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2023
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Architects Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf have their studio in Stavanger on the west coast of Norway and Oslo.
The office Helen & Hard, founded in 1996, is on the rise even internationally and designs many wooden buildings. They all represent very inventive contemporary architecture.
The film is an example of the extensive film production of Denmark’s famous Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which covers various art forms. The exhibition and film and video production of the museum also includes films about architecture and architects. The collection includes interviews as well as short and longer films about interesting buildings. This film was produced by Louisiana Channel’s Marc-Christoph Wagner, who has also interviewed these Norwegian architects.
The film takes us to Norwegian landscapes, to the office of these architects and to the buildings they have designed. A close relationship with nature is very important to Helen & Hard. As designers of living environments, they value the principle that by sharing and doing things and being together, you always get more. They have created highly recommendable examples of a new kind of living culture. Regarding purely commercial housing projects, the commissioners often want to minimize everything that is other than private. But: by creating common spaces and opportunities for doing things together and being with neighbors, very much more can be accomplished. The idea of people who are different in every way and of different ages and still living in the same community is extremely important to them.
Helen & Hard. 37 min.
Produced by Marc-Christoph Wagner. 2022
The office Helen & Hard, founded in 1996, is on the rise even internationally and designs many wooden buildings. They all represent very inventive contemporary architecture.
The film is an example of the extensive film production of Denmark’s famous Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which covers various art forms. The exhibition and film and video production of the museum also includes films about architecture and architects. The collection includes interviews as well as short and longer films about interesting buildings. This film was produced by Louisiana Channel’s Marc-Christoph Wagner, who has also interviewed these Norwegian architects.
The film takes us to Norwegian landscapes, to the office of these architects and to the buildings they have designed. A close relationship with nature is very important to Helen & Hard. As designers of living environments, they value the principle that by sharing and doing things and being together, you always get more. They have created highly recommendable examples of a new kind of living culture. Regarding purely commercial housing projects, the commissioners often want to minimize everything that is other than private. But: by creating common spaces and opportunities for doing things together and being with neighbors, very much more can be accomplished. The idea of people who are different in every way and of different ages and still living in the same community is extremely important to them.
Helen & Hard. 37 min.
Produced by Marc-Christoph Wagner. 2022
Álvaro Siza Vieira, received the Alvar Aalto Medal in 1988 and the Pritzker Prize in 1992. The film Siza doesn’t just glorify the main character’s many admired works, let alone put him on a special pedestal. The story focuses on his family background, the people who inspired him, and those close to him who have always known him well. Siza’s artistically exceptionally talented and luminous spouse Maria Antónia, with whom he has two children in common but who unfortunately died young, is also featured in this film. We also can visit the architect’s office and some of the buildings he has designed.
Siza was a skilled draftsman already at a young age and was strongly encouraged by his uncle. Even though Siza now is over 90 years old, we can listen to the thoughts of an excellent architect who draws every day. We can also observe that he still smokes a lot. The sister, a photographer who is 15 years younger than the architect, tells us about their family, her big brother, and their childhood together, as well as the tragedies that the family had to deal with. Portuguese colleagues Eduardo Souto de Moura and Carlos Castanheira are also interviewed. We also meet Siza’s son and grandson, who are also architects.
When still an architecture student, Siza was urged to familiarize himself with international architecture publications. While browsing through the elaborate photographs of the finest magazines, he found Alvar Aalto’s work — and was immediately stunned.
The importance of Siza in relation to the high quality of contemporary Portuguese architecture cannot be disputed. The architect’s low and sonorous voice is part of the film’s charm — not to mention everything that he thinks about architecture and life, and how he tells it all in the film.
Siza. 61 min.
Augusto Custodio. 2023
Siza was a skilled draftsman already at a young age and was strongly encouraged by his uncle. Even though Siza now is over 90 years old, we can listen to the thoughts of an excellent architect who draws every day. We can also observe that he still smokes a lot. The sister, a photographer who is 15 years younger than the architect, tells us about their family, her big brother, and their childhood together, as well as the tragedies that the family had to deal with. Portuguese colleagues Eduardo Souto de Moura and Carlos Castanheira are also interviewed. We also meet Siza’s son and grandson, who are also architects.
When still an architecture student, Siza was urged to familiarize himself with international architecture publications. While browsing through the elaborate photographs of the finest magazines, he found Alvar Aalto’s work — and was immediately stunned.
The importance of Siza in relation to the high quality of contemporary Portuguese architecture cannot be disputed. The architect’s low and sonorous voice is part of the film’s charm — not to mention everything that he thinks about architecture and life, and how he tells it all in the film.
Siza. 61 min.
Augusto Custodio. 2023
The Berlin-based director Nico Weber and her filmmaking colleagues participated in the ArkRex architecture film festival with her film Inside Prora already in 2021. This time she will talk about the documentary film that she has been working on since 2021.
It is related to the move of the famous Bauhaus Archiv and Museum für Gestaltung to renovated and partly completely new premises in the heart of Berlin. The architectural competition was won by an architectural office called Staab Architekten.
As a documentarian, Weber follows and records the resettlement of the world’s largest Bauhaus collections and exhibitions on the old familiar grounds of the Bauhaus Archiv. The actual 90-minute documentary film will be completed at the time when the new complex will be opened to the general public in 2025.
WORK IN PROGRESS — EDITOR’S CUT has been created especially for the 2023 Ark Rex event. It will only be performed at this festival. In connection with the presentation of director-writer Weber and watching the film, it is possible for experts and the audience to discuss new ways of presenting architecture, the possibilities brought by additional and new buildings in Berlin, and the new spaces gained by the world’s largest Bauhaus collections focusing on architecture and design. The director of the Bauhaus Archiv, Annemarie Jaeggi, is one of the most internationally respected Gropius scholars.
We also get the possibility to discuss the new Finnish architecture and design museum project and the expectations that experts and the general public will have about it.
Bauhaus Archiv — Work in Progress — Editor’s Cut. Approx. 45 min.
Directed by Nico Weber. 2023
It is related to the move of the famous Bauhaus Archiv and Museum für Gestaltung to renovated and partly completely new premises in the heart of Berlin. The architectural competition was won by an architectural office called Staab Architekten.
As a documentarian, Weber follows and records the resettlement of the world’s largest Bauhaus collections and exhibitions on the old familiar grounds of the Bauhaus Archiv. The actual 90-minute documentary film will be completed at the time when the new complex will be opened to the general public in 2025.
WORK IN PROGRESS — EDITOR’S CUT has been created especially for the 2023 Ark Rex event. It will only be performed at this festival. In connection with the presentation of director-writer Weber and watching the film, it is possible for experts and the audience to discuss new ways of presenting architecture, the possibilities brought by additional and new buildings in Berlin, and the new spaces gained by the world’s largest Bauhaus collections focusing on architecture and design. The director of the Bauhaus Archiv, Annemarie Jaeggi, is one of the most internationally respected Gropius scholars.
We also get the possibility to discuss the new Finnish architecture and design museum project and the expectations that experts and the general public will have about it.
Bauhaus Archiv — Work in Progress — Editor’s Cut. Approx. 45 min.
Directed by Nico Weber. 2023
Swiss director Sabine Gisiger found in an antiquarian bookstore Ada and Mies van der Rohe 's eldest daughter Georgina’s book about her own life, just by chance. The book and the story gave the movie an immediate boost.
Gisiger is a historian by training. She has now created a film that is partly dramatized but strictly based on research and genuine material from archives. The approach of the director is surprising: the story is more about the life of Mies van der Rohe’s spouse and their three daughters, as well as even the architect’s designer partner Lily Reich. The women or ladies of the family remained in Germany when the architect and father had to move to the United States in 1938.
Ada’s family had plenty of wealth, but she also had painful experiences and memories. When van der Rohe left his home country and moved to the United States, his wife and daughters were left to somehow survive in the grip and during the years of the National Socialist regime. The film brings us to meet famous people of that time as well as takes us to different places and cities in Germany, and then finally takes us to the United States. The status and reality of genuinely talented women, was practically completely different from what e.g. Bauhaus had promised.
The material that has been found in the film archives was shot in Berlin, Hellersdorf in Dresden, as well as in Potsdam, i.e., in the places where van der Rohe’s women lived. Instead, the cigar-chomping van der Rohe made his breakthroughs in Barcelona, Chicago, and New York, to return to designing e.g. The new National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) in Berlin. The film will be accompanied by an acted interview film about Mies van der Rohe’s phase in Germany.
The famous actress Katharina Thalbach, who was chosen to play the part of the oldest daughter Georgina as an adult woman, does a brilliant job.
The Mies van der Rohes, 90 min.
Sabine Gisiger. 2023
Gisiger is a historian by training. She has now created a film that is partly dramatized but strictly based on research and genuine material from archives. The approach of the director is surprising: the story is more about the life of Mies van der Rohe’s spouse and their three daughters, as well as even the architect’s designer partner Lily Reich. The women or ladies of the family remained in Germany when the architect and father had to move to the United States in 1938.
Ada’s family had plenty of wealth, but she also had painful experiences and memories. When van der Rohe left his home country and moved to the United States, his wife and daughters were left to somehow survive in the grip and during the years of the National Socialist regime. The film brings us to meet famous people of that time as well as takes us to different places and cities in Germany, and then finally takes us to the United States. The status and reality of genuinely talented women, was practically completely different from what e.g. Bauhaus had promised.
The material that has been found in the film archives was shot in Berlin, Hellersdorf in Dresden, as well as in Potsdam, i.e., in the places where van der Rohe’s women lived. Instead, the cigar-chomping van der Rohe made his breakthroughs in Barcelona, Chicago, and New York, to return to designing e.g. The new National Gallery (Neue Nationalgalerie) in Berlin. The film will be accompanied by an acted interview film about Mies van der Rohe’s phase in Germany.
The famous actress Katharina Thalbach, who was chosen to play the part of the oldest daughter Georgina as an adult woman, does a brilliant job.
The Mies van der Rohes, 90 min.
Sabine Gisiger. 2023
A special documentary to screen together with the film The Mies van der Rohes was found by chance at the Berlin Akademie der Künste exhibition Macht Raum Gewalt (Power, Space, Violence), A series of films related to the main subject of the theme of the exhibition were screened in the black box of the main building of the academy.
After Dessau, Mies van der Rohe was the director of the Bauhaus in Berlin, but the school was closed in 1933. He tried his best to keep the famous art and design school going, but it was not possible.
The interview, which is fictional but also based on what actually has happened, sheds light on the reasons why van der Rohe could not stay in Germany under any circumstances. The relationship with the mother of the three daughters had already changed before and his wife Ada did not consider it appropriate to share her life with her husband.
In Germany, you didn’t even have to be of Jewish descent to find yourself in a situation where you had to make radical decisions. But was the Bauhaus political, or what was it? Was it political because some of its students or the teacher Hannes Meyer were communists?
As viewers, we can think about what van der Rohe’s relationship with the National Socialists was like and whether the architect would have had aby options. He tried to balance both with the political situation and whether it would be possible to work in Germany, as a non-political architect. As viewers, we can think about several matters and circumstances against the background of that time and, again, against how we stand today.
It is still indisputable that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one of the most significant architects of the last century.
Fields of Neutrality. 26 min.
Directed by Dani Gal, cinematography by Itay Marom. 2022
After Dessau, Mies van der Rohe was the director of the Bauhaus in Berlin, but the school was closed in 1933. He tried his best to keep the famous art and design school going, but it was not possible.
The interview, which is fictional but also based on what actually has happened, sheds light on the reasons why van der Rohe could not stay in Germany under any circumstances. The relationship with the mother of the three daughters had already changed before and his wife Ada did not consider it appropriate to share her life with her husband.
In Germany, you didn’t even have to be of Jewish descent to find yourself in a situation where you had to make radical decisions. But was the Bauhaus political, or what was it? Was it political because some of its students or the teacher Hannes Meyer were communists?
As viewers, we can think about what van der Rohe’s relationship with the National Socialists was like and whether the architect would have had aby options. He tried to balance both with the political situation and whether it would be possible to work in Germany, as a non-political architect. As viewers, we can think about several matters and circumstances against the background of that time and, again, against how we stand today.
It is still indisputable that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was one of the most significant architects of the last century.
Fields of Neutrality. 26 min.
Directed by Dani Gal, cinematography by Itay Marom. 2022
The short film is a part of artist Jasmina Cibici’s work from some years ago called Spielraum. It sought to investigate the so-called universal methods and strategies of the use of the so-called soft power, often used to gain some kind of an advantage. The rhetoric of soft power use has always been part of patriotic speech, and art and architecture have often been seen as part of this spectacle. As a work, Spielraum sought to deal with the birth, existence, and death of a (trans)national ideological formation. The film was shot in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia and in the large and well-preserved administrative palace from the time of Josip Broz Tito.
Yugoslavia, on the other hand, fell apart because of a very tough war. After all, the author’s birthplace, today’s Slovenia, managed to gain independence without major tragedies. However, the overall narrative of the Balkans and the whole of Europe has been chilling and, in parts, very bloody and cruel.
The four stylish women in the film represent four different professions and, accordingly, different ways of seeing things. They roles or professions are those of the "nation builder", "pragmatist", "conservator" and "architect/artist".
Some of the dialogue might sound very familiar or ring a bell. The reason for this becomes clear when we read about the quotations in the final credit texts of the film.
The film requires very concentrated viewing. It is also rewarding and topical in many ways. Since it has been shot in finely designed spaces and the actresses are clothed in classical elegant dresses that also fit the different rooms in the spatially generous building, it also doesn’t seem to lose its topicality very soon. Both in Europe and the Middle East, ongoing are two exceptionally brutal wars. They tear and destroy both the lives of people and the built environment in a brutal and horrible way.
Tear down and rebuild. 16 min. Jasmina Cibic. 2015
Yugoslavia, on the other hand, fell apart because of a very tough war. After all, the author’s birthplace, today’s Slovenia, managed to gain independence without major tragedies. However, the overall narrative of the Balkans and the whole of Europe has been chilling and, in parts, very bloody and cruel.
The four stylish women in the film represent four different professions and, accordingly, different ways of seeing things. They roles or professions are those of the "nation builder", "pragmatist", "conservator" and "architect/artist".
Some of the dialogue might sound very familiar or ring a bell. The reason for this becomes clear when we read about the quotations in the final credit texts of the film.
The film requires very concentrated viewing. It is also rewarding and topical in many ways. Since it has been shot in finely designed spaces and the actresses are clothed in classical elegant dresses that also fit the different rooms in the spatially generous building, it also doesn’t seem to lose its topicality very soon. Both in Europe and the Middle East, ongoing are two exceptionally brutal wars. They tear and destroy both the lives of people and the built environment in a brutal and horrible way.
Tear down and rebuild. 16 min. Jasmina Cibic. 2015
This film also requires exceptionally concentrated viewing. The story reflects on the different aspects of the "gift" or "donation", related to Europeanness. The film develops the idea of, for example, a building that would be a gift and as such surpasses everything else in its architectural quality, a unique entity, a great work of art or an entire place.
The four female characters in the film represent our so-called four fundamental rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear. The male actors represent an artist, an engineer, and a diplomat. The film also involves diving, swimming and dancing. Everything takes place in breathtakingly beautiful or impressive spaces.
The discussion is fascinating, even ironic — after all, we live in a Europe of many contradictions, where populism is again raising its head. The dialogue has been compiled, e.g. from the conversations found in the archives, which concern the so-called soft power and influence.
In the European context and cultural space, cultural diplomacy has sometimes even taken concrete forms in the form of the most iconic buildings and artistic "gifts".
The Gift has been filmed inside the headquarters of the French Communist Party and the United Nations Palace of Nations in Geneva, among others. The former was designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer. Regarding cultural gifts, we should know the following: Niemeyer gave the designs of the headquarters building, which has preserved almost its original appearance, as a genuine gift.
The Gift. 28 min. Jasmina Cibic. 2021
Jasmina Cibic is an exceptionally interesting artist born in Slovenia. Her works often also include carefully scripted and directed short films filmed in exciting locations. They are often part of a larger work created for a specific exhibition for a certain place and connection. The films can also function independently.
The four female characters in the film represent our so-called four fundamental rights: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear. The male actors represent an artist, an engineer, and a diplomat. The film also involves diving, swimming and dancing. Everything takes place in breathtakingly beautiful or impressive spaces.
The discussion is fascinating, even ironic — after all, we live in a Europe of many contradictions, where populism is again raising its head. The dialogue has been compiled, e.g. from the conversations found in the archives, which concern the so-called soft power and influence.
In the European context and cultural space, cultural diplomacy has sometimes even taken concrete forms in the form of the most iconic buildings and artistic "gifts".
The Gift has been filmed inside the headquarters of the French Communist Party and the United Nations Palace of Nations in Geneva, among others. The former was designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer. Regarding cultural gifts, we should know the following: Niemeyer gave the designs of the headquarters building, which has preserved almost its original appearance, as a genuine gift.
The Gift. 28 min. Jasmina Cibic. 2021
Jasmina Cibic is an exceptionally interesting artist born in Slovenia. Her works often also include carefully scripted and directed short films filmed in exciting locations. They are often part of a larger work created for a specific exhibition for a certain place and connection. The films can also function independently.
The short film Timecapsule takes us inside an abandoned and small but architecturally exciting building. The house was once designed by the architect Rikard Marasoviç at the beginning of the sixties and was intended as a hospital and sanatorium for children suffering from lung diseases in the army. The architecture of socialist Yugoslavia was often unusually relaxed, compared to the practices of Soviet architecture. Yugoslavia allowed creators a confusing amount of freedom in both architecture and design.
The building has a very peculiar character and seems to float in the terrain like a lifebuoy. Now it is still in the carefully chosen place but abandoned and messed with graffiti. The arrangements of the premises for children, with specially thought-out curved ramps, can still be visualized. The building dates to a time and society when the most beautiful places and landscapes were also chosen for children struggling with their health. The task of the architecture was to promote both rehabilitation and healing.
We are led by the soft and sonorous voice of the male actor, who repeats the thoughts of the architect and the locality, its history and the community. The actor portraying the character of the late architect tours the building, which has reached a miserable state, but there is hope: something completely different could soon start happening there, on the initiative of many people — like young architects — who appreciate the building.
Timecapsule. 10 minutes
Rebeka Bratož Gornik, 2023
The building has a very peculiar character and seems to float in the terrain like a lifebuoy. Now it is still in the carefully chosen place but abandoned and messed with graffiti. The arrangements of the premises for children, with specially thought-out curved ramps, can still be visualized. The building dates to a time and society when the most beautiful places and landscapes were also chosen for children struggling with their health. The task of the architecture was to promote both rehabilitation and healing.
We are led by the soft and sonorous voice of the male actor, who repeats the thoughts of the architect and the locality, its history and the community. The actor portraying the character of the late architect tours the building, which has reached a miserable state, but there is hope: something completely different could soon start happening there, on the initiative of many people — like young architects — who appreciate the building.
Timecapsule. 10 minutes
Rebeka Bratož Gornik, 2023
The short film examines the changed situation of those working in the field of culture in big cities, with one building serving as a symbolic example. A former sugar factory called Cukrarna on the outskirts of Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, has in the past and despite its shortcomings, offered shelter to the most important writers and authors of the country’s modernist era. Many of them lived in this damp, thick-walled building in absolute poverty. Even in recent years, artists lived and worked in the building. The building looked gloomy from the outside, but new things were being done and created inside.
When the building was completely repaired and renovated, of course, there no longer was any space for artists, nor a place to produce new works of art or books. The film touches on the theme of art-related gentrification, or the use of "art" and "creativity" in the marketing of cities, while the creators of art and culture themselves more and more often are forced to find a place for their work and life somewhere else.
The short film features actors who represent people from different fields. The new spacious and white spaces glow with elegance and the fine steel-glistening elevator shines with its cleanliness. The former sugar factory and later the quietly decaying retreat of many writers and artists was recently made completely new. Based on the architecture competition proposal of the architectural office called Scapelab, it was scraped empty from the inside. The new and spacious exhibition halls for the presentation of art at the Cukrarna were opened in 2021.
The Ground for Culture, approx. 7 min.
Rebeka Bratož Gornik. 2023
When the building was completely repaired and renovated, of course, there no longer was any space for artists, nor a place to produce new works of art or books. The film touches on the theme of art-related gentrification, or the use of "art" and "creativity" in the marketing of cities, while the creators of art and culture themselves more and more often are forced to find a place for their work and life somewhere else.
The short film features actors who represent people from different fields. The new spacious and white spaces glow with elegance and the fine steel-glistening elevator shines with its cleanliness. The former sugar factory and later the quietly decaying retreat of many writers and artists was recently made completely new. Based on the architecture competition proposal of the architectural office called Scapelab, it was scraped empty from the inside. The new and spacious exhibition halls for the presentation of art at the Cukrarna were opened in 2021.
The Ground for Culture, approx. 7 min.
Rebeka Bratož Gornik. 2023
A city planner’s work requires talent, travel and reading; the highly demanding task cannot be solved simply by following international trends.
Jan Inghe-Hagström (1944−2005), an influential city-planner and architect in Stockholm, was an urban planner in the true sense of the word. Rasmus Wærn, the architect who wrote and conceived the film about him, is an expert in architecture. He has also been the editor in chief of the leading Swedish architecture publication Arkitektur. At a leisurely pace, the documentary film reflects on what is meant by good urban planning.
The central figure, Jan Inghe, managed to graduate as an architect at a time when the 1970s wanted to question almost everything. Since then, his work as an urban planner has been unique and creative. Jan Inghe is known for the exceptional city planning around the Minneberg and Södra Station areas in Stockholm. The most significant achievement that also has attracted international interest is Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, south of the Söder district. Professionals from all over the world came to see it in droves.
The documentary is a lesson about what urban planning should really be and what real urban planners should be able to demand of a well-functioning city and themselves. An urban planner must not be a money runner or work according to the newest trends picked from abroad.
Wærn and the film crew also travelled to Helsinki to film something that was not so successfully achieved in Hammarby Sjöstad: in the Arabianranta district in Helsinki, many kinds of people of different ages and income levels have all found their new homes all in well-designed buildings.
En annan stad — An Other City. 58 min.
Rasmus Wærn with Kajsa Andersö and Tomas Boman. 2021
Jan Inghe-Hagström (1944−2005), an influential city-planner and architect in Stockholm, was an urban planner in the true sense of the word. Rasmus Wærn, the architect who wrote and conceived the film about him, is an expert in architecture. He has also been the editor in chief of the leading Swedish architecture publication Arkitektur. At a leisurely pace, the documentary film reflects on what is meant by good urban planning.
The central figure, Jan Inghe, managed to graduate as an architect at a time when the 1970s wanted to question almost everything. Since then, his work as an urban planner has been unique and creative. Jan Inghe is known for the exceptional city planning around the Minneberg and Södra Station areas in Stockholm. The most significant achievement that also has attracted international interest is Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, south of the Söder district. Professionals from all over the world came to see it in droves.
The documentary is a lesson about what urban planning should really be and what real urban planners should be able to demand of a well-functioning city and themselves. An urban planner must not be a money runner or work according to the newest trends picked from abroad.
Wærn and the film crew also travelled to Helsinki to film something that was not so successfully achieved in Hammarby Sjöstad: in the Arabianranta district in Helsinki, many kinds of people of different ages and income levels have all found their new homes all in well-designed buildings.
En annan stad — An Other City. 58 min.
Rasmus Wærn with Kajsa Andersö and Tomas Boman. 2021
Hans Christian Post, who moved from Berlin and back to his native Denmark, was soon to notice that everything was not quite as good as it seemed at first glance in Copenhagen, which has become a destination for architectural tourism.
Copenhagen was on the verge of bankruptcy in the early 1990s but has since become an exemplary city. Of course, this success has had a lot of thinking behind its changes. Copenhagen and its decision-makers have also known how to use the best possible architects. They, again, have made an effort, based on the overall high quality of the Danish built environment. However, this kind of well-marketed success also has a darker side.
We get to meet architecture and urban planning influencers who tell about the transformation of shabby old residential blocks into better ones and about completely new urban districts. However, many people will not be interested in moving to architecturally stylish new neighborhoods or apartments: the apartments are too expensive, to buy or rent. Attraction also has brought problems: is there also a phenomenon that has already started to push people out? Are some shrinking rural towns becoming interesting and wanted again?
The film presents several destinations, examples and issues in which Copenhagen is considered to have succeeded brilliantly. The filmmakers dare to peek behind the image marketing and the happy city scene and ask: has it become the best in the world after all? Should something be corrected as soon as possible?
When trying to create a well-functioning city, you should always bear in mind to think about all kinds of citizens who live and work in the city. It is not only about open-air baths, restaurants, bicycle lanes and happy events.
Best in The World, 56 min.
Hans Christian Post. 2022
Copenhagen was on the verge of bankruptcy in the early 1990s but has since become an exemplary city. Of course, this success has had a lot of thinking behind its changes. Copenhagen and its decision-makers have also known how to use the best possible architects. They, again, have made an effort, based on the overall high quality of the Danish built environment. However, this kind of well-marketed success also has a darker side.
We get to meet architecture and urban planning influencers who tell about the transformation of shabby old residential blocks into better ones and about completely new urban districts. However, many people will not be interested in moving to architecturally stylish new neighborhoods or apartments: the apartments are too expensive, to buy or rent. Attraction also has brought problems: is there also a phenomenon that has already started to push people out? Are some shrinking rural towns becoming interesting and wanted again?
The film presents several destinations, examples and issues in which Copenhagen is considered to have succeeded brilliantly. The filmmakers dare to peek behind the image marketing and the happy city scene and ask: has it become the best in the world after all? Should something be corrected as soon as possible?
When trying to create a well-functioning city, you should always bear in mind to think about all kinds of citizens who live and work in the city. It is not only about open-air baths, restaurants, bicycle lanes and happy events.
Best in The World, 56 min.
Hans Christian Post. 2022
Alison and Peter Smithson’s so-called main work, the residential complex Robin Hood Gardens in London from the seventies, has recently been demolished.
English architects and cultural influencers tried to do everything they could to save and restore this complex, back to the value it deserved. But it turned out to be useless. Some of the building parts recovered by the Victoria and Albert Museum were transported by water to the Venice Biennale, where they were available for viewing during the 2018 Architecture Biennale.
During the filming of the acclaimed documentary, the famous photographer Hélène Binet captured the essence of a massive entity that already had been destined for demolition, to somehow save it for posterity.
In recent years, the inhabitants had been selected in such a way that the buildings slowly fell into disrepair. This, of course, supported efforts to sweep everything to the ground.
London has not been able to boast much about its housing policy; the city is built primarily for those who have money. Some of the owners don’t even live in their expensive apartments in London.
Although the experiments with so-called cities within cities like Robin Hood Gardens were intended to be almost self-sufficient large residential complexes, can arouse conflicting thoughts, one thing is at least certain: the road to destruction is ahead, if the buildings are not taken care of and people are chosen as residents when they can barely even take care of their own lives.
The film is a multi-layered, carefully told story about the utopia of the architects of that time. It represented an optimistic effort to do better than before — for very ordinary, even low-income London people.
Robin Hood Gardens. 90 min.
Thomas Beyer and Adrian Dorschner. 2022
English architects and cultural influencers tried to do everything they could to save and restore this complex, back to the value it deserved. But it turned out to be useless. Some of the building parts recovered by the Victoria and Albert Museum were transported by water to the Venice Biennale, where they were available for viewing during the 2018 Architecture Biennale.
During the filming of the acclaimed documentary, the famous photographer Hélène Binet captured the essence of a massive entity that already had been destined for demolition, to somehow save it for posterity.
In recent years, the inhabitants had been selected in such a way that the buildings slowly fell into disrepair. This, of course, supported efforts to sweep everything to the ground.
London has not been able to boast much about its housing policy; the city is built primarily for those who have money. Some of the owners don’t even live in their expensive apartments in London.
Although the experiments with so-called cities within cities like Robin Hood Gardens were intended to be almost self-sufficient large residential complexes, can arouse conflicting thoughts, one thing is at least certain: the road to destruction is ahead, if the buildings are not taken care of and people are chosen as residents when they can barely even take care of their own lives.
The film is a multi-layered, carefully told story about the utopia of the architects of that time. It represented an optimistic effort to do better than before — for very ordinary, even low-income London people.
Robin Hood Gardens. 90 min.
Thomas Beyer and Adrian Dorschner. 2022
Vienna’s housing policy has more than a hundred years of history. The city is often considered the best place to live in the world.
In her film, Bianca Gleissinger describes a huge residential complex called Alterlaa and designed by architect Harry Glück. When it was completed in stages in the 1970s, it was considered the utmost housing utopia of its time. The motto was to create luxury housing for ordinary people. There were up to 27 floors, with swimming pools and sun terraces on the rooftops. Like everywhere in Vienna, the apartments are spacious and bright and are surrounded by a more or less well-kept park. There are approximately 10,000 residents and the complex includes plenty of services and common spaces. The director’s childhood memories are related to this special place, where the family lived until Bianca´s parents separated. After graduating as a film director, she returned to see what Alterlaa is like and what kind of people live there now.
The take in the skilfully shot film is curious, relaxed and even critical. People don’t want to move out of their apartments because they feel comfortable in them. Alterlaa has even been called Austria’s largest old people´s home. Younger people also live there, but at least some of them — when interviewed — don’t seem to be interested in common things. We get to meet many different people who live in the urban village and van visit the balcony terraces bursting with flowers and tomatoes. Residents' hobbies, which include the construction of elaborate model airplanes or collecting paraphernalia about a popular musician, are also presented.
Many older residents consider Alterlaa to be the best place in the world to live. The buildings have also been more or less well taken care of. In Vienna, this film is also about the Austrian capital’s stable and internationally respected housing policy.
27 Storeys. 82 min.
Directed and written by Bianca Gleissinger. 2023
In her film, Bianca Gleissinger describes a huge residential complex called Alterlaa and designed by architect Harry Glück. When it was completed in stages in the 1970s, it was considered the utmost housing utopia of its time. The motto was to create luxury housing for ordinary people. There were up to 27 floors, with swimming pools and sun terraces on the rooftops. Like everywhere in Vienna, the apartments are spacious and bright and are surrounded by a more or less well-kept park. There are approximately 10,000 residents and the complex includes plenty of services and common spaces. The director’s childhood memories are related to this special place, where the family lived until Bianca´s parents separated. After graduating as a film director, she returned to see what Alterlaa is like and what kind of people live there now.
The take in the skilfully shot film is curious, relaxed and even critical. People don’t want to move out of their apartments because they feel comfortable in them. Alterlaa has even been called Austria’s largest old people´s home. Younger people also live there, but at least some of them — when interviewed — don’t seem to be interested in common things. We get to meet many different people who live in the urban village and van visit the balcony terraces bursting with flowers and tomatoes. Residents' hobbies, which include the construction of elaborate model airplanes or collecting paraphernalia about a popular musician, are also presented.
Many older residents consider Alterlaa to be the best place in the world to live. The buildings have also been more or less well taken care of. In Vienna, this film is also about the Austrian capital’s stable and internationally respected housing policy.
27 Storeys. 82 min.
Directed and written by Bianca Gleissinger. 2023
In the Swiss town of Winterthur, a large apartment block supporting communal living, Wohngemeinschaft Vogelsang (Bird´s Song) was completed some time ago. When the apartments came up for search, there were so many people interested in having a new home there, that the community server immediately crashed.
The film tells about the residents and the operating principles of the residential community. The architects are experienced designers of housing. They have not aimed primarily at photographic trendiness, let alone minimalism. Located near the center of Winterthur and next to an already existing and green urban villa area, the large block with a modest number of floors has facades with Italian-style shutters painted in green, and in certain parts covered with unadorned wood. According to the architects, instead of consisting of repeated blocks, the urban structure of the whole is like a unique weave.
The Wohngemeinschaft does not seek to make a profit. It represents a relatively dense but not too dense construction. There are also spaces for enjoying music and eating together, but the apartments are also spacious and bright. Vogelsang also includes a cafe, clubrooms, a daycare center and even a cooling fountain — and much, much more.
The architects Axel Fickert and Kaschka Knapkiewicz have not aimed for any petty beautification. Instead, they have wanted to create an urban and village-like spirit. It goes without saying that the cost level had to be kept in mind all the time. Life has now filled Vogelsang’s buildings and their surroundings and everything seems to be in order.
This good-natured short film could also bring a breath of fresh air to the Finnish housing debate.
Vogelsang — Good Life Made Easy. 22 min.
Directed and written by Flieger & Corti. 2022
The film tells about the residents and the operating principles of the residential community. The architects are experienced designers of housing. They have not aimed primarily at photographic trendiness, let alone minimalism. Located near the center of Winterthur and next to an already existing and green urban villa area, the large block with a modest number of floors has facades with Italian-style shutters painted in green, and in certain parts covered with unadorned wood. According to the architects, instead of consisting of repeated blocks, the urban structure of the whole is like a unique weave.
The Wohngemeinschaft does not seek to make a profit. It represents a relatively dense but not too dense construction. There are also spaces for enjoying music and eating together, but the apartments are also spacious and bright. Vogelsang also includes a cafe, clubrooms, a daycare center and even a cooling fountain — and much, much more.
The architects Axel Fickert and Kaschka Knapkiewicz have not aimed for any petty beautification. Instead, they have wanted to create an urban and village-like spirit. It goes without saying that the cost level had to be kept in mind all the time. Life has now filled Vogelsang’s buildings and their surroundings and everything seems to be in order.
This good-natured short film could also bring a breath of fresh air to the Finnish housing debate.
Vogelsang — Good Life Made Easy. 22 min.
Directed and written by Flieger & Corti. 2022
Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are better known as a power team called Bêka & Lemoine. Three films by these world-famous architecture documentarians and filmmakers have been shown at previous festivals: Infinite Happiness, Buto House, and Tokyo Ride. Unfortunately, the whole series of films called Homo Urbanus, shot in several cities between 2017 and 2022, is almost ten hours long and therefore did not fit into the program.
In 2023, it’s time for a fascinating day trip to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. We get to see the slums of a city of more than ten million people and visit the concrete jungle of huge apartment buildings. The trip also takes you to the countryside, even to meet elephants.
Boonserm Premthada, who, despite his poor background and his hearing problem, became one of the foremost architects in his country. He has learned to use his whole body to make up for his hearing problem. His architecture thus appeals to the senses and vibrates and feels in a new way.
Of course, the family had no money for expensive or even cheaper plastic toys. The skills that are still required of architects, he developed as a child with the help of pencils and pieces of paper. With them, he drew and constructed objects that first only existed in his imagination.
We also get to visit the construction site of his and his own family’s new house, which Boonserm and his spouse cheerfully present. The now famous architect has, contrary to the customs established in our Western countries, in the fine new house there will be fine rooms also for his older relatives who have taken care of him since he was a child, in the streets of the shadowy slums.
Big Ears Listen with Feet. 93 min.
Bêka & Lemoine. 2022
In 2023, it’s time for a fascinating day trip to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. We get to see the slums of a city of more than ten million people and visit the concrete jungle of huge apartment buildings. The trip also takes you to the countryside, even to meet elephants.
Boonserm Premthada, who, despite his poor background and his hearing problem, became one of the foremost architects in his country. He has learned to use his whole body to make up for his hearing problem. His architecture thus appeals to the senses and vibrates and feels in a new way.
Of course, the family had no money for expensive or even cheaper plastic toys. The skills that are still required of architects, he developed as a child with the help of pencils and pieces of paper. With them, he drew and constructed objects that first only existed in his imagination.
We also get to visit the construction site of his and his own family’s new house, which Boonserm and his spouse cheerfully present. The now famous architect has, contrary to the customs established in our Western countries, in the fine new house there will be fine rooms also for his older relatives who have taken care of him since he was a child, in the streets of the shadowy slums.
Big Ears Listen with Feet. 93 min.
Bêka & Lemoine. 2022
