If you love architecture and enjoy it beyond the daily work. That's why we prepare a selection of films and documentaries, some based on people and real spaces, others fictional, but that will captivate you in any way. Get ready and relax on this vacation with our recommendations.


The Spring (1949)
It is one of the best known architecture films. It is based on a novel by Ayn Rand written a few years earlier. The film stars Howard Roark (Gary Cooper). Hoark is a brilliant architect with very solid principles who is not willing to compromise his artistic vision. He receives an assignment in New York, but his project is altered without his consent.
The main character is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. The author of the novel and screenwriter wanted to be the author of the plans that appear in the film. However, they declined the idea because of the astronomical amount that they requested for it. Despite this, the drawings have an undeniable similarity to Wright's work.

 The architect (2006)
The plot has as protagonists Leo (Anthony Lapaglia) an architect who in his youth designed a low-budget housing complex. Over time, the building has become a deteriorated place, focus of crime. As an antithesis, we find Tonya (Viola Davis) a woman who lives in that building and leads a campaign to bring it down. When looking for Leo to join the campaign, the architect refuses to have his work destroyed.
A much more recent film and in which the responsibility of the architects comes into play on the buildings they project and the resulting urban environment in their interaction with the city. Undoubtedly, a problem that remains very current today.

Archiculture (2011)
Teaching also has a place in our list of films about architecture. Archiculture is a documentary that follows a group of students who are making their final projects in the last semester at the Pratt Institute in New York. The interactions and reactions of students help illustrate the challenges of being a young aspiring architect in today's world.
The teaching methods are not exempt from criticism among the professionals that appear in the documentary. Through the YouTube channel of the documentary you can see it in its entirety, as well as extra material, such as interviews that had no place in the final editing. Undoubtedly, an interesting vision of the current teaching of architecture.

Iron 3 (2004)
Of course it is not a film directly related to architecture, but it is certainly very present. The argument is at least curious. Tae-Suk is a young man who temporarily occupies empty houses. It never steals, but rather performs minor repairs or does laundry while its owners are absent. In one of those houses is when he meets Sun-hwa, a battered woman whose husband encloses her in an ostentatious house.
With few dialogues and an overwhelming silence, the tape makes us think about how we inhabit our private spaces and how they can lose their meaning when they are empty. You can watch it online through film.

 
How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster? (2010)
We return to the documentary genre in our list of films about architecture. This documentary follows the life path of one of the most emblematic architects of the 21st century.
In spite of the good intentions, this documentary monopolized some critics by the content and the way of narrating. However, the visual style is magnificent, so if you like Foster's work, you will enjoy watching his work. The Beijing airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst building in New York and buildings such as the highest bridge on the planet, the Millau viaduct in France, are some of the works that appear.

 
Abstract: the art of design (2017)
Undoubtedly, it has been one of the most praised documentary productions in the last months of the Netflix platform. Abstract is a documentary series about the world of design. It is composed of 8 chapters, each focused on one aspect of the design.
The one dedicated to architecture focuses on the work of architect Bjarke Ingels, who combines functionality, fantasy and sustainability.
However, if you are passionate about design in general, you will find others of your interest. The interior design is based on the work of designer Ilse Crawford, who has designed from luxury hotels to Ikea furniture.

Oscar Niemeyer - A Life É Um Sopro (2010)
Oscar Niemeyer relates relaxed how he conceived his main projects. In this documentary, the Brazilian architect talks about his life, although he also shows how he introduced the curved line and the artistic possibilities of reinforced concrete.
In addition, the film also includes other reflections such as his ideal of a just society and other metaphysical questions such as the insignificance of man before the universe.

Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005)
Directed by Sydney Pollack, a lifelong friend of Gehry, this documentary explores the life and work of the most important living American architect. Part of Gehry's hobby of starting his projects by sketches, which shapes the narrative. It includes interviews with Dennis Hopper, Robert Rauschenberg, or Julian Schnabel, among others.

 
The Architect and The Painter (2011)
Narrated by James Franco, this vision of Charles and Ray Eames shows his look at his way of working and the creation of his studio in California. From there they created a true laboratory of design experimentation. The film shows interviews with family members, collaborators and biographers that help us create a portrait of the couple's artistic facets.

My architect: the journey of a son (2003)
It is a documentary film about the American architect Louis Kahn (1901-1974), related by his son Nathaniel Kahn, in which the architect's career is portrayed, as well as his family relationship after his death in 1974.