Annotated Bibliography

The Architecture of Vision, by Michelangelo Antonioni:
This book perhaps had the strongest effect on the direction that I have taken in my thesis. Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, I found the writings in the book very overwhelming, because they sincerely tell the stories behind the small scenes that made Antonioni's films so powerful and successful.

El Lissitzky, 1890-1941 : architect, painter, photographer, typographer
El Lissitzky, 1890-1941 : catalogue for an exhibition of selected works from North American collections, the Sprengel Museum Hanover, and the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle
Two books about Russian constructivism, an era of which many artists have taken film and photography as a means expression, talking specifically about Proun art, which is associated with El Lissitzky, a descendant of Melovich, and a student of Suprematism art. The art galleries that were organized by Lissitzky provide an exploration of space and movement by studying the location and orientation of the images, and by model-making.

L'Avventura, by Michelangelo Antonioni
A film about how circumstance allows for the forgetting of a lost loved-one. The main characters are an architect and his fiancé's friend, and they both fall in love after the fiancé's disappearance. The story contains direct references to architecture that talk about the significance of old Roman buildings in the modern time.

Il Deserto Rosso, by Michelangelo Antonioni
This film sets a metaphor between mother and nature. On one level, we see a mother who is paranoid because she thinks the world as unsafe, and on another level, we see nature suffering from industrial wastes, disease and human carelessness.

Space, Event Movement, by Bernard Tschumi
The slides were very influential to me as a starting point. The breaking down of architecture, according to Tschumi's thinking, into space, event and movement, helped to clarify certain aspects of design, which could be later explored into more depths, but not necessarily in the same way as Tschumi's deprogramming (which is the design of the building's systems independently of each other).

Le Fresnoy: Architecture in Between, by Bernard Tschumi
The learning process in any filming school must emphasize the artistic and creative side of teaching, as well as the technical aspects that deal with film. Le Fresnoy Media Center, in Tourcoing-France, by Tschumi, considers the technological aspect equally important in order to prepare the students for a competitive edge. Le Fresnoy places much emphasis on the electronic age, its most important piece of the design being an "electronic roof," as Tschumi calls it. The roof takes the architectural idea of a hangar further by using it to protect the old buildings that exist on the site, thus saving money on renovation jobs. In conclusion we learn how romantic architecture can make use of technology placed in the backstage to nurse and nourish time-beaten buildings in the foreground.

About Looking, by John Berger
The message of this book to me was how the media (the camera) today is not being used to communicate, but rather to sell. It opens a watchful eye from corporate advertisements, which give a wrong impression. The camera must not lie, and should be used creatively to show the truth, of something or someone.

Bernard Tschumi Architecture In/Of Motion, by Jos Bosman
Buildings (and spaces) are related. Tschumi's projects demonstrated in the book show how the movement of people unifies adjacent spaces together and establishes a bond. If we link Tschumi's thinking with Michelangelo Antonioni's way of looking at things, we see that this continuously-changing spatial experience (of layers through space) creates sequences of events, like a filmstrip. These events become a proof of the dialogue between the spaces. To illustrate this, people leaving a theater after watching a play, will passionately congregate at the main entrance (event) in order to discuss the act.

Cinema and Architecture, by Francois Penz and Maureen Thomas
This book contains essays that talk about the issue of cinema and architecture. It contains a wealth of opinions about the subject, which cannot all be mentioned here. In summery, having read most of the book during the early stage of the research, it gave a good sense of the magnitude and the variety in the topic of cinema and architecture.

A New Angel/Angle in Architectural Demonstration, by Marco Frascari
This article was very beneficial in connecting the threads of image presentation to the architectural scenario. Although it does not deal with film, I believe that it relates to the drawing and well as the film aspect of architectural demonstration, which makes it essential to the development of any architectural thesis.

Film Architecture, by Dietrich Neumann
This book deals with both the technical and theoretical relationships between film and architecture. It contains an analysis of important films (Dr. Calgary, Metropolis, Blade Runner), which I considered as "cinematic" precedents to complement the "architectural" ones.

Video-Architecture-Film, by Dan Graham
A small technical book on experimentation with human behaviour, space and video-camera shooting. It is closer to cinema verité, than to story film-making.

Movie Eye, by Raymond Drugnat
The article is a long and comprehensive theoretical analysis about the use of film in architecture.

Video-Architecture-Television
Writings on video and video works. Helps in the understanding between video and film.

Books

  1. 2G "Slowly Improving Vision: Williams Tsien Works"
    International Architecture Review N.9 1999, pg.21-29, 130-143
  2. About Looking
    John Berger, Pantheon Books, NY 1980
  3. The Architecture of Vision
    Michelangelo Antonioni, Marsilio Publishers, NY 1996
  4. Bernard Tschumi Architecture In/Of Motion
    Jos Bosman, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam 1997
  5. Cinema & Architecture
    Francois Penz and Maureen Thomas, British Film Institute, London 1997
  6. The Elements of Screenwriting
    Irwin R. Blacker
  7. El Lissitzki 1890-1941:
    El Lissitzki, Eindhoven : Municipal Van Abbemuseum, NY 1990
  8. Film Architecture
    Dietrich Neumann, Prestel, NY 1996
  9. Le Fresnoy Architecture In/Between
    Bernard Tschumi, Monacelli Press, NY 1999
  10. Article: "A New Angel/Angle in Architectural Research: The Ideas of Demonstration"
    Marco Frascari
  11. A Psychology of Buildings
    Glenn Robert Lym, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1980
  12. Space, Events, Movement [slides]
    Bernard Tschumi, Pidgeon Audio Visual, London 19996
  13. Video-Architecture-Television
    Dan Graham, Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax 1979
  14. El Lissitzky, 1890-1941 : catalogue for an exhibition of selected works from North American collections, the Sprengel Museum Hanover, and the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle
    El Lissitzky, Harvard University Art Museums Cambridge 1987
 

Articles

  1. Frascari, Marco, A New Angel/Angle in Architectural Research: The Ideas of Demonstration, JAE November 1990 pg.11-19
  2. Drugnat, Raymond, Movie Eye, Architectural Review March 1965 pg.187-193
  3. Kling, Vincent, The Architect as Film Maker, AIA Journal February 1971 pg.23-25
  4. McLaughlin, Herbert, That Architecture Plays in the Movies, AIA Journal January 1975 pg.39-41
  5. Bernard Tschumi Architects: Parc de la Villette, GA Document Vol.26 pg.38-39
  6. Metropont, Lausanne, Switzerland, Architecture August 1994 pg.33
 

Movies

Connect to the Internet Movie Database

  1. L'Avventura (The Adventure) -- 1960
    Michelangelo Antonioni
  2. Blade Runner -- 1982
  3. Deserto rosso, Il (Red Desert) -- 1964
    Michelangelo Antonioni
  4. Metropolis -- 1927
 

Internet

http://www.tschumi.com

Paperless Problem
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/Pub/Precis/site/13/csmith.html

comment: why paper medium is adequate for design, and what can be translated to other mediums.

Kinomatics & General Movement in Architecture
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~gomer/kino.html
comment: example of using computer animation as presentation of movement
.

Architecture Goes to Movies
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal/v20/v20n13/film_sets.html comment: reference to movies which had an influence on architecture.