Just as the world is developing, all the fields of work are pushing their envelopes and challenging new elements. The case with architecture is similar. There used to be a time when an architect was only associated with house designing. However, in this age of digitization, young minds are coming out of the conventional nutshells and ripping apart any constraints that might have existed. Architects made it through documentaries and serieses on Netflix, and are now emerging as a very lucrative option for budding architects is the Hollywood film industry. In fact, multiple genres of films like historical as well as Sci-fi movies continuously pay for the services being provided by an architect.
According to Russell Baker, ‘Architects are the professional, artistic, and technically skilled creators, inventors, and designers of much more than just residential housing. An architecture student must become a “jack-of-all-trades.” We must apply a plethora of knowledge to employ in our thought processes in order to not only use in our design but in our communication of our ideas to our clients.’
Just imagine a movie like Transformers but with buildings having artificial intelligence or a horror movie in which the building in itself is sentient. The potential and perspective which an architect could provide are limitless. Every time-skip movie needs an architect because, in order to create a different era on screen, it is necessary that the buildings complement it. If a director is showing a scene from the 1800s but the buildings are from another era, the desired impact won’t be possible.
IMAGINATION LANDSCAPES
In recent years, high profile news outlets like The New York Times and CNN have featured architects’ struggles by citing the dire unemployment statistic of 13.9% for recent graduates, the highest of any college major. Since architecture graduates have so little window to perform, they are exploring their options. And what has attracted the attention the most in the field of special effects and animation especially in Hollywood.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY © Kristopher Grunert
The transition of architects towards the film industry is not recent. Architects, in the end, are creative people and fiction is all about creativity. Architects have enjoyed enormous success in the film-making industry over the last 80 years as actors, set designers, or directors. Whether it be popular actor James Stewart or Indian Actress Aishwarya Rai, famous set designer Tino Schaedler or director Ben West, they have set an example for others on how the skill set of architects is not a hindrance, rather a quality in this industry.
This cross-over of the profession into the field of animation is probably due to the fact that both the professions include similar software knowledge of software like Maya, 3ds max, Cinema 4D, etc. which are also used in creating visual effects (VFX) in movies. Thus architects are subtly yet strongly creating an impact on how films are being made and this is turning out to be a very successful venture for both architects as well as filmmakers and what is most significant is that audience is enjoying this cocktail the most.
By: Vaibhav Sharma