1. 24 City (2008)
It is amongst the finest movies every architect must watch, showing the perils ushered in by modern architecture and construction. It starts with tracing China’s history through the experiences of the factory workers; it soon ends up creating a feeling of hollowness as it shows the bleak future that came when the factory shut its doors.
2. Visual Acoustics (2008)
Showing the building of traditional architecture and the evolution of modern society, this movie shows the journey and works of famous architecture photographer Julius Shulman. Showing viewers Shulman’s career is the impeccable narration by Dustin Hoffman. Shulman worked tirelessly, and his different evocative images highlight the power of modern American architecture.
3. Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011)
Another highly recommended film every architect should add to their watchlist is this. The film shows the life and works of Charles, and Ray Eames, considered the era’s two of the most impressive American designers.
The duo was famous for their influence on modernism and creative, unconventional work that bought in new trends and designs for furniture and interior design.
4. Ex Machina (2014)
The suspenseful plot goes around a young programmer named Caleb Smith, who won a competition to holiday at his CEO Nathan Bateman’s mountain retreat. However, there is more to this solitary CEO with his holiday prize than is shown. Caleb has to participate in a groundbreaking experiment in synthetic intelligence and find how human-like Nathan’s robot named Ava is.
5. The Infinite Happiness (2015)
The Infinite Happiness shows the works of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. He is the person behind Copenhagen’s interesting ‘8’ housing development, and the movie focuses on the lives and experiences of its residents. Instead of speaking to the architect himself, the camera brings out the happy everyday stories of these residents who share anecdotes of birthdays, playing outdoors, and stories of Halloween and family gatherings.
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The drama-comedy is about a fictional country called Zubrowka. Gustave H is the concierge at this famous European hotel where Zero Moustafa, a lobby boy, is his trusted companion. A mysterious murder, theft, and finding of a priceless Renaissance painting make it a delightful film. The impressive visual of the hotel building, its traditional European furniture, and color schemes enhance the character of the building.
7. The Architect (2016)
Another splendid light-hearted film that every architect should watch. Sure to resonate with architecture students, the main character is an outstanding young architect named Miles Moss, hired by a married couple to design their dream house. However, things go reverse as Miles is shown to be a very self-centered and arrogant architect who is utterly obsessed with his work.
8. Midnight in Paris (2011)
When a successful screenwriter, Gil, struggles to overcome writer’s block, he strolls at midnight in Paris and falls in love with this splendid architecture and beauty of the most romantic city. During his night walk, Gil goes back in time where he meets Ernest Hemingway, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, and Josephine Baker. While the story is not based on architecture, it is one of the finest Woody Allen movies every architect or movie buff should watch at least once.
9. Blade Runner (1982)
The director focuses on a futuristic world that is neither fantasy ridden nor a different place to live. In the movie, Los Angeles of 2019 is a dark city full of cyborgs named Replicants, created by human beings for entertainment. The dystopian film shows the horrors of how these Replicants are out and about hunting for shelter. In such a scenario, Rick Deckard is an LAPD blade runner tasked to hunt these cyborgs.
10. The Belly of an Architect (1987)
With architecture as its central theme, the movie revolves around the life of American architect Stourley Kracklite who arrives in Rome with his wife Louisa Kracklite to host an exhibition in honor of the 18th-century French neo-classical architect Étienne-Louis Boullée. The importance of the spherical shapes that dominate the frame and how the film gets its unusual name.
