I know that some of you are interested in Architecture, well, Shift uses Brutalist buildings on the cover of Bulk and Tatlin have use quit a lot since the Eighties so I thought you might be interested in two documentaries I've been involved with. Great Expectations and Kochuu. Both have been released on DVD in the UK recently and will be released in the US this spring. The Japanese and Taiwanese DVDs have been out for a while. BJ Nilsen composed a great soundtrack for Kochuu and Silverbullit did the same for Great Expectations.
Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc1qvQ3k8X0
Great Expectations: A Journey Through the History of Visionary Architecture
The new film from the director of KOCHUU, this is an astonishing journey through the history of innovative, futuristic, utopian and sometimes bizarre architecture projects—from the beginning of the 20th century to today.
Since the end of the 19th century, due to industrialization and rapid technological
progress, mankind has been confronted with new problems and possibilities. Visionary
architects and artists, motivated by contemporary problems, including housing short-
ages, urban decay and pollution, set about to create changes in our ways of living that challenged conventional concepts of the good, the true and the beautiful.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS introduces us to the most significant visionary architectural movements and personalities of the 20th century, including:
Rudolf Steiner – The Austrian philosopher and educator who designed the mammoth concrete structure of the Goetheanum auditorium and other buildings for the anthroposophy colony in the Swiss countryside.
Le Corbusier – The Unité d'Habitation apartment building in France, responding to the
postwar housing shortage, was designed as a self-contained environment, a building you would never have to leave.
Levitt and Sons – Responding to the need for affordable housing for returning WWII veterans, the Levitts' designs for inexpensive and rapidly constructed tract homes in
Long Island, New York gave birth to the American suburban dream.
Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer – Their sleek but functionalist architecture and innovative urban plan for Brasilia, the capital city of Brazil, built in only four years in the late '50s, remains one of the most modern cities in the world.
Buckminster Fuller – Aiming to create conditions for a sustainable life on earth by using fewer resources, Fuller designed the lightweight Geodesic Dome, of which today more than 300,000 have been built worldwide.
Moshe Safdie – Safdie's reinvention of the apartment building, introduced at Montreal's
Habitat '67 Expo, features a prefab, modular design for middle-class urban housing, where every apartment has a garden.
Antti Lovag– This French architect's concept of "Habitology," designing architecture for human needs, abandon corners for natural curves and spheres, as seen in his Maisons Bulle and Yellow Round Houses.
Paolo Soleri – Soleri's concept of "arcology," seen in the ongoing Arcosanti project in Arizona, fuses architecture with ecology in crystal-like, hyperdense desert cities designed for pedestrians.
Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows – Their Venus Project in Florida, blending functionalism, ecology and science-fiction, aims to create a utopian vision of urban planning for a new society.
With archival and contemporary footage, animation and interviews, GREAT EXPECTA-
TIONS traces the story of these grand architectural visions, both realized and unrealized, by great thinkers with revolutionary, if not always successful, ideas.
"Exciting... these architects seldom get the chance to speak freely in this way.
This gives the content weight and lends plausibility to their visions... GREAT
EXPECTATIONS gives one an appetite for visionary architecture."
— RUM ( Swedish architecture and design magazine )
"Astounding images of more or less bizarre projects are intertwined with fantastic inter-
view material... a documentary that treats the viewer seriously." — Svenska Dagbladet
52 minutes | color | DVD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Expectations-Journey-through-Visionary-Architecture/dp/B002WOYRPQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1268049917&sr=8-2
Kochuu: Japanese Architecture / Influence & Origin
KOCHUU is a visually stunning film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition, and its impact on the Nordic building tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future and traditional concepts, nature and concrete, gardens and high-tech spaces, the film explains how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions.
KOCHUU, which translates as "in the jar," refers to the Japanese tradition of constructing small, enclosed physical spaces, which create the impression of a separate universe. The film illustrates key components of traditional Japanese architecture, such as reducing the distinction between outdoors and indoors, disrupting the symmetrical, building with wooden posts and beams rather than with walls, modular construction techniques, and its symbiotic relationship with water, light and nature.
The film illustrates these concepts through remarkable views of the Imperial Katsura Palace, the Todai-Ji Temple, the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, the Sony Tower, numerous teahouses and gardens (see link below for complete list), as well as examples of the cross-fertilization evidenced in buildings throughout Scandinavia, and shows how 'invisible' Japanese traditions are evident even in modern, high-tech buildings.
KOCHUU also features interviews with some of Japan's leading architects as well as Scandinavian contemporaries including Pritzker Prize winners Tadao Ando and Sverre Fehn, Toyo Ito, Kazuo Shinohara, Kristian Gullichsen and Juhani Pallasmaa.
KOCHUU is a compelling illustration of how the aesthetics of Japanese architecture and design are expressed through simple means, and also shows that the best Japanese architecture, wherever it appears, expresses spiritual qualities that enrich human life.
"A film about architecture could leave a forebrain stifled. That KOCHUU does nothing of the kind speaks to the iridescence of its light, shapes and colors, as well as its profusion and juxtaposition of ideas."—Northwest Asian Weekly
"A gentle, beautiful film that lingers over images of gardens and details of buildings."—The Age
"Unhurried and often beautiful...draws the watcher in. Mesmerising!"—The Australian
"A small film with big thoughts...a dynamic dialogue in design spanning the past, present, and future...Wachtmeister's film footage of architects describing their design ideas within their realized buildings is a veritable historical document."—Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kochuu-Japanese-Architecture-Tadao-Ando/dp/B002WOYRQ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1268051244&sr=1-1
