Film and Architecture: The Narrative Dream State

Abstract

How do films create immersive dreamlike worlds through the use of architectural familiarity/unfamiliarity? Narrative has played key role in the architecture of monument since the founding of civilisation.The form of temples and buildings were determined on the belief systems and areas named after the stories of the place. Even in Auckland, the foot of Victoria Street West was named “Te Koranga” “the scaffolding” by the Maori because it was the location where fish were dried in the 40s.i “As they travelled the seven seas, the Chinese would weave tales around every unusual landscape feature they came across... Mountains, rivers, caves and later cities would become bound by the legends woven into their fabric, living on in the imaginations of both the natives and visiting foreigners.” ii In modern times, the narrative lives within other fields, such as film. However, architecture is not removed from the story telling process, it becomes the characters and story. The success of fictional worlds which are created within a film and how these are believably perceived by the audience depend on the architectural tools utilised. In a successful film the audience is emotionally and experientially immersed to the world which is created even though the reality of it is fictional. The spaces created within a film are composed of a dreamlike quality, as they are acts of pure creation, which remove physicality from the architectural process using a new type of geometry and process of constructing space to fill the space of the world within. The dream is unclear and disorientating, but when one is fully influenced, it becomes difficult to question the reality of the experience. The use of symbols and imagery is prevalent in filmmaking as a tool for storytelling, and these tools which are architectural, become essential in creating an engaging dream world. The use of familiar elements helps ground the world in comfort and reality, which makes it easier for the audience to become immersed. When this is contrasted with unfamiliar or unreal architecture, it helps the audience to process and accept fantastical elements of the space shown. The design project of this thesis looks at taking the way which films create certain narratives with architecture and how architecture can portray a narrative quality of its own, making it the star of the show. By editing familiar architectural spaces in such a way that the context becomes foggy and unfamiliar, a different narrative or hidden meaning can be applied. “What can architects learn from the spaces, buildings, and cities created by people in other fields?” iii