lm has al- can be imagined and designed, without reference lowed increased understanding and appreciation to normal architectural limitations or subject to of the realistic, three-dimensional occupation of the infl uence of the force of gravity, but on the architectural and urban spaces that previously other hand, must respond to oxygen related limi- existed as captives of text and two-dimensional tations. representation. These would include not only the reconstructions of actual historic places, but also DEFYING GRAVITY 109 visionary or imaginary places. From the repre- this tradition in the development of architecture. sentation of 16th century Prague in The Golem Simply by turning relationships “upside down”, let (1921), to the ancient splendor of Rome in Ben Hur alone removing the force of gravity, begs us to (1959) or Egypt in Antony and Cleopatra (1972), question the logic behind everything that we can traditional fi lm techniques have been relatively see. This is what the medium of fi lm frees design- successful in allowing for experiential occupancy ers to explore. Film environments are not gov- of former ruins – albeit with varying degrees of erned by the same laws or rules. historic accuracy. CGI techniques are allowing un- surpassed detail in contemporary explorations of VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE historical places as represented in fi lms. Within the profession and practice of architec- Gravity determines architectural form and struc- ture, there have been various venues for chal- ture. There is very little that has been developed lenging science and materials based construc- throughout history, from early Roman vaulting tion techniques. The Visionary Architects of the through to modern steel construction that cannot 1700s, such as Etienne Louis Boullée, adopted a be attributed to increasingly refi ned responses to two-dimensional, painterly solution to the propo- the actions of gravity on structure and associated sition of unbuilt (unbuildable?) architecture. Had material limitations. Real architecture must func- reinforced thin shell concrete been invented 100 tion in a real world, governed by the laws of sci- years earlier, Boullée’s Centotaph for Newton or ence. Biblioteque Nationale might have been able to be constructed, rather than looking to future possi- Gravity has also determined the way that we oc- bilities or dreams. The work of Pier Luigi Nervi and cupy space, and hence, the way that we have Eero Saarinen attests to the possibility. Many of tended to design space, as well as to select sur- their works, had they been presented as render- face fi nishes. The fl oor is where we walk. Walls ings two hundred years earlier, would have been and ceilings bound us, but we are not obliged deemed unconstructable. The medium of paint to come into contact with those surfaces unless was permitting design freedom outside of the re- we so choose. Material placements have devel- alistic boundaries imposed by construction. oped that respond to issues of wear and dura- Whereas the extraordinary vision of architecture bility, again subject to gravitational orientation. that drove the work of Boullée simply stretched Such scientifi c concerns have driven the design the structural capacity and orientation of the tra- of structures and architectural systems since the ditional materials of the time, using traditional notion of shelter was fi rst conceived. Speculations forms, the excited musings of Archigram and all during the 1700s as to the origins of architecture during the 1960s proposed architectural alterna- – including, Laugier’s “Rustic Hut”2 – all support tives that questioned almost everything, from the Fig. 1. Ron Herron’s Walking City versus Howl’s Moving Castle. 110 SEEKING THE CITY materiality and mechanical systems proposed, of an ancient canal system, indicating the pres- down to the static location of urban environ- ence of water and a far more hospitable climate.3 ments. Ron Herron’s “Walking City” remains quite The lunar environment presented by Wells was unrealizable in “buildable” terms, but would not signifi cantly more severe than that on earth, but be beyond the capabilities of any CGI unit at Lu- did provide a breathable environment when the cas Film or the animation team at Studio Ghibli, explorers entered an underground city beneath as recently shown in the 2005 fi lm Howl’s Mov- the surface of the moon. Differences in planetary ing Castle, based upon the novel by Diana Wynn gravity fi elds were not known. Jones. Howl’s Moving Castle brings a magical Walking House to life, in perhaps a more realistic, The invention of the modern science fi ction novel although animated style, than was represented by was not far ahead of the invention of the motion Herron’s renderings. picture. It is not surprising then, that the space/ sci-fi fi lm genre has its start during the beginnings Where Herron’s static illustrations may give rise to of the development of the commercial fi lm indus- dynamic architectural dreams, CGI technologies try, and that the scientifi c development of the fi lm and even classic animation can put these images industry sees its needs propelled by the desire to into real time motion. The view from the “outside” create more compelling, and often realistic look- can be replaced by the potentially realistic expe- ing, science fi ction and space environments. rience of the virtual spaces that also include the interior. Miriam Allen de Ford has noted: “Science fi ction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with The creation of visionary works of art and archi- plausible impossibilities.”4 And herein lies part of tecture often arises at times when cultural, politi- the blur that we see in the evolution of the Space cal or technological infl uences impose restrictions Film genre. What might have begun in Aelita and on creative works. Etienne-Louis Boullée and C.N. First Men in the Moon as science based fi ction in Ledoux ceased to build when Napoleonic pressures its attempts to include recognition of some of the left them without patrons that were permitted to assumed realities of space, has ultimately evolved construct. Archigram’s illustrations exhibited a to become more decidedly fantasy based. Where frustration with the technological limits placed Stanley Kubrick employed consultants from NASA on construction, in a period of burgeoning ideas to ensure that the environments and equipment and rapid growth. The images from “Howl’s Mov- used in 2001: A Space Odyssey were as accu- ing Castle” exhibit liberation due to their animated rate as possible as it was his wish to have every- generation and release from the technical need to thing “intellectually justifi ed”5, the modern” Star solve all of the details. In a way, this construction Wars” series of fi lms, which although include an is working “in spite of gravity” and with disregard unending variety of innovative off-world environ- of reality.