Architecture

90-minute special on the architect. Filmed throughout the world over a two-year period.

Examines the practical philosophy, the achievements and frustrations of one of New Zealand's most lively and innovative architects, Ian Athfield. The film provides a portrait of the architect and his work both in New Zealand and his project to design housing for 140,000 squatters from the Tondo area of Manila in the Philippines, for which Athfield won an international competition in 1975.

For 45 years, the controversial 1968 BBC film Autopsy On A Dream was thought to be lost. But miraculously, a copy was discovered in the vaults of ABC Television by a researcher working on content for the 40th Anniversary of the Sydney Opera House. In 2013 the film was screened at the Sydney Opera House and aired for the first time on Australian television. The screening was introduced by a new prologue The Dream Of Perfection which chronicles the drama behind the making of the 1968 film.

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 (see link below for complete list and bios). 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.

One of Japan's most famous architects rides his Alfa Romeo through Tokyo streets and comments on his home town, buildings that influenced him, and his own projects.

A biography of the life and work of the American architect.

Renowned architectural filmmaker Murray Grigor explores John Lautner's dramatic spaces with choreographed camera moves, as Lautner himself provides the commentary, speaking with insight and wit in recordings culled from archival sources.

Focussing on his gift for harmonizing technology and nature, architect Alvar Aalto looks at all aspects and examines his creative style in the context of his time, the traditions he inherited and the country and climate in which he lived.

This documentary looks at architecture and design team Diller Scofidio + Renfro through the lens of two important urban projects - the High Line and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The work of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí, as seen by Japanese New Wave director Hiroshi Teshigahara.

Revered by architects around the world, Richard Leplastrier's search for beauty in his career is interwoven with his own life in a bush camp on the edge of Sydney.

Tadao Ando: From Emptiness to Infinity by German filmmaker Mathias Frick, offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look into the work and processes of Ando, the only architect to have won the discipline's four most prestigious prizes: the Pritzker, Carlsberg, Praemium Imperiale, and Kyoto Prize. Ando shares his sources of inspiration and motivation.

A comparison of two cathedrals, one in Denmark, one in Italy.

Uncovering the stories of the designers who built fascinating architectural marvels during the Soviet regime, Soviet Bus Stops is an ode to the power of individual creativity that would not be suppressed.

A look at how our environment and the perfect home can philosophically affect our happiness, and how innovative architecture can contribute to the perfect home.

23 episode documentary, each focusing on one distinguished building and its architect, from the 19th and 20th centuries.