FUTURISTIC ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS

THROUGH THE STUDY OF SCIENCE-FICTION

DISSERTATION REPORT

Submitted by

SOWMYA. P
(17136003)

Under the guidance of

Asst. Prof. KALYAN TEJA. B

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of

B. ARCH (Bachelor of Architecture)

SCHOOL OF PLANNING ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

EXCELLENCE
HINDUSTAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE,

CHENNAI - 603 103

JUNE 2021

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 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this thesis report ”FUTURISTIC ARCHITECTURAL

CONCEPTS THROUGH THE STUDY OF SCIENCE FICTION” is the

Bonafide work of SOWMYA.P (17136003) who carried out the dissertation

work under my supervision during the academic year 2020-21.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE

AR. KALYAN TEJA.B

DEAN OF THE DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SPADE SPADE

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
Name: ________________________ Name: ________________________

Dissertation Viva - voce conducted on 30th June 2021

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Table of contents

Title Page No

List of Tables 4

List of Figures 4

1. Introduction

1.1Abstract 6
1.2 Why is there a need to take inspiration 6
from science – fiction?
1.3 Aim 6
1.4 Objectives 7
1.5 Methodology 7
1.6 Background 8

2. Literature study

2.1 Cinemarchitecture 9
2.1.1 Science fiction as a genre 10
10
2.1.2 The architecture in sci-fi
11
2.1.3 The city in sci-fi
11
2.1.4 Film analysis
13
2.2 Types of approaches in sci-fi
2.2.1 Technological future 14
2.2.1.1 Utopia 14
2.2.1.2 Dystopia 16
2.2.1.3 Colonies and settlements 17
2.2.2 A post-apocalyptic earth 18
2.2.3Alternative reality 19
2.2.3.1 The marvel universe 19
2.2.3.2 A different past 20
2.2.4 Other worlds 20
2.2.4.1 Alien world 20
2.2.4.2 Virtual world 22

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3. Case study 23

3.1 Metropolis 2026 24

3.2 Los Angeles 2019 26
3.3 New York 2259 28
3.4 Washington DC 2054 29
3.5 Libria 2035 30
3.6 Comparison table 31
3.7Conclusion 34
4. Analysis & Findings

4.1 New trends in Housing 34

4.1.1 Introduction 34
4.1.2 Case study 35
4.1.2.1The fifth element (1997) 35
4.1.2.2 Equilibrium (2002) 37
4.1.2.3 Blade runner (1927) 37
4.1.3 Inference
4.1.3.1 Meta-city 38
4.1.3.2 Tabula Rasa 39
4.1.3.3 Habitation as a cell 40
4.1.3.4 Minimal Habitation 41
4.1.4 Conclusion 41
4.2 Predictions & reality
4.2.1 All technology, Everything ! 43
4.2.1.1 Artificial intelligence 44
4.2.1.2 Automotive industry 44
technologies 45
4.2.1.3 Communication technologies 46
4.2.1.4 Internet of things 47
4.2.1.5 Financial technologies 47
4.2.2 Aerial transportation and infrastructure 48
4.2.3 Martian Architecture 48
4.2.4 Climate change & floating cities 49
4.3 How our future visions influence the city we
build 49
4.3.1 In the beginning, there was
Metropolis 49
4.3.2 Down below - Blade runner 51
4.3.3 Dubai, the dystopian city 51

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 4.3.4 Her : A dystopia gentrification ? 52
4.3.5 Flying cars, hyper loops and the 53
future of urban transportation
4.3.6 The smart city 55
4.3.7 The songdo experiment 56
4.3.8 The world as one Mega city 57
5. Conclusion 58

6. Bibilography 59

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 - Film analysis
Table 2 - Comparison on all the case studies

LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 1 - List of sci-fi films analyzed 13
Fig. 2 - Aeon flux (2002) 18
Fig. 3 - The giver (2014) 18
Fig. 4 - Total recall (2012) 19
Fig. 5 - Dredd (2012) 19
Fig. 6 - The fictional world of wakanda in Black panther 22
Fig. 7 - Star wars (1977) 24
Fig. 8 - Star wars episode III : Revenge of the sith (2005) 24
Fig. 9 - Inception (2010) 25
Fig. 10 - Tron legacy (2010) 25
Fig. 11 - The fifth element (1997) 25
Fig. 12 - The "New Tower of Babel", Metropolis (1927) 26
Fig. 13 - Broadway, New york 26
Fig. 14 - Night in the streets of Metropolis 26
Fig. 15 - William robinson leigh'svisionary city 27
Fig. 16 - Sant elia's citta nuova's station for aeroplanes and trains 27
Fig. 17 - The tyrell corporation resembling mayan temple 29
Fig. 18 - Concept drawing for blade runner (1982) 29
Fig. 19 - Bloated byzantine columns support the bradbury building 30
Fig. 20 - External structural members and services 30
Fig. 21 - Due to vast depth of the city, piblic transport trains travel
up and down the vertical walls of the building. 31
Fig. 22 - New york in 2259, a bottomless urban canyon 31
Fig. 23 - Public square at Libria 32
Fig. 24 - Libria: a fascist state where all citizens are rendered
emotionless by the state. 32
Fig. 25 - Individual's cell - The fifth element 39
Fig. 26 - A still from '15 millionmerits', Black mirror 47
Fig. 27 - Electric cars 48
Fig. 28 - Flying cars, The fifth element 48
Fig. 29 - Self driving cars, The minority report 48
Fig. 30 -'Spinner' : A still from Blade runner 48
Fig. 31 - 'Hab' from the outside 51

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Fig. 32 - Bamboo colony on Mars, as imagined by Warith and Amir 51
Fig. 33 - New York 2140 52
Fig. 34 - Oceanic city by BIG 52
Fig. 35 - Metropolis. 53
Fig. 36 - Altered carbon 53
Fig. 37 - Blade runner 54
Fig. 38 - Dubai 55
Fig. 39 - Her. 55
Fig. 40 -The fifth element 56
Fig. 41 - Minority report 57
Fig. 42 - Minority report 58
Fig. 43 - Songdo, south korea's smart city built from ground up. 59
Fig. 44 - Judge dredd. 59
Fig. 45 - Coruscant 60
Fig. 46 - Wakanda in black panther 60

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 ABSTRACT:
There are many ways of imagining the future of the city. We can start with the
growth of urbanisation, which envisages that in 2050 more than two-thirds of
the world population will live in cities. And from there calculate the increase in
the ecological footprint that urban life will determine, the increase in
consumption of the land, and the possible rise in inequality and segregation. Or
reflect on the new role of the city in globalisation and in the nation-state crisis.
Or refer to the new lifestyles or homologation produced by globalisation. Or
look at the city from the standpoint of the country, of territory being abandoned,
its desertification and the loss of biodiversity. It poses the question of how
images of architecture in science-fiction films influence our perceptions and
understanding of the future of our lived environments.

1.2 WHY IS THERE A NEED TO TAKE INSPIRATION FROM

SCIENCE FICTION?
Sci-fi often comes as a warning or a satire on various present situations and
possible developments in the future. The spaces described in such narratives are
a product of similar insights too and are hence either reflective of solutions or
indicative of design failures for probable future issues. The architectural setting
along with socio political and economic references from the novel can help
inform the decisions of a contemporary architect. Long ago in 1910, much
before the advent of hyper loops and tech cities, HG Wells, in his novel ‘The
Sleeper Awakes’, discussed the bemusing intricacies of a high-tech city, 200
years in the future. It gives in depth descriptions of moving pathways and roads,
massive buildings with automated doors, artificially lit skies, and covered cities
all under the purview of social, economic, and political aspects. This book is
said to have inspired the famous science fiction movie ‘Metropolis’, which in
turn has inspired many modernist architects. HG Well’s dystopic imagination of
the city and its well-thought criticism of such a city still holds relevance today.

1.3 AIM
The study aims at analysing how the futuristic vision influence the city we build
and the housing trends that are likely to emerge through the architectural
impressions in science fiction. Moreover, to analyse how much of the
predictions in sci-fi of the past has actually turned into reality.

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1.4 OBJECTIVE
1. To study sci-fi films in which architecture plays an important role.
2. To find out different typologies and approaches to science fiction film
3. To analyse new trends in housing and transportation
4. To analyse and compare the predictions and reality.
5.To find out how our future visions influence the city we build.

1.5 METHODOLOGY

The methodology employed in this dissertation is based on the qualitative

inquiry into the poetics of science-fiction and its relationship with Architecture.
To better understand the hypothesis, relevant case studies of science-fiction
movies are analyzed and study of relevant journal papers is presented within the
hypothesis is carried out.

The dissertation first defines science fiction as a genre and how architecture is
related to science fiction in many ways.
Once the idea of science-fiction as a commentary on contemporary society is
established, different types of approaches to the science-fiction film is
introduced, the concept of technological future which includes utopia and
dystopia, A post apocalyptic earth, alternative reality and other worlds like alien
world and virtual world are discussed.

The idea of using science fiction as a tool for analyzing the futuristc
architectural concepts and trends is discussed through case studies of several
science-fiction films which includes Metropolis(1927), Blade runner(1927), The
fifth element (1997), Minority report (2002) and Equilibrium (2002). With the
analysis made out of the case studies, new trends in housing is founds and
discussed.

Having established a clear vision on how science fiction acts as an inspiration

for architectural concepts, it also stressed that it also serves as an inspiration for
various fields of study. An analysis is carried out between the prediction and
reality based on the science fiction film and literature, where it discusses about
Martian architecture, Climate change, Floating cities, Aerial transportation and
other technological development which includes automotive, financial,
communication and artificial intelligence.

Finally, the dissertation discusses about how our future vision influences the
city we build, how much of the architectural aspects which was shown in sci-fi
movie as an imagination has actually become real.

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1.6 BACKGROUND
Architects and designers often find themselves experiencing movies a little
differently than the vast public, especially when it comes to the science-fiction
genre featuring buildings, cities or urban landscapes that are “out of this world”;
they see the buildings in the background and begin to analyse how they
are designed. Some sci-fi movies suggested technologies that have inspired
generations of scientists to research and develop them. In other cases, the
images of buildings and cities envisioned some 30 or 40 years ago, predicting
the future, have a striking resemblance to some present day urban
environments; there are also movies with visions radically different from what
we have today. Sci-fi can sometimes serve as a warning but often enough can be
a source of inspiration. Several movies have acquired a cult status, not only in
popular culture but also in the scientific community, their images becoming
almost iconic, referenced by many architects, theorist and researchers. Some
movies drew inspiration from various architectural studies or models of utopia,
on works from the avant-garde or competition entries.

With a great interest in the relationship between film and architecture, this
project establishes its subject matter on the posibilities presented in
science fiction cinema and speculative design. By extracting attributes from
these that would influence design and architectural concerns, a bridge between
the disconnected imagined and real, current and future, can be created. It seeks
to utilize cinematic design and storytelling conventions to succesfully convey
the desired atmosphere, architectural realities, and life conditions of a fictional
city. By utilizing advanced digital techniques often used in cinema itself,
including but not limited to virtual reality, animations, and 3-D renderings, an
alternative mode of representation that can be more immersive and experiential
for the field can be explored.

Human beings by nature like changes, and change is what drives them to
explore new possibilities of shaping their destiny. Artists, visionaries &
thinkers, to satisfy the inherent inclination of humans towards change, portray
their vision through various mediums. They all search for other disciplines for
inspiration ranging from nature, man, and Science. Architects as well typically
search other disciplines for inspiration and the world of science and science
fiction are a popular source. Science fiction of all the generation showcases
tremendous potential in exhibiting the futuristic societies, behavior, and
technology. Science fiction genre uses the real world as the starting point and
creates alternative, radically different and hypothetical worlds, inspired by the
conventions of science

One generation's ground breaking science-fiction usually becomes the accepted

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norm of the next. Advances in materials and techniques over the century have
eventually caused that which years ago were set firmly in the realms of the
imagination to become reality.

As applied to architecture, science fiction is an imaginative fom of design that

interprets a fictional vision into a strategy for approaching a new problem.
The inspiration that science has offered to creative practices is its promise to
give modern society the power to control its environment and in doing so, to
shape its destiny. But there is a yawning gap between fiction and reality, this
gap is normally identified as a transition. Technology is what can fill this
transition, and can advocate the absolute overlap of reality over fiction.
Technological advancements are constantly pushing the boundaries
of engineering and architecture broadening the canvas on which these
fields were performed Technologies that will affect the boundaries of
architecture
1.Information Technology
2.Digital Technology
3.Wireless Technology
4.Nanotechnology

Digital technology and Information technology may have changed our

lifestyle over the last decade, but so far they have had very little impact on our
dwellings. As the technologies insinuate themselves into every aspect of our
life, there is an urgent need to address our most private realm, where we
surround ourselves with families, friends, and assets.

2. LITERATURE STUDY

2.1 CINEMARCHITECTURE

Film is one of the most pervasive and accessible media forms of the 21st
century. The ability of film technologies to realistically represent the
possibilities of an architecturally and environmentally dystopic (or utopic)
future, is just one of the many ways that this important medium can impact
thinking about the design of current and future environments. Film has the
ability to convincingly ask: “what if?”.

What is interesting in the use of film in teaching architectural lessons, is the

ability of the media to provide increased understanding of the experiential
nature of spaces and ideas that have been trapped in 2-D media, even if based
on works of fiction rather than fact. For the purpose of this dissertation, films
that represent a future or alternative city strictly in live-action movies, will be
analyzed to create a series of design standards. In addition, looking into utopian

9
or futuristic designs by previous architects will be analyzed to extract relevant
characteristics and evaluate the successes of each.

When designing these futuristic cities, concept artists don’t necessarily neglect
existing architectural conventions and history. Many times, historical
architectural references can be identified within this alien or futuristic
worlds. Doug Chiang, chief artist for Star Wars: Episode I –The Phantom
Menace (1999) stated in an interview: “I’ve found that you should avoid making
things up without anchoring them to a strong foundation based in world history.
There are many architectural influences in our designs. In order to make this
new, futuristic worlds believable, they have to be anchored into reality in some
way.” By utilizing familiar languages and visuals in an unfamiliar context, the
result is a better ability to connect to the story and its world, and not feel
alienated by its unfamiliarity.

2.1.1 SCIENCE-FICTION AS A GENRE

While there may not be any consensus on what defines the Sci-Fi genre, most
films include descriptions which project futuristic design, innovations and
machines which are beyond current technological limitations. Whether visions
of utopia or dystopia, they are a projection of what may come to pass if
current technology and social evolution take a particular path. They provide
a believable vision of how the future may turn out to be. As with H.G. Wells
title of his 1938 film they describe those "Things to come".
Science fiction in film has inspired generations of scientists to research and
develop technologies that could
reach what is portrayed as seemingly unreachable. In the same way, architecture
can take lessons from these portrayals of cities, whether real or imagined, and
develop design parameters for application as new technologies for
representation emerge.

2.1.2 THE ARCHITECTURE IN SCIENCE-FICTION

Architectural imagination is undoubtedly an inevitable part of science fiction.

The authors write intricate descriptions of spaces and settings to build an image
in the mind of the reader. Each description perfectly fits the context of
the instance. These detailed accounts of spaces are carefully incorporated in the
sets of movie adaptations too. Most of the literature on the architecture of
science fiction limits itself to these movies and represents architecture as a
backdrop to a narrative. It goes without saying that science fiction as a genre is
extremely awe-inspiring. In addition to knitting fascinating stories which are
unputdownable, many sci-fi novels look deep into scenarios to predict and
formulate crazy hypotheses.

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 2.1.3 THE CITY IN SCIENCE-FICTION

Film is one of the most pervasive and accessible media forms of the 21st
century. The ability of film technologies to realistically represent the
possibilities of an architecturally and environmentally dystopic (or utopic)
future, is just one of the many ways that this important medium can impact
thinking about the design of current and future environments. Film has the
ability to convincingly ask: “what if?”.

What is interesting in the use of film in teaching architectural lessons, is the

ability of the media to provide increased understanding of the experiential
nature of spaces and ideas that have been trapped in 2-D media, even if based
on works of fiction rather than fact. For the purpose of this dissertation, films
that represent a future or alternative city strictly in live-action movies, will be
analyzed to create a series of design standards. In addition, looking into utopian
or futuristic designs by previous architects will be analyzed to extract relevant
characteristics and evaluate the successes of each.

When designing these futuristic cities, concept artists don’t necessarily neglect
existing architectural conventions and history. Many times, historical
architectural references can be identified within this alien or futuristic
worlds. Doug Chiang, chief artist for Star Wars: Episode I –The Phantom
Menace (1999) stated in an interview: “I’ve found that you should avoid making
things up without anchoring them to a strong foundation based in world history.
There are many architectural influences in our designs. In order to make this
new, futuristic worlds believable, they have to be anchored into reality in some
way.” By utilizing familiar languages and visuals in an unfamiliar context, the
result is a better ability to connect to the story and its world, and not feel
alienated by its unfamiliarity.

2.1.4 FILM ANALYSIS

Fig. 1 – List of films analyzed

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12
 Table 1 – Film analysis

2.2 TYPES OF APPROACHES IN SCIENCE-FICTION

The scientific utopias suggested – and did so, as we will mention, by two
different methods – an ideal city, a “right” way to think of the organisation of
society and the city, whereas these – in a cutting manner – describe the “ real”
ideal cities .

Architecture in movies depends on the story; the visuals of the built

environment vary greatly from dystopian futures to space opera fantasies, from

13
post-apocalyptic decaying structures to complete virtual worlds. Some of these
use fictional building inserted in real-world context while others make use
of real buildings because of their uniqueness or their iconic status. Karl
Gajdusek (writer for Oblivion, 2013) considers the five pillars of science fiction
to be: alien contact, artificial intelligence, technological breakthroughs, space
exploration/adventure and origin stories.The aim of these categories is to
establish a basic guideline for the analysis. For this paper, these five categories
were compacted into four, each accounting for the overall set for a story style:

1. Technological future of Earth : Utopia, dystopia and Colonies, bases or

settlements.
2. A post-apocalyptic Earth.
3. An alternative reality of past or present day Earth.
4. Other worlds : Alien world and virtual world.

2.2.1 TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE

The first thing that comes to mind when science-fiction is mentioned is the
future, future advancements in technology, a future society developed from
current paradigms. Usually the future is portrayed in such a way that it makes a
statement about present day issues regarding society, environment,
politics, economics and religion or to question progress in various fields of
science. Speculative technology used in films has inspired researchers to make
such devices. One famous example is the first mobile phone developed by
Motorola that was actually a flip phone resembling the communicator in Star
Trek (the original 1966 TV series). This category of stories that take place in the
future of Earth within a society that followed an upward path of technological
development without suffering major set-backs is the most common of themes
in sci-fi movies. Consequently this is the richest in architecture speculative
designs and it is usually meant to inspire. This is a vast part of the genre and
includes utopian and dystopian worlds and also the colonization of other parts
of the universe where humans have brought their history and building styles.
Almost half of the movies studied (68 from a total of 153) are set
in technological futures of the Earth. Nonetheless, some movies have both a
partially destroyed world and the rest of humanity is either on another planet or
in few densely populated cities, in which case the first part will be
discussed in the next category of post-apocalyptic Earth. The main focus of this
section is architecture done by and for humans in the near or distant future.

2.2.1.1 UTOPIA

Under the term of utopia I catalogue movies set in a generally peaceful future
imbued with technology and movies where the society is portrayed as idyllic

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even if throughout the movie the narrative takes different turns or the characters
become aware of a different reality. This is conducted for research purposes
meaning that a movie might be considered dystopian story-wise, but it is
architecturally presented as an utopia therefore shares visual similarities with
other utopian worlds. Basically, everything that is not a clear dystopia
(oppressive or savage in nature) or a remote colony falls under this label. One of
the first movies to evoke a utopian future is Things to Come (1936) and the year
is 2035 in the fictional city of Everytown.

The city is built underground similar to an open mine and the buildings are all
white with no decorations; elevators are exterior glass tubes and long linear
bridges cross in several directions. The buildings are modernist in style with
soft curved surfaces or balconies. Some vegetation can be seen, but is not
abundant. At the bottom of the pit that is tens of levels down from the green
surface there's a large plaza with an obelisk made from reflective material,
lighted from the bottom. In Logan's Run (1976) the idyllic society from 2274
lives in a domed city, shielded from the outside (although it is near the ocean)
and everything is cared for by a computer. The domes are enormous, hundreds
of meters above ground covering buildings of all shapes and sizes: pyramidal,
concave or faceted facades, conic or just boxy looking. Although white is
predominant, various vivid colours are introduced and a preference for
iridescent material can be noted. There's a lot of vegetation and travelling
between buildings is done by small capsules in horizontal transparent tubes
elevated above the trees. Since the '90s, sci-fi movies took utopia to a different
look, one of high rise cities. Towers covered in glass and steel, shiny and
transparent are seen in Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Almost all of them are rendered in shades of blue and silver, white is
occasionally present and vegetation has slowly disappeared from these large
cities. It can be argued that in all these scenarios the cities are real and
their envisioned future is heavily based on their present day silhouettes and
previous years trends of development. On another note however is the city of
New York in 2263 from The Fifth Element (1997), a vision that continues and
exaggerates its Art Deco tradition, removes almost all glass facades
and presents a city very high above the ground where there's only garbage and
pollution. Dense and with even heavier traffic (flying cars on countless levels) it
has expanded into the ocean past the Statue of Liberty where the once iconic
island has become a space-port. Dominant materials are concrete and stone with
a beige and sepia colour scheme. Bordering on dystopia are the themes used in
Aeon Flux (2005) and The Giver (2014) both movies presenting a closed
society that appears to be peaceful, balanced and desirable. These are circular
cities behind walls with a lot of vegetation and communities arranged in circles
and the overall layout is symmetric on one axis. In Aeon Flux the year is 2415

15
and there are 5 million people left in the world, all living in the city of
Bregna. The predominant material in the built environment is reinforced
concrete, using real buildings found in Berlin, Germany (among them are
Treptow Crematorium, Adlershof Trudelturm, Windkanal wind tunnel facility,
Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Bauhaus Archive). In The Giver all buildings
are dominantly white; the houses are identical, minimalistic in style, white with
small insertions of wood panels and they are position randomly on site
connected by sinuous pathways. The central plaza is host to a large
geodesic dome covered in glass plus several public buildings with slightly
curved shapes as well as a central official building with classical architecture
and a large extension both behind and above, in the same style as its neighbours.
Besides the dominant white finish some buildings feature concrete, stone and
metal finishing.

Fig. 2 Aeon Flux (2005); Fig. 3 The Giver (2014)

2.2.1.2 DYSTOPIA

This is a sub-genre very prolific in science-fiction and in most movies it makes

use of real buildings, generally modernist, rationalist or brutalist to emphasize
it's oppressive theme like Equilibrium (2002). In Equilibrium, filming locations
included landmarks marked by the Fascist movement: the Olympic Stadium in
Berlin and Il Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome; in Brazil the apartment complex
of Palacio D'Abraxas (near Paris), also designed in the fascist style was used for
the main character's residence. If these sets put an accent on conformity,
symmetry and rhythm, another trend is to make an agglomeration of element
like buildings, cars and trash layered with advertising in bright colours. In Blade
Runner (1982), the buildings are highly decorated – filming locations included
Ennis House by Frank Lloyd Wright and Bradbury Building in Los
Angeles, California and the entire city has an industrial vibe, dominated by
two large pyramids belonging to a powerful corporation. With this movie
director Ridley Scott makes an homage to Metropolis and also establishes a
style that will influence generations of film-makers and designers. Another take
on the claustrophobic conglomerate is the cyber-punk style used in
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) or the shanty towns and slums in In Time (2011),

16
Total Recall (2012) and Elysium (2013) resembling the South American slums
(favela) where the poor and the workers live below and the rich, high above.

Also influenced by Blade Runner a combination of Asian elements can be seen

in several movies. “Many film-makers return to familiar landscapes, believing
that the destruction of places we know is more disturbing” as seen in Escape
from New York (1981), Robocop (1987), Looper (2012) and Divergent (2014)
but this is more obvious in post-apocalyptic movies. One distinct example is
Dredd (2012) that features an unsettling interpretation of Le Corbusier's model
of La Ville Radieuse with isolated 200 storey massive towers, one kilometre
tall, made of concrete and equipped with steel blast doors and windows that can
be armed to shield it effectively, sealing it from outside world. But no matter the
scenario a common trademark of all dystopian worlds is the lack of vegetation;
nature doesn't belong in these futures of the Earth.

Fig. 4 Total Recall (2012) Fig. 5 Dredd (2012)

2.2.1.2 COLONIES, BASES OR SETTLEMENTS

As mentioned before this study excludes temporary establishments such as

research containers, capsules or pods and also space stations because most of
them function as a ship with living quarters and not as a town,
almost everything takes place indoors and there are no buildings to speak of.
Exception from this are the space stations in Elysium (2013) and Oscar winner
(for best visual effects) Interstellar (2014); these function as a large
city, mapped on the inside of a large spinning cylinder – another shape can
hardly function, the spinning tube is creating the effect of gravity thus
resembling Earth's conditions. The common denominator in these two examples
is the overwhelming greenery and the scattered buildings among these pastures;
this was made to contrast the world they come from (in Elysium the Earth is
polluted and overpopulated and in Interstellar the blight brought an ecological
collapse and dust covers everything) but the effect of a thriving green utopia
in space is compelling. Opposed to this vision are the military bases
or corporate colonies and Aliens (1986), Total Recall (1990), Avatar (2009),
usually established in harsh environments, thus, in need of strong protection –
blast doors and windows, rough metallic exterior or exposed concrete walls –
giving them a look of opaque container architecture and emphasizing the

17
strict and sometimes cruel interests of the management of these facilities
(military or corporate). Common in features is also the remote prison-like
establishments in Alien 3 (1992). Other prisons portrayed on distant planets are
designed inside natural caverns with little or no adaptation as seen in Star Trek:
Nemesis (2002). Although still on Earth, the underwater research facility in G.
I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) has all the trademarks of a remote military
base. It is connected to the frozen Arctic surface by three metallic
tubes resembling the industrial exhaust tower and the overall look is that of a
factory platform. A different tone is used for the settlements done in the interest
of exploration, colonization and expansion of human race in space (without the
push of a military or corporate agenda). These colonies are outright large cities
that when located at the core of the new civilization are mostly white with
curved organic shapes and set in green idyllic environments as in After Earth
(2013), but when presented as remote and bordering civilization they often seem
taken from a western movie or cob architecture – Star Trek V.

2.2.2 A POST-APOCALYPTIC EARTH

No matter the scenario, weather it is environmental disaster, a plague or a virus

deadly to human beings, nuclear holocaust, alien invasion or the rise of artificial
intelligence (AI) that decides to wipe humanity from the face of the Earth, a few
people manage to survive the apocalypse only to live in the ruins of present
day civilization. In these movies we rarely see new buildings and when we do
the built environment is made from salvaged bits and pieces, scavenged or re-
purposed materials and installations. In a few movies the ones that provoked the
doom of humanity have either their own base of operations that suffered little
to no damage or have built some new structures in order to maintain control
and/or security, these facilities are used for research, development
and production so they look like industrial platforms. A different route was
taken by Oblivion (2013) that instead of a large factory structure proposed a
small house above the clouds with smooth white and grey surfaces,
large glazing, a transparent pool and a helipad platform, all supported by a
supple pillar. This house is meant to look advanced and a bit alien, so, in order
to underline this, the movie also shows a little wooden cabin hidden in
a clearing in the mountains by a spring. All these are found in a devastated
landscape, where water is being taken from the surface of the earth by
large floating harvesters. Paying tribute to movies like Planet of the Apes
(1968) or Logan's Run (1976) director Joseph Kosinski shows a few
representative American buildings partially destroyed and almost conquered by
nature (in this case a dark grey dusty terrain) like the Empire State Building,
Met Life Stadium, the Pentagon and New York Public Library avoiding the
stereotype of a damaged Statue of Liberty. In other movies the return to a basic
way of living can be seen: cottages made of raw wood and adobe structures

18
resembling primitive settlements are used to show the loss of technological and
building knowledge and tools. However not all stories have such a drastic take
on technology, some suggesting a post-apocalyptic world that undergoes a
process of reconstruction where one its first steps is to build a massive wall to
isolate it from the damaging environment;

2.2.3 ALTERNATIVE REALITY

This section addresses scenarios that take place in the present day but with a
small alteration, or take place in an alternative past time and change the history
as we know it either with interpretations of notable events or the addition of
fictional ones as part of an untold or hidden history. In most cases, this
involves the existence of a fictional race or the invention and use of speculative
technologies. These are worlds of comic-book superheroes and supervillains,
vampires and werewolves, mutants, supernatural beings or aliens living among
us. One very prolific alternative world is based on the Marvel comic-books
(now referenced as the Marvel Cinematic Universe where multiple movies share
the same setting. Other fictional worlds include the alien race of sentient
machines from the Transformers (2007) series, the vampires from Blade (1998)
trilogy or the ones from the Underworld (2003) series; in all these cases
the real-world built environment was not changed at all. In District 9 (2009)
however, the city of Johannesburg received the addition of a refugee camp for
an alien group that becomes a militarized ghetto and, in Hellboy (2004), the
Czech's National Monument in Vitkov, Prague has been interpreted as
headquarters for a secret organization (most of the movie was filmed in Prague).
In Jurassic Park (1993) a research facility with exhibition spaces and several
tourist accommodations were designed on a fictional island, inspired
by similarly themed parks. If these movies weren't very architecturally creative,
the same cannot be said about Man of Steel (2013) where an entire city was
made using CGI just to be torn apart during the battle between the main
characters. This fictional city of Metropolis is modelled after New York
respecting both its Art-Deco tradition and recent trend in skyscraper design.

2.2.3.1 THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

The 2004 Fantastic Four and its sequel from 2007 Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver
Surfer offered us a new “old” building – The Baxter building – using the
existing Marine Building in Vancouver with its Art Deco appearance and
digitally inserting it into the urban landscape of New York. A similar technique
was used in The Avengers (2012) where the fictional Stark Tower was added to
the scene of New York; this was done by altering the upper part of the real-
world MetLife Building. A different approach was taken for Iron Man (2008)
and its two sequels from 2010 and 2013 where the spectacular residence is

19
completely CGI from the exterior and it is placed on a cliff in a state park (in
reality there is no building there) and its interiors are filmed inside.The Winter
Soldier (2014) – by placing a computer generated model on the
Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington DC. The building also spans beneath
the Potomac River with an impressive hangar. Noteworthy for this
alternative cinematic universe is the careful design of the buildings so that they
seem not only possible but naturally belonging to the site.

Fig. 6 The fictional nation of Wakanda in Black Panther

2.2.3.2 A DIFFERENT PAST

There are two main themes commonly used in the science-fiction of the past:
Jules Verne's Victorian period and the World War II time. The first makes use
of steam-punk elements and designs: complicated mechanism of cogs and pipes,
highly decorated facades usually with metallic embroidery and massive factory
facilities that combine brick and stone cladding with iron cast elements. The
colour palette is comprised of earth shades combined with dark grey, bronze
and sometimes silver. The second theme makes use of film noir techniques and
the built environment is reminiscent of the industrial age sometimes with steam-
punk elements; this particular style is referenced as neo-noir or tech-noir
(sometimes science-fiction noir) and examples include Dark City (1998), Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), . In these movies the dystopic
society lives in cities usually portrayed as dense, dark and polluted.

2.2.4 OTHER WORLDS

These are worlds with different rules than the ones we are familiar with, usually
alien worlds built by life forms other than human or worlds where the laws of
physics can be altered or simply don't exist.

2.2.4.1 ALIEN WORLDS AND SPACE OPERA

If building a futuristic Earth is challenging, building an alien world that is
completely different from what we know but in the same time recognizable as
built environment is a different challenge all together. In most movies there is
only one alien world that the humans come in contact with and it features a

20
strong design paradigm, usually revolving around the anatomy of the aliens.
When the aliens are humanoid then their buildings might borrow elements from
Earth's history, but when they look nothing like us then the envisioned world
becomes something else entirely. The visual style is called “biomechanical”
and, in architecture, it was influenced by the works of Antonio Gaudi but with a
darker and surreal touch. Drawing from similar inspiration sources was the
unique world of the “formic” race in Ender's Game (2013), an organic
architecture that blends seamlessly into the environment to the point where it is
impossible to separate one from the other. A more familiar approach
was conducted in Man of Steel (2013) designs of planet Krypton by blending
biological and organic patterns with a rocky harsh environment thus giving
the impression of something grown rather than built. In Star Trek (2009) we can
see a similar natural environment for the planet Vulcan but with a very different
take on architecture – instead of approaching organic design, the art department
created faceted buildings that look as shards of rock spiked through the earth,
and they are vague references to Gothic style cathedrals. In Star Trek Into
Darkness (2013), the abandoned mining facility on a small moon called Praxis
belonging to the “klingon” alien race borrows elements from Mayan
architecture but develops them into a distinct design that echoes the warrior
nature of the race. Also borrowing from ancient civilizations are the designs in
Stargate (1994) where the premise revolves around the influence
of extraterrestrial beings to human civilization thus interpreting
ancient Egyptian architecture. Designer Holger Gross who worked on Stargate
has been later brought to the concept art team for The Chronicles of Riddick
(2004) to help create the key looks of the film. “Huge, detailed, elegant yet
heavy, punctuated with dark metal finishes, Gross calls the Necro world.

Showing multiple worlds, each unique in climate, natural environment, building

styles and alien life forms has been the trademark of the Star Wars (1977)
franchise and received the name of space opera; although the television show
Star Trek (1966-1969) is the first to take this approach, it was the now classic
Star Wars that had the most impact over generations since its release and it is
considered a pop culture phenomenon. With a similar optimistic tone and vast
elaborate worlds are the recent films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and
Jupiter Ascending (2015).
The Art Nouveau movement, particularly the work of Gaudi, was used for the
Gungan city. Frank Lloyd Wright's Marine Country Civic Center served as
inspiration for the blue domes of Queen Amidala's palace. Hugh Ferriss and
Albert Speers monumental buildings influenced Coruscant. And lastly, Djerba
architecture from Tunisia inspired the slave quarters of Tatooine.” He continued
the work of concept artist Ralph McQuarrie from the first trilogy whose most
notable designs include the saucer shaped floating Cloud City with its high rise
in Art Deco – Streamline Moderne style, the domed adobe buildings of Mos

21
Eisley space-port and Jabba the Hutt's fortress on Tatooine – described in the
movie by one of the characters as more of an iron foundry than a palace. In the
prequel trilogy Coruscant, the planet covered by one city that goes for
kilometres both above and below the surface – is a homage to Fritz Lang's
Metropolis (1927) and also pays tribute to Ridley Scotts' Blade Runner (1982),
showing two massive buildings that hold dominion over the rest: the Senate, a
two kilometres wide dome and the Jedi Temple, a Mayan inspired ziggurat with
five towers “which has similarities to the minarets which surround the Ahghia
Sophia in Istanbul”.

Other noteworthy built environment includes the cloning facility on the ocean
planet Kamino – several domed platforms raised above the water surface on
central massive pillars, the hive structures with neo-Gothic details on the planet
Geonosis (including an open arena) and the capital city of planet Alderaan with
aerodynamic shapedtowers and Art Nouveau influences.

Fig. 7 Star Wars (1977) Fig. 8 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

2.2.4.2 VIRTUAL WORLDS

There are two types of virtual worlds: cyberspace and dream world and in both
of them the rules of physics can be altered from within, usually gravity –
bending, folding or twisting the built environment. A world with 4 layers of
dreams within dreams was conducted for Inception (2010) – each dream had a
different setting where the first three layers are rather conventional: a town, a
hotel, a fortress in the mountains (filming location was a ski resort) but with a
fourth layer called “limbo” almost entirely computer generated. The dream
landscape is comprised of tall buildings arranged to a grid, some decaying but
most of them intact. It is meant to represent an architect's dream city with no
people – a composition of prismatic towers, ordered and aligned, cold
materials such as concrete, steel, glass and tiles, square plazas with large water
basins and all the designs are modernist with a desaturated colour palette,
argued by the main character's fondness for that style. In the Matrix trilogy the
virtual world is considered a cyberspace but has elements of shared dreams
similar to Inception and makes use of real-world built environments almost
without alterations. If in those movies the virtual worlds are supposed to
resemble reality, in Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010) the cyberspace is
nothing like it and almost everything is CGI; it is meant to resemble a video

22
game. Although present day video games have realistic graphics and physics,
Tron: Legacy presents a minimalistic and hyper stylized environment where
people (considered programs and users), buildings and vehicles share the same
design features: uniform colours (mostly dark and preferably black or
sometimes white) with light strips outlining the shapes – echoing the patterns on
electronic circuit boards.

Fig. 9 Inception (2010) Fig. 10 Tron Legacy (2010) Fig. 11-The fifth element (1997)

After going through all the various themes in sci-fi movies and their use of
architectural representations (real or constructed for the film set) two basic
trends cand be determined: before the 1990's most futuristic visions revolved
around machines and their expressions with a dominantly dark tone
adding smoke and steam to mechanism – we can call this black box
environment; after the turn of the century the future is dominantly white, clean,
translucent and glossy – we can call this white cube environment. This can be
also correlated to the digital revolution and the change of paradigm in our
current society. At first glance, the common denominator for making a building
look from the future is to make it look bright but cold, polished and in light
colors with various shapes and styles. Glass is used in abundance when
picturing an utopian future while heavier materials combined with smaller
windows are used for dystopian societies. The preffered materials are white
polished concrete, glass (mostly with a reflective bluish tint) and shining steel
elements. Metallic covers are used mostly when envisioning a darker future.
One very important aspect is the scale – oversizing buildings gives them a sense
of dominance over the population, thus underlining their importance in the
narative. Another technique to make a built environment look advanced is to
use conventional models of buildings and overlay them with semi-transparent
media.
3. CASE STUDY

Cinema and architecture are distant arts, dynamic and static respectively,
whose complex relationship gives life to each other. Sharing a mutual respect
for the parallel processes involved in producing their works, the creators behind
these two expressions have an understanding that one will always benefit the
other. Architecture gives film its believability; setting the mood, character, time
and place for the action. Film provides architecture with an outlet for realising

23
visions that can never exist and entreats experiences that in reality have not
occurred. In professional life, architecture can’t always act as a real mirror for
its society or its context, this is due to the involvement of different factors in the
design and building process, (financial, political, ecological, etc.,). Sometimes,
these factors blur the message to be sent to the viewer or the user of the
architectural work, resulting in a misunderstanding in the motives behind that
architectural work.
3.1 METROPOLIS, 2026: The Architecture of Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s tale of class struggle relies heavily on rich set designs for its
impact. This artistic representation of the city of the future has remained as
one of the most striking images of modernity. Lang’s early architectural training
is evident in the way atmosphere and narrative are developed through the use of
expressionistic and symbolic architectural signifiers. Lang visuals show us a
very crowded and busy, yet extremely beautiful metropolis, where the ruling
class inhabits vaulting, futuristic art deco buildings that fly up high up into
the sky [Fig.12].

Fig. 12: The “New Tower of Babel”, Fig. 13: Broadway, New York: Fig.14: Night in the streets of Metropolis
Metropolis’ (1927)

Lang said that Metropolis had its genesis in his trip to New York City in the
October of 1924, when he saw American skyscrapers for the first time [Fig. 13
& Fig.14]. As a whole, the film serves to reflect Lang’s vision of a techno-
logically dependent society and in turn comments upon the industrialization of
his homeland. High-rise towers act as ‘machines for living in’, streets becomes
channels carrying goods and people, automobile and pedestrian traffic is
separated, and activities are zoned in a primarily vertical hierarchy. Metropolis
depicts an impressive traffic system inspired by William Robinson
Leigh’s Visionary City (1908) [Fig.15] and Sant Elia’s Citta Nuova (1913-14)
[Fig.16]; with numerous suspended streets spanning between different buildings
at various levels and a number of traffic arteries running underneath buildings.
Roads are vast, straight and viciously determined. When looking at architecture
in Metropolis there are many forms and influences. New York sky scrapers,
Bauhaus, Art Deco and Gothic (Gothic Expressionist) are all style that
are expressed, large or small, in Metropolis.
The combination of the plot and the entire set creates a very important role for

24
the architecture to fit into. The role of Gothic architecture in particular
demonstrates the differences between the people below ground (the workers)
and the people above (the livers). It has been chosen as the representational
style of architecture because it shows the power and weakness between the two
groups of people.The people above ground are the ones that can navigate
through the perfectly ordered city, where as, the people below are at work and
are almost weighed down by the imagery of this large Gothic style
infrastructure. The strong, heavy, large geometric forms along with the scale of
the architecture clearly
shows who are in control and who is less dominate. This extreme between the
strong and the weak is needed to complete the plot and capture the audience in
the storyline.

TheGothic architecture also enables the struggle for power to be more dramatic
and stages the dominance, technology and structure in the film. It also sets
great context for the viewer to feel abundant by the story and the set.
Metropolis, on the other hand, is set in a futuristic world of massive buildings
and infrastructure which convey a sense of power and calculated coldness that
is commonly associated with the technological age. Buildings here are exact and
pure, reflecting the polished physicality of the machines that Support them. The
buildings appear at all time to be artificially lit, revealing the smoothness of
theirsurfaces, their repeated matrices of elements and their incredible height.

Fig.15 : William Robinson Leigh’s Visionary City Fig.16: Sant Elia’s CittaNuova’s station for aero planes & trains

Roads are vast, straight, the size and appearance of the architecture identifies
the nature of its peoples as being faceless, oppressed and cold. To help us
understand why the city in Metropolis (1927) is depicted in this fashion, there
are a couple of important things to keep in mind about the environment in which
the film was produced.

Germany at the midpoint between World War I and World War II, was a
country were manufacturing Was still the king of the economy, even though the

25
economy itself was “in a state of disorder, inflation was out of control and the
National Socialist, or Nazi, party was starting to come to prominence”.
However, the majority of the wealthy Germans lived high above the poverty of
the common citizen. Metropolis thus tried to portray the city that might have
risen from Germany’s despair, and has very often been considered to be just an
elaborate piece of Nazi propaganda. In fact, the film was much loved by Hitler
and Fritz Lang was even offered a job creating films for the Third Reich. Lang,
being half Jewish, however, refused the offer and escaped to the United States
where he continued his successful career. This movie could have been
a foreshadowing of what the world would have been like if the industrial
revolution had kept growing.

3.2 LOS ANGELES, 2019: The Architecture of Blade Runner (1982)

Ridley Scott’s 1982 film has become the most credible cinematic futuristic
manifesto of our age. Through its informed vision of a future Los Angeles, the
film offers a deep insight into the future of architecture and urbanism, while
also providing commentaries on contemporary realities and trends.
The film hypothesizes that by the year 2019, Los Angeles will be a city that
supports a population of over 90 million people. The colonization of the elite to
utopian “off-world” planets has resulted in the large scale immigration of the
upper class, leaving the city populated by a mainly ethnic underclass. The
cityscape is in a state of urban decay and has become totally synthetic. The
middle-class suburbs have been overtaken by the city transforming into a
sprawling industrial zone, while huge megastructures now dominate the center
of the city [Fig.17]. Syd mead, production designer of Blade Runner talks about
the motive and inspiration behind the set design: “I took the two world trade
towers in NY City and the New York street proportions as a today's model, and
expanded everything vertically about two and a half times. This inspired me to
make the bases of the buildings sloping to cover about six city blocks, on the
premise that you needed more ground access to the building mass.” [Fig. 18].

Metropolis (1927) and Blade Runner share this sense of urban gigantism and
geometrical form. While the “New Tower of Babel” dominates the skyline of
Metropolis, here it is the pyramid of the Tyrell Corporation headquarters
that serves as the city’s nucleus. The building’s presence is overpowering, in it
evokes a strong sense of financial power. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982)
like Metropolis (1927) reveals class structure through its vertical architecture.
The Los Angeles of 2019 is essentially a city of contradiction; high rises,
pyramids and glass towers intermingle with revival architecture,
historical buildings, and the debris of past urban sprawl [Fig. 19]. The visual
layering of architectural typologies from various cultural pasts creates a post-
modern image of a globalized world.

26
Due to the drain of wealth that accompanied the mass immigration, the city
becomes a place where the whole economic process is slowed down.
The removal of old buildings begins to cost far more than the construction of a
new ones. Instead of tearing down buildings or
dismantling established technologies, modifications and additions are thus
added to existing structures. What results is a deeply layered city, where new
use has grown over and subsumed Los Angeles’ architectural history.

Fig.17: The Tyrell Corporation resembling a Mayan temple. Fig. 18: Concept drawing for Blade Runner (1982)

New structural elements extend through old buildings to support new

construction above; while ducts, signs and service pipes run, snake like, over
the old facades. As the cables and generator tubes delivering air and
waste go up the old buildings, the street level becomes nothing more than a
service alley to the Megastructures above [Fig. 20]. “Things are retrofitted after
the fact of the original manufacture because the old, consumer-based
technology wasn’t keeping up with demand. Things have to work on a day-to-
day basis and you do whatever necessary to make it work. So you let go of
the style and it becomes pure function. The whole visual philosophy of the film
is based on this social idea” Syd Mead.

The aesthetic of retrofitting is very similar to the adaptive façade concept of

Archigram’s Peter Cook. His 1978 Trickling Tower project starts its existence
as a polished steel Megastructure. Over time, the appearance of the building
changes as new elements are added, and uses changed. Also, the externalization
of infrastructural services (heating, cooling, water, gas) brings to mind Richard
Rogers’ and Renzo Piano’s Pompidou centre, 1977 [Fig. 21]
The thoughtfulness of the underlying concept, and the layering of images and
associations, makes Blade Runner one of the most discussed and influential
films of our times. The film remains a compelling reminder of just how nasty
life in the twenty-first century may eventually become. It depicts a road
humanity is heading down now : class separation, the growing gulf between rich
and poor, and the population explosion; but as such, offers no solutions.

27
Fig. 19: Bloated Byzantine columns support the Bradbury Building. Fig. 20: External structural members and services,

3.3 New York 2259 : The Architecture of The Fifth Element (1997)

Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (1997) manages to present a very rich
multilayered world that extensively comments on the possibilities of future
architectural developments within existing cities. The film offers a provocative
vision of the future of Manhattan two hundred and fifty years from now [Fig.
17]. As a result of the planetary exportation of vast amounts of Earth’s water
reserve in order to serve distant planets following the colonization of the
Solar System, the level of the oceanic water-table has fallen dramatically. As a
result, following an economic logic similar to that of Blade Runner’s
retrofitting, real-estate developers excavated down, slicing the island into
vertical canyons and instead of replacing structures constructed new additions to
the existing ones not only on top but also below the old buildings.

This changed the notion of a single street and ground plane for circulation, so
hovering craft were envisioned to roam into stratified layers throughout the
verticality. With the street layer stripped back, once-hidden Infrastructures of
subway shafts and city utilities are Suddenly revealed giving the city a
sometimes chaotic Machinelike appearance. In The Fifth Element (1997) Zorg’s
powerful capitalist status is also represented by architecture. The tower
he inhabits [Fig. 19] represents a literal translation of being at the top of the
hierarchy. The building is one of the tallest in the city but not the most
prominent. In fact, the New York of 2259 seems to lack such a central vertical
element. Fifth element vertical growth is indeed a distinct trait of 20th century
New York, due to the physical constraint of the land (Manhattan is, in fact, an
island) and the ever growing population of this city. In the year 2259, the viewer
is told, the world has a population of over 200 billion and New York City has

28
become the capital of the world. The city has, like in the past, been forced to
grow taller, as a result, the metro transportation system is forced to be integrated
vertically into the building. What is important about the Luc Besson’s future
NewYork is that no matter how much it has changed, it still remains visibly
recognizable as New York.

Fig. 21: Due to the vast depth of the city, public transport Fig.22: New York in 2259; a bottomless urban canyon.
trains travel up and down the vertical walls of the buildings.

3.4 WASHINGTON D.C., 2054: The Architecture of Minority Report (2002)

Minority Report is probably the only film of recent years that attempts to
portray not only an exciting narrative set against a futuristic backdrop, but also a
credible future based on an intelligent and informed prediction of the present.
Washington of 2054 has evolved into three distinct zones: the Washington
Capitol area where the monuments still stand proud; the upscale “bedroom
community” across the river that has developed vertically; and the decaying part
of the city that has not kept up with the technological advances afforded by the
rich.
While government buildings are hostile, reflective, and metallic; the grass in the
city is still green, and historic row houses still stand proud presenting the post-
modernist possibility of harmony between the old and the new. The integration
of infrastructure and cityscape presented so well by such films as Metropolis
(1927) and The Fifth Element (1997) is here perfected. A transport network of
magnetic levitation vehicles is seamlessly built into the facades of most of the
new buildings. It seems that the buildings and the vehicles exist to complement
each other. Inclining highways forms part of the façades dropped like waterfalls
and merging with horizontal roads. The network of highways functions in all
three dimensions, as the road surface totally abandons its dependence on
gravity. One must however question the feasibility of such vehicles when
considering the rest of the still horizontal city, where the viewer is clearly

29
shown that the old road network still exists.

3.5 LIBRIA, 2035: The Architecture of Equilibrium (2002)

Equilibrium presents a vision of a world at peace, with a tremendous human

cost. This is a world where war is a distant memory, yet where there is no
music, no art, no poetry, where anyone who partakes in such banned activities is
guilty of a "Sense Offence," a crime that carries a death sentence. It is a world
where the age-old question "How do you feel?" can never be answered because
all feelings have been shut out.

Libria is a stark, black-and-white (colour, after all, evokes feelings) metropolis,

which is run by a mysterious dictator named the Father who wields power
through a group of Ninja-like "clerics" who enforce his vision of peace through
the chemical control of all emotion. The city of Libria in Equilibrium (2002)
presents a controlled state taken to its extremes. The emotion suppressing state’s
agenda is clearly expressed through the city’s architecture. Buildings, like the
people that inhabit them are faceless and devoid of any feeling. The fascist’s
states media manipulative machine is inbuilt into the infrastructure of the city:
giant billboards overtake whole build facades, and loud speakers that air a
constant stream of propaganda are located at every corner.
Visual effects supervisor Tim McGovern worked alongside Kurt Wimmer and
Wolf Kroeger to formulate the look of the walled Librian metropolis.
McGovern, who won an Oscar for "Total Recall," started with a theme of
grandiosity. He explains: "The whole idea of fascist architecture is to make the
individual feel small and insignificant so the government seems more powerful
and I continued that design ethic in the visual effects. For example, Libria is
surrounded by a seventy-five feet high wall, the walls just keep going on and on
and use vertical and horizontal lines in a Mondrian-type way".

Fig. 23: Public area at Libria Fig. 24: Libria a fascist state where all citizens are rendered emotionless by the state.

30
3.6 COMPARISON TABLE
A comparison on all the above discussed case studies – TABLE 2
Film Name Architectural Signifiers Motives and Significances
Metropolis  Skyscrapers.
 Multi-level transportation
(1927)
system, roads are vast and
straight.
 Many forms and influences
(Bauhaus, Art Deco, Gothic
Expressionist, New York
skyscrapers).
 Large geometric forms.
 Buildings are exact and
pure with repeated matrices
of elements and, incredible
heights.
Blade Runner  Huge mega-structures
dominate the centre of the
(1927). city.
 Bases of the buildings
sloping covering about six
city blocks.
 Visual layering of
architectural typologies from
various cultural pasts creates
a postmodern image.
 Coexistence of new huge
mega-structures with old
skyscrapers.
31
 As a whole, the film serves to
reflect Lang’s vision of a
technologically dependent
society also he was affected
by New York skyscrapers.
 Multi-level transportation
system signifies the
tremendous development in
technology and industry, also
the over population of the city.
 Different forms signifies the
differences between people.
 Large geometric forms shows
who are in control and who is
less dominant.
 Exactness of buildings,
revealed how practical the
people of Metropolis have
grown.
 The huge corporation
buildings signifies a strong
sense of financial power. Blade
Runner like Metropolis reveals
class structure through its
vertical architecture.
 Visual layering of
architectural typologies
signifies an image of a
globalized world and a city of
contradictions, in the mean
time still exist
 Coexistence of new and old
buildings also evokes an
economic significance, as the
removal of old buildings begins
to cost far more than the
construction of new ones.
The Fifth Element.  The island of NY is sliced
into vertical canyons.
(1997)
 Hidden infrastructures of
subway shafts and city
utilities are revealed giving
the city a chaotic machine-
like appearance.
 Old monuments still exist.
 No ground level can be
noticed.
 High rise buildings with the
domination of large
corporation buildings.
 Public transport trains
complement with vertical
walls of the buildings.
Minority Report.  Government buildings are
hostile, reflective, and
(2002) metallic; the grass in the city gradual transformation of the
is still green, and historic row society to a new era according
houses still stand proud.
 A transport network of
magnetic levitation vehicles
is seamlessly built into the
facades of most of the new
buildings.
 The network of highways
functions in all three
dimensions.
 Billboards everywhere even
covering lots of facades of the
32
 Economic logic is the motive
behind slicing the island into
vertical canyons, as the real
estate developers thought of
retrofitting downwards beneath
old city.
 The reveal of the
infrastructure signify that an
environmental catastrophe
happened resulted in the
lowering of the sea level.
 Architecture in the movie
signifies the powerful capitalist
state, the tower of zorg
signifies being at the top of the
hierarchy.
 Also the role of altitude in
buildings signifies a functional
motive for building sky
scrapers, which is the physical
constrain of the land
(Manhattan is, in fact, an
island).
 Also the multilayering
transportation system reveals
development in technology and
over population in the city.
 The coexistence of the 3 main
zones of the city signifies the
to good organized plan.
 Transportation system reveals
how the industry and
technology has largely
developed and affected
architecture and every aspect of
life.
 The network of inclined
transportation also signifies
that at that time there is no
place for pedestrians (a car for
 buildings.
 Almost everything is
transparent inside buildings.
Equilibrium.  Libria is a stark, blackand-
white metropolis.
(2002)  Building are faceless.
 Large billboards cover the
facades of the buildings.
 No ornaments, no colors, no
architectural style can name
the style of Libria except for
a minimalist style.
 Despite all of this there still
only one colorful space with
red curtains covering the
walls, and familiar
architecture.
 Buildings are huge with a
monumental scale.
 The city is bounded with
walls.
33
every individual).
 As billboards cover
everything, a since that
corporations has taken over
everything, and the main issue
here is the financial issue.
 Almost everything is
transparent revealing an
important aspect of the society
whish is the death of privacy
and nobody can ever hide, also
no body has got anything to
hide as everything is being
monitored.
 Color, after all, evokes
feeling. The city of libria being
colorless is a natural mirror for
a city inhabited by people
deprived of all kinds of
feelings, also the buildings
being faceless without any kind
of art is referenced to the
people that inhabit them.
 Billboards covering facades
here doesn’t signify financial
domination, as the broadcasted
here in libria are not
commercials, but a constant
stream of propaganda of the
father (the dictator of libria
who rules it), it signifies a
fascist domination.
 Also the monumental scale of
the buildings emphasis on the
whole idea of fascist
architecture which is to make
the individual feel small and
insignificant so the government
seems more powerful.
 And for the familiar
architectural style shown in the
movie, it for sure belongs to
 the main dictator signifying
how selfish and ignorant is the
governor.

3.7 CONCLUSION
Both architecture and film operate as agents in disclosing hidden aspects of
society. Architecture and film in a sense need each other to exist on certain
levels. Architecture aids film in communicating with its audience. Film aids
architecture by inspiring the average film viewer to take an interest in their built
environment and to experience within the realms of cinema what they may
never experience in real life.
Film also returns to architecture a mass medium where both the trained and
untrained can become the critique; where architects and want to-be architects
can realise dreams that cannot be constructed in reality. By increasing our
understanding of the relationship between film and architecture, we are
enhancing our ability to express via architectural elements (signifiers) our
complex ideas and visions on cities. For film, these signifiers succeed largely in
signifying the signified, on the other hand, architecture can’t always succeed to
that extent of the film, as for architecture there are different factors that get
involved in the production process of a building, and these factors don’t help all
the time in revealing the messages behind the architectural work.
While popular thought tends to conclude that the future holds a better place for
man because man has always learnt from his past mistakes; science fiction film
shows that this may not always be the case. Through their architectural
depictions of the city, the films tell us that if mankind does not clean up and
straighten out its act, then humanity as we know it is doomed forever.
Therefore, it seems that the world is facing two opposing futures: the positive
future of our publicly shared hopes and dreams, and the darker future of decay
and ultimate exctinction which decorates our private sub-consciousness.

4. ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

4.1 NEW TRENDS IN HOUSING
4.1.1 INTRODUCTION
As for the importance of studying Housing, since the beginning of Mankind,
shelter has been a paramount aspect of life. The first dwellings were simple,
being only regarded as a haven, for protection and cover. However, throughout

34
times, with the evolution of building materials and techniques and the evolution
of human needs and ideals, housing has had several important changes. Those
changes were particularly significant throughout the 20th Century, when many
architects studied the problem of housing, making important contributions for
its evolution. Now, as then, architecture in general and housing architecture in
particular have been leaning towards experimentation, trying to establish new
housing types/typologies. Hence, it is vital to investigate the subject further, and
try to identify the new trends for future housing. To substantiate the
investigation, futuristic films were chosen. This because, bearing in mind the
cinema-architecture symbiosis, the visions of directors and art directors could
provide a good glimpse, on one hand, of the way future architecture could go,
and on the other hand, of the way some of the contemporary architecture is
already leading. Furthermore, cinema offers bold and astonishing views of the
future and, having fewer restrictions, allows for a bigger experimentation.
Books on Architecture, Cinema, History of Architecture and of the Arts, the
problematic and evolution of Cities andHousing as well as films from early20th
Century up to today were researched and chosen as the basis for this analysis.
From the gathering of films, three of them were selected as case-studies.
1. The fifth element
2. Equilibrium (2002)
3. Blade runner (1927)
4.1.2 CASE STUDY
4.1.2.1 THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997 )
Its plot is based on the notion that water levels are substantially lower, thus
transforming New York in a promontory-like settlement, whose steep banks
have been transformed into tiers of buildings. In addition, 400 storeys have been
excavated, in search of habitable space, transforming it in a 600-storey-city and
turning today’s sidewalks into elevated promenades. Inspite of all these
transformations, most of the buildings that exist today have been maintained, as
well as significant landmarks as the Tower of Liberty. The entire city is
dominated by sky-scrapers and flying cars in an intense traffic. The now
ground-floor is derelict: dark (sometimes with no natural light), abandoned by
the people and filled with garbage.
As for the housing examples, the film shows us two very different types.
The first one, shown partially and belonging to the character Cornelius, is
situated in an apartment building probably from the late 19th Century and is
organized much like today’s dwellings, having the same functional zoning, it
has one large room that accommodates living and dining room as well as

35
kitchen. It is also characterized by a fairly large gross area and great amounts of
natural lighting.
The second one, pertaining character Korben Dallas, greatly contrasts with the
latter. It consists of an individual cell, with reduced habitable area, similar to a
bunker, made in metal and rectangular in plan. Being extremely small, it has
hidden storage and furniture (for instance, the bed), retractable at wish, as well
as built-in cupboards, drawers and shelves. It is fully automated, including the
entrance (through a sliding automatic door), and is equipped with advanced
technology. Being an individual cell it can be compared to a nowadays’ studio –
all living functions co-exist in the same physical space: bedroom, kitchen,
workroom, bathroom and living room – but with even less area. The ‘bedroom’
consists of only a retractable and automated bed; the kitchen has nothing more
than a coffee-maker and microwave oven, both built-in the structure, and a
fridge that moves downward unveiling a shower. It contains only the essential
and is studied to the fullest so as to not squander valuable area. The eating area
is coincident with the working one and consists solely on a table/counter
opposite the entrance and against a wall with an opening to the outside, with no
glassed window, just an opaque metal panel much like the door, where flying
fast-food stands park against.

Fig. 25 Individual's cell – The fifth element

The parking area consists of an identical cell (plan and area), adjacent to the
living one. From the exterior point of view, the building corresponds to its
interior organization, and one can easily infer each living/parking cell from
looking at it. Although it is set in a distant future, with great modernity, The

36
Fifth Element shows us a future city that allows both the old and the new and
maintains some of its historicity, also in terms of dwelling typologies
4.1.2.2 EQUILIBRIUM (2002)
This film is based on a more ‘fantastic’ plot and it creates a future as a
consequence of a III World War, where a dictatorial society without feelings
and emotions prevails and where live is led in a new city – Libria – whereas the
old sensorial city – Nether – has been abandoned. Between the two cities a wall
exists, making a barrier, keeping the Librians in and the Netherans out. This
barrier, as the historical background of the movie and Libria’s architectural
aesthetic, is in a certain way a metaphor for Nazi Germany, especially Berlin,
with its wall dividing the city in two.
Libria is a grey city, with tall, austere and robust buildings, resembling
totalitarian architecture (such as Hitler’s, in Germany, or Salazar’s, in Portugal),
with order, symmetry, orthogonality and rhythm as ideals.
As for housing, the family dwellings, in collective buildings, are almost
identical, having very distinctive elements, thus reinforcing the prohibition of
individuality or identity. In an organizational point of view, these houses have a
central corridor which distributes to the various living areas. Characteristically
wise, the houses are sober, strait lined, having white as a dominant color, few
furniture or decorations (reinforcing its austerity) and natural lighting (windows
with an opaque pellicle that allows the light to get in but keeps people from
looking out to the city).
Presenting an alternative future (depending on the III World War), Equilibrium
shows us a city with solid, fairly rigid and robust architecture, that help
characterize the oppressed society that lives in it. It is also curious that some of
the city views were inspired by drawings of future cities by Hugh Ferris, made
70 years earlier. As the city, housing is shown as too organized and clean,
minimalist and aseptic.
Similar contemporary architecture examples to this type of dwelling can be
found, such as projects by John Pawson (John Pawson Houses, De Camaret
House and Ghent Apartment), Claudio Silvestrin (Kanye West Loft, Miro
House and Girombelli Apartment), Tadao Ando (as well as other Japanese
architects), Peter Zumthor, Alberto Campo Baeza, David Chipperfield (mostly
regarding interiors), or Souto Moura.
4.1.2.3 BLADE RUNNER (1927)
Blade Runner was based on the novel Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?
(1968), by Philipe K. Dick. It is set in the year 2019, in a Los Angeles of

37
advanced technologies and a mixture of cultures and styles. The future LA is
also characterized by extremely tall buildings, sky-scrapers and majestic
buildings (as Tyrell Corporation that resembles a Mesopotamian Ziggurat) and
seems to be always very dark, as if there is no sunlight. It is a city where
publicity plays a big part – neons and advertisements in building façades and
flying vehicles. There are derelict buildings (those shown are older, probably
from the early 20th Century, which could indicate that there is no respect for
history or tradition) and garbage all over.
Concerning housing, three types are presented: Deckard’s house, Sebastian’s
house and Tyrell’s house.
1. Deckard’s house is the most important one. It is located in a tall,
collective building and is zoned (in terms of functions) much like
nowadays’ dwellings. Having a relatively reasonable area, as the city it
has little natural lighting. Aesthetically, it owes its wall treatments to
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House (every interior wall reproduces the
stone covering of Ennis House) and its kitchen and bathroom design to
airplane interiors.
2. Other than Ennis House, other references to iconic LA buildings are made
– Union Station (the train station is, in Blade Runner, the police
headquarters) and the Bradbury Building, where Sebastian’s house is
located. This dwelling resembles an antique apartment, with a multitude
of interconnected spaces, big ceiling height and areas, having also stucco
mouldings decorated ceilings and tall windows and doors.
3. The third house is located in Tyrell Corporation and consists of a
penthouse, with a very classical decoration and functional organization
(contrasting with the building in which it is housed). It has also big
ceiling heights, very big areas (some spaces are also multifunctional) and
floor to ceiling double doors. Aesthetically, it differs completely the rest
of the city, being characterized by a baroque revival.
4.1.3 INFERENCE
For the city, one major trend is evident – the urbanization of the world
(pinpointed by all films and visible nowadays in cities like New York, Chicago,
Tokyo and the newly developed Asian cities as well as in statistics regarding the
protrude: the Metacity and the Tabula Rasa.
4.1.3.1 METACITY
Concept introduced by François Ascher, used to characterize the future city,
defined as a vast, dense, discontinuous, heterogenic and polinuclear territory.

38
For this author, the notions of limit, scale and distance in this future city need to
be questioned, as the city expands to its peripheries. With it, the notion of
neighbourship is also altered.
Furthermore, the metacity is diverse, multicentral and has polyvalent facilities
and good transports. These characteristics are shared by Richard Rogers’ ideal
city (as defended in the book Cities for a Small Planet – dense, polycentric,
multifunctional and diverse with big emphasis on public transport).
Being diverse, the metacity incorporates different styles and ages, mixing
history and tradition with modernity. This characteristic brings this type of city
close to that envisioned in The Fifth Element and Blade Runner. In both films,
the cities are presented as territories composed of various historical tiers. In
addition, both Ascher and the visions of these two films envision a city as a
territory in constant change, which is also similar to the process of evolution of
Japanese cities, which renew themselves in short time spans (20 years).
In constant change and promoting mobility, the metacity and its citizen have in
the dwelling the most important aspect and the only fixed point. Housing is thus
seen as a key element in the city and in the life and stability of its inhabitants.
4.1.3.2 TABULA RASA
Being recurrent, the notion and concept of Tabula Rasa never loses interest or
modernity as it presupposes a great liberty and hope in the future. Its application
was greatly discussed during the Modern Movement, especially by Le
Corbusier (and his Plan Voisin). However, it was abandoned as other concepts
in the Athens Charter took place.
After the Modernism, and as a reaction to it, from the 1950’s onward, new
groups and architects revived the concept with utopian projects for the city: the
Metabolists, Japan; GEAM (Group d’Espace et de L’Architecture); Archigram,
England; NER (New Element of Urban Environment/Novye Element
Rasselenia), Soviet Union; Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto. In common, they
shared the notion of a dense, multifunctional, evolutive and expansive city with
new principles, materials and techniques. Some of their projects evidence some
of the characteristics of the Tabula Rasa: one, which is inherent to it, is the
deletion of the existing cities, creating new urban fabrics; the other one is the
possible endless and infinite extension/expansion of the city (a characteristic
similar to the loss of limits of the metacity).
More recently, in the 90’s, a new contribute to Tabula Rasa was made by Rem
Koolhas and his office, OMA, both in the form of a project and an essay. The
project consists of a competition for the Great Axis of Paris, at La Défense, in
1991, and proposes to remove all insignificant buildings older than 25 (except

39
the iconic or sentimental, the Grande Arche, the CNIT and Fiat Tower). In his
book, S ,M, L, XL, Koolhaas questions the European mentality regarding
consolidated urban fabric and its conservation, criticizing it.
As for the essay, Koolhaas theorizes about a future city – a Generic City. One of
its fundamental characteristics is the lack of identity (which Tati criticizes in
Playtime and Adolf Loos considers inherent to urbanization). Other
characteristics are: the lack of centre (no difference between city and
periphery); the lack of history and tradition; being endless and having as the
sole typology the skyscraper.
Regarding the analyzed movies, Blade Runner’s LA could partly by considered
a Generic City, as it has no identity, but results of a collage of cultures, and
looks infinite. However it is not a true Tabula Rasa city (see reasons named in
the Metacity subchapter) as the ones in Things to Come and Equilibrum. Both
were erected removing or overlooking existing cities. The one contradiction in
Libria is the fact that it is limited by a wall and therefore finite.
These are the two trends for the city that, in spite of the differences, converge in
some aspects: the dilution of urban limits, high density, the change in the notion
of centre and the notion of constantly changeable territory. And, although
Tabula Rasa seems to pertain to a more distant future, there can be found some
examples of its use: the universal exhibitions worldwide (Expo ’98, Expo ’92,
Expo ’10 or even the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940) and the adding of
land in the Netherlands, Macao, Taipa and Coloane and other Asian cities.
In terms of housing, the Metacity could tend to the conservation of the existing
housing types (which could indicate typologies like the ones in Blade Runner
and Equilibrium) while the Tabula Rasa will tend to deny the old and traditional
housing types and establish new ones (as seen in The Fifth Element). So, also in
what concerns housing, two trends emerge: Habitation as a ‘Cell’ and Minimal
Habitation.
4.1.3.3 HABITATION AS A 'CELL'
The cell is the smallest unit of an organism, where its vital functions occur. One
of the trends for future housing is the reduction of the habitation unit to its
minimum, namely in what concerns area and function, making the space
flexible through overlapping functions. This is the trend pointed out by The
Fifth Element (Korben Dallas’ dwelling) and supported by films like Solaris
and The Island.
Historically, the search for a type and a pattern to be reproduced originated in
the Modernism, with Le Corbusier and his quest for the serial house. After that,
as seen in the case-studies chapter, it was further developed.

40
An important characteristic of this trend is the acceptance of prefabrication as a
constructive basis, which, while simplifying and rendering faster the
constructive process, can result in a certain uniformity of architecture.
Nowadays, there are several companies that offer this kind of prefabricated
houses, based on composable modules and that can expand or retract at wish.
This trend also entails relevant reflections upon the essential functions, the
habitation zoning and the role of living areas. In the future is a kitchen needed?
Is a lobby or a living room? According to The Fifth Element and The Island, the
essence of the dwelling is in the function of rest – the bedroom – predicting the
end of the kitchen and the living room. In present times, the most similar
structure to this is a hotel room or a room in a students’ residence. In both
examples, the space is only used for sleeping and working. Thus, habitation
tends to attain the value of lodgment. This consists in a revolution on the way
we perceive housing and the functions it holds.
4.1.3.4 MINIMAL HABITATION
The trend indicated in Equilibrium and Blade Runner is that of the maintenance,
at functional and organization level, of the typologies that exist today. So,
conventional typologies are maintained, as well as interior compartmentalizing
according to function – living room, kitchen, bedrooms, etc. Moreover,
Equilibrium shows the tendency for minimalism – formal reduction (strait lines
and simple geometric shapes), neutral and uniform colour, cleanliness and lack
of decorations, embellishments or excessive furniture. Here, minimalism and
uniformity mesh, since there is no distinctive element between the different
houses, no exceptional pieces or architectural elements.
Hence, Minimalism is a movement that advocates geometric purity, the use of
simple and strait volumes, ornamental depuration, a monochromatic pallet and
predicates a universal language, without local variants. At its origin lay
movements like the Modernism, Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus and Dutch
Neoplasticism, but also Adolf Loos and his manifest Ornament and Crime
(1918), where he defended the end of decorative elements and the return to
simplicity. Also very important were Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. The
first was made famous by his motto ‘Less is More’, while the latter defended
purity, white interiors and pure surfaces.
4.1.4 CONCLUSION
Two housing trends were identified: Habitation as a ‘Cell’ and Minimal
Habitation.
Despite the differences, both trends agree that future housing will be inserted
into collective buildings and that these will mostly take the form of towers.

41
Besides this, both regard simplification as fundamental. Nonetheless,
simplification doesn’t necessarily mean mischaracterization or global
uniformity, which this may seem to contradict one of the fundamental
characteristics of Tabula Rasa – the lack of identity – but it doesn’t (Tabula
Rasa’s lack of identity relates to genius loci and doesn’t assume that every city
has to be identical).
As defended regarding Tabula Rasa cities, the trend Habitation as a ‘Cell’
seems to belong to a more distant future and will undoubtedly make sense in an
over urbanized and overpopulated world, where space becomes a precious and
valuable asset (which nowadays happens in some overpopulated Chinese cities,
where housing is small, having only the essential). Nevertheless, it can coexist
with other housing types, while it doesn’t set itself as predominant.
If indeed this is the way of future housing, and although the Metacity could
shelter this type of housing (since it predicts a certain amount of nomadism and
sees the dwelling as the one fixed point in a changeable structure), it is most
probable that the future city is that of Tabula Rasa.
On the other hand, Minimal Habitation has already a great number of built
examples and is, as the Metacity, more easily implemented as it doesn’t
represent a big scission with the typologies we are accustomed to.
Which is, then, the trend that could be foreseen as predominant in the future?
If we take into account the broad intellectual and drawing production
concerning modular and cellular habitation, we can assert that it will be the
Habitation as a ‘Cell’ the one that has more significance in the future. To
support that, other than the architects’ enthusiasm, other factors can be stressed:
1. The alteration of family composition (presently and increasingly more so,
society tends to individuality and families tend to get smaller – fewer
kids, one parent household or single people);
2. The increasing mobility (a global world promotes the possibility of living
in one place and working in another and being able to change both easily;
nomadism);
3. The consumerism society (that of the disposable, which needs simple and
economic structures of easy implementation, with reduced life span or
easily changeable. It’s the architecture with an expiration date);
4. And paradoxically, the increasing importance of sustainability
(flexibility of spaces in terms of functions and economy in terms of area).

42
From another point of view, that of habitation functional requirements,
Habitation as a ‘Cell’ also prevails as a future type, being more versatile and
flexible. The evolution of society, of ways of living and working and of the
information techniques is paramount to define habitation functional
requirements. The housing types in The Fifth Element and The Island provide
good examples of this evolution. As mentioned before, the various spaces that
compose a dwelling need to be questioned. More and more (and these movies
show us that in the future it will also be so), we tend to use less certain spaces,
until we render them obsolete. The kitchen and the living room are examples of
that, especially the kitchen. The house of the future will essentially hold its
primary function – lodgement.
Aside from this, the evolution of information technologies and the
transformation of working habits and requirements, the house will increasingly
become a work place. And the future dwelling should reflect that tendency.
To sum up, this analysis foresees that the habitation of the future will tend to
spatial and functional reduction and that, as a second Corbusian revolution, it
will embody the character of a true ‘living machine’, questioning and adapting
the space to the truly necessary functions.
4.2 PREDICTIONS AND REALITY
The effort to visualize the setting of the plot is often as extensive as the effort
put in devising the storyline itself. Hence, when science fiction offers
predictions on what the future would be like, it subtly hints to foretell the future
of architecture and cities too.
Both science fiction movies and novels have always visualized the future
extraordinarily. Often exaggerations of the present-day issues, the intricacies
which are predicted through science fiction, leave us in chills, be it an episode
of ‘Black Mirror’ or the ‘Star Wars’ series. Even though
imaginary, architecture forms an important part of
these visualizations exhibited to the reader or the viewer. The effort to visualize
the setting of the plot is often as extensive as the effort put in devising the
storyline itself. Hence, when science fiction offers predictions on what the
future would be like, it subtly hints to foretell the future of architecture and
cities too.

The first example that comes to our mind when we try and relate architecture
with science fiction is ‘Metropolis’. The 1927 film aptly predicts what
architecture and city life might become with the growing differences in class,
mass industrialization, and gigantic state investment in infrastructure and
transport. Looking at certain aspects of the development of modern cities like

43
New York and HongKong, the prophecies of the film seem to have come true,
even though partially.

Based on today’s socio-economic, political, and technological advances, many

sci-fi novels and films offer visualizations of space, cities, and architecture,
which are more than relevant in today’s realm

4.2.1 ALL TECHNOLOGY, EVERYTHING!

Black Mirror is a classic example that showcases a possible dystopia shortly; a
result of our excessive dependence on technology. In most of the episodes, the
cityscaA still from ’15 Million Merits’, Black Mirror pes and the general architecture are not very
different from what we live in today; however, the spaces overflow with
integrated screens, surveillance systems, virtual, and augmented reality areas.
Whether dystopia or not, the effects of technology on our living
environment cannot be ignored for long. Automation and surveillance systems
have already become an innate part of our buildings.While
these technologies keep getting advanced, more and more are included
in the palette daily.

Fig. 26 A still from ’15 Million Merits’, Black Mirror

4.2.1.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Asimov was amazingly accurate though when he talked about artificial
intelligence, big data, and robotics. All these technologies were described by
him in The Robots of Dawn. In this book, robots are things that belong to
people, which is the current legal status.These are not the most daring
predictions regarding artificial intelligence though.
An internet-connected brain was described by Jeff Ryman in Air. In the
book, people can exchange information without using anything but their brains.

44
This worldwide information network is called Air, and this is what Elon Musk
is developing with Neuralink. A current prediction is that the implantation of a
neurochip is not far away. The initial goal is to give users the ability to control a
mobile phone and create text messages just by thinking about it.

4.2.1.3 AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGIES

1. Electric cars are gaining in popularity due to the trend towards

environmental conservation. It is estimated that 540,000 electric cars will
be sold in the European Union alone this year. Electric vehicles were first
described with mathematical precision by John Brunner in Stand on
Zanzibar in 1968. The author also predicted the number of people
inhabiting the Earth at 7.7 billion, but he was off by a decade. The events
in the book take place in 2010, but this is actually the current world
population.

Fig. 27 Electric cars

2. Flying cars currently under development by Porsche and Boeing are

expected to be introduced later this year. This idea was first described by
Philip K. Dick in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968).
The author also wrote about ethical issues related to robots, which is one
of the biggest concerns when it comes to artificial
intelligence’s future.For now,we thought that flying cars can only be seen
in Harry Potter and the fifth element, but technology had other ideas, the
flying car scene is slowly making progress, with companies such as
Airbus, Larry Page’s Zee Aero and Terrafugia emerging.

In fact, flying cars are real – and they could shape how we commute,
work and live in the coming decades. Advances in battery energy density,
materials science and computer simulation have spurred the development
of a range of personal flying vehicles (and the navigation systems that
will allow them to run), from electric gliders to fixed-wing craft and
quadcopter drones. These aircraft may not look exactly like Blade
Runner’s imaginings. But they aren’t all that far off. Far smaller than a
commercial plane, most are designed with rotors instead of wings, which
allow for vertical takeoff and landing.

45
 Fig. 28- Flying cars, The fifth element

3. Self-driving cars, however, are real. Automobiles that require only

partial control by humans, known as semi-self-driving cars, are already
available.The concept of a self-driving car was described by Isaac
Asimov in a New York Times article after visiting the World’s Fair
electronics exhibition in 1965. His prediction was off by a few years
though. He expected it to happen in 2014.

Fig. 29 Self driving cars, The minority report

4.2.1.4 COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

The development of communication technology was also predicted long before
it was introduced. For example, Herbert Wells talks about voicemail in Men
Like Gods. The technology was similar to the voice messages we exchange in
Telegram, as well as voice search and voice assistants like Siri.
Another interesting prediction is from the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy written by Douglas Adams in 1979. The author speaks of a “bird” that
can translate from one language to another in real-time. A modern version is
Google Translate, which is becoming more and more intelligent and
linguistically savvy every year.

46
And finally, it’s worth mentioning the boldest idea in the context of
communication technology - telepathy and teleportation described by Rudy De
Waele in Shift 2020. This is currently impossible. Telepathy is not recognized
by the scientific community, and there are no predictions about when this ability
may become real. But give it time.

4.2.1.5 INTERNET OF THINGS

Smart devices and the Internet of things (IoT) are also becoming common
place technologies in everyday life. One of the first mentions of smartwatches
can be found in One Hundred Years Ahead (1978) by Kir Bulychev. This book
was written for children and also became a film series. One episode contains the
first hint of a modern fitness bracelet that tracks vital signs.

The first prototype of the modern smartwatch, however, was described even
earlier in 1964 in the Jetsons science fiction cartoon series where the watch is
used to communicate and watch videos. The latter function has not yet been
implemented in modern smartwatches, but it can’t be far behind.

Today we already have wearable IoT devices designed for the

healthcare sector to integrate with artificial intelligence and track the user's vital
signs and make predictions about possible diseases before they are detected by
clinical diagnostics.

4.2.1.6 FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES

The ubiquitous credit card was first described more than 130 years ago in
Edward Bellamy's novel A Look Back. This financial technology did not
actually get introduced until 1950, which may seem like a long time ago. But
Bellamy wrote about it 60 years before its arrival.
Fintech has figured prominently in many other science fiction books as well.
For example, cyberspace and hacking were described by William Gibson in
Neuromancer in 1984. The author uses the term cyberspace and also alludes to
big data that is presented as “ice.” The icebreakers in the book are analog
iterations of modern tracking and malware programs that help criminals break
into technology platforms and steal data. Gibson got this one right. Hacking and
theft attempts abound and are becoming more sophisticated and effective.
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies were also described long before they
threatened to decentralize systems and destroy financial companies. The first
mention was in the book Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson in 1999. The
author develops the concept of an information paradise where it’s possible to
freely exchange information without state regulation and censorship.

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4.2.2 AERIAL TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

The 1982 film Blade Runner was set in the year 2019. ‘Spinners’ or flying cars,
introduced in the movie, became a sensation. Along with the cars, the movie
also showcased the change in the terraces and road systems to provide
infrastructure for these flying cars. With the UberCopter already functioning in
cities like New York, it seems like cities and architecture will soon have to
provide infrastructure for aero-mobility, even if it is something as simple as a
helipad.

Fig. 30 Spinner’: A still from Blade Runner

4.2.3 MARTIAN ARCHITECTURE

In the movie ‘The Martian,’ the artificial living habitat called ‘Hab’ has always
intrigued both space and architecture enthusiasts. Though fictitiously, it
explores various concepts like the possibility of greenhouse rooms for growing
food, modular systems for easy transportation from Earth, and safety in zero
gravity environs. Habitat on Mars seemed quite a far-fetched dream a couple of
years ago, but not anymore. With every passing day, researchers are becoming
one step closer to setting a place to live on Mars. Many competitions have
been afloat driving fresh minds to think of innovative solutions for 3D printed
habitats, modular construction, and whatnot.

Fig. 31 ‘Hab’ from the outside Fig. 32 Bamboo Colony on Mars, as imagined by Warith and Amir

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4.2.4 CLIMATE CHANGE AND FLOATING CITIES
Climate change, global warming, and the subsequent rise in sea levels are
considered almost inevitable. This has given food for thought to many, on what
would happen if our major cities submerge. In his book ‘New York 2140,’ Kim
Stanley Robinson, recreates New York after it is submerged in ocean water,
with a rather utopian perspective. In his visualization, the roads are replaced
with water channels and pedestrian paths are lifted as flyovers; the old
buildings have been structurally adapted to be semi-submerged underwater. The
book also explores newer concepts like solar paint and others of the sort which
promote carbon-negative infrastructure.
While the possibility of submerged cities still seemed implausible, Bjarke Ingels
Group unveiled its proposal for a self-sustained floating city in 2019 at the UN-
Habitat round table conference. BIG’s Oceanic City is built with Eco-friendly
materials; can manage waste, water, and food; and can be scaled up
appropriately. An audacious plan to respond to climate change by building a
city of floating islands in the South Pacific is moving forward, with the govt. of
French Polynesia agreeing to consider hosting the islands in a tropical lagoon.

Fig. 33 New York 2140 Fig. 34 Oceanic City by BIG

4.3 HOW OUR FUTURE VISIONS INFLUENCE THE CITY WE BUILD

For over a century, science fiction filmmaking has presented us with depictions
of our future cities. Some have been bright, shiny and positive, while others
have been dark, dirty and rough. As we look forward to a 21st century filled
with massive mega-cities, and extraordinary technological innovation, we must
ask how are our science fiction visions influencing the cities we build, and what
can we learn from some of these prescient fictional texts?
4.3.1 IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS METROPOLIS
The grand-daddy of all futuristic urban visions is inarguably Fritz Lang's
towering work, Metropolis. While the film itself, both aesthetically and
thematically, wasn't particularly novel at the time, its holistic vision of a future
city with no middle class, where the super-rich live high above the poor workers

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who toil in the depths, has gone on to influence a century of cinema and
architecture.
At the time the film was not at all well received, by both critics and audiences.
Famed sci-fi author H.G Wells even penned an infamous critique of the film
suggesting it plagiarized his 30-year-old story, The Sleeper Awakes.
"I have recently seen the silliest film. I do not believe it would be possible to
make one sillier, It gives in one eddying concentration almost every possible
foolishness, cliché, platitude, and muddlement about mechanical progress and
progress in general served up with a sauce of sentimentality that is all its
own," Wells wrote.
Aside from the film's starkly prescient dystopian narrative, the architectural
aesthetics presented were undeniably derivative. A compelling mash-up of
futurist, art-deco and gothic architectural styles. Despite these obvious
antecedents, Metropolis has been profoundly influential due to its comprehensiv
-ely realized depiction of future city life. Not only was almost all 20th century
science fiction cinema inspired by it, but so were a whole host of Architects

Fig. 35 Metropolis Fig. 36 Altered carbon

Metropolis toyed with a dystopian vision of a vertical city. This idea suggests
that our future mega-cities will be dominated by massive skyscrapers. Our
urban footprint will not spread outward but instead we will build taller and taller
buildings that will ultimately encompass all aspects of a human society within a
single tiered building.
For much of the 20th century the vertical city idea became intrinsically
interlinked with dystopian science fiction visions. The rich lived at the top and
the poor scrambled about on the grim streets below. This literal depiction of a
class-based hierarchy has been richly portrayed in a variety of interesting

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science fiction texts, from J.G Ballard's High Rise, to more recent stories such
as Altered Carbon and Elysium.
4.3.2 DOWN BELOW WITH BLADE RUNNER
The elephant in the room here of course is Blade Runner, probably second
to Metropolis in a list of the most influential science fiction urban visions ever
portrayed. Blade Runner riffed off Metropolis' futurist vertical city vision but
extrapolated a stunning depiction of street-level urban life in the future. Grim,
permanently dark and wet, this vision of future urban decay is filled with lived-
in detail.
This street-level future is noisy, dirty and jam-packed with a mashed-up sense
that each new technological innovation we come up with will live alongside
everything that came before it. This important idea stands the film apart from
more speculative future visions that design sci-fi cities from the ground up.
Instead, the world of Blade Runner, is a dense industrial jumble, and perhaps all
the more realistic for it.
Taking us through the looking glass, one of the strangest ironies in 21st century
architecture is the growing influence films such as Blade Runner are having on
real-life constructions. The recently termed movement, gulf futurism, describes
a very particular brand of architecture and urban design that is powering
through the Middle East.

Fig. 37 Blade runner

4.3.3 DUBAI – THE DYSTOPIAN CITY OF TODAY

Inspired by video games and big Hollywood cinema, this new wave of big oil-
led design is dominated by multi-billionaires developing stunning futuristic
worlds. Dubai is a hot bed of gulf futurist architecture and Syd Mead, one of the
key designers behind Blade Runner, even visited the city back in 2005. The
Middle East is a fantastic example of how reality is catching up with the future
as the size, scope and vision of some of the region's projects clearly show. I

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would like to be a part of the region's horizon and help shape it for a better
tomorrow."
Life imitates art, and then art imitates life. This eternal back and forth can be
seen explicitly in the evolution of our cities over the last century. What is
perhaps most striking right now is the tendency for some of these grand
futuristic cities, such as Dubai, to be influenced so explicitly by science fiction
visions profoundly entrenched in dystopian perspectives.

Fig. 38 Dubai

4.3.4 HER : A DYSTOPIA OF GENTRIFICATION ?

Spike Jonze's 2013 film Her posits one of the more interesting future city
visions seen in recent times. The film, telling the story of a romantic
relationship between a man and his computer operating system, presents a clear,
bright, and spacious future Los Angeles filled with bespoke objects. The
timeframe depicted is not clearly specified in the film but many have
hypothesized it is most probably around the mid-to-late 2020s.

Fig. 39 Her

The most immediately noticeable thing about Her's future Los Angeles is that,
despite its skyline being dominated by a sprawl of high-rise buildings, there is a
conspicuous lack of cars. Apart from one particular scene set on the street
showing a traditional taxi cab, this LA of the future is filled with spacious and
efficient subways, high-speed trains, and expansive human-centric walkways,
reminiscent of New York's famous High Line. The city here is not a CGI

52
bonanza, but rather an artfully constructed collage of parts of current-day LA
with parts of Shanghai. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Her's future
vision is what it doesn't show. The Los Angeles in the future presented here is
one entirely dominated by gentrification. The world is primarily white and
upwardly mobile, with a small amount of other ethnic minorities interspersed in
the background, but all are presented as denizens of this clean, crisp and
spacious world.
4.3.5 FLYING CARS, HYPERLOOPS AND THE FUTURE OF URBAN
TRANSPORTATION
One massive takeaway from the future city presented in Her is that futurists and
science fiction designers are still grappling with the question of how we are
going to transport people around these massive megacities. K.K Barrett, the
production designer on Her, suggested the reason that film avoided showing
cars was partially pragmatic.
"We looked in a number of different cities and finally landed in Shanghai for
some of the bigger exterior shots with the big buildings and the circular
walkway that was elevated above the street," says Barrett of the inspiration
behind the film's human-centric design decisions. "That eliminated the need for
showing traffic, which I didn't want to do because cars would have dated us into
some time period, and we couldn't afford to make a hundred cars."

Fig. 40 The fifth element

A great deal of 20th century science fiction promised a future where cities were
infested with flying cars. From the sky highways and elevated traffic jams
of The Fifth Element or Back to the Future Part 2, to the dated yet iconic
"Spinners" in Blade Runner, it seems almost inevitable our future will be in the
air. While quadcopter-styled transportation is certainly being rapidly developed,
and in some cases deployed, the idea of a flying car as taught to us by science

53
fiction is quickly becoming one of those dated ideas that will possibly never
happen
Aside from the increasingly amusing idea that cars in the future will have
steering wheels and still be piloted by human beings, it is becoming
increasingly clear that urban transportation in the future will most likely involve
autonomous pod-like devices that in no way need to resemble our current
conception of cars.
One of the many prescient futurist visions in Steven Spielberg's Minority
Report is the film's clever depiction of mass transportation in 2054. The film
presents a city dominated by an expansive MAG-LEV system upon which
private cabins autonomously transport citizens from place to place. One of the
biggest drawbacks of this compelling idea is that it would involve such a
massive reframing of current urban design models that it is ultimately a little
hard to see coming to fruition. However, the autonomous pod-like nature of
these vehicles offers one of the future city depictions that, in the light of current
technological innovations, seems actually predictive rather than fantastic.

Fig. 41 Minority report

Coming out two years after Minority Report was Alex Proyas' I, Robot set in a
slightly earlier 2035 timeframe. The film presents one of the most realistic
future transportation systems seen to date, with its depiction of autonomous cars
looking to be eerily accurate. While its cars still mostly look like cars, they
contain heads-up-displays and voice controlled systems, all technologies that
are well on the way to mainstream adoption.
One of the biggest differences between these two films' visions of future cities
comes in the way these vehicles get around their given metropolis.
While Minority Report demands a future where entirely new, custom MAG-
LEV highways are built so its vehicles can move around and over a city, I,
Robot presents an urban center where roads are still roads but they are now

54
mostly underground. There are still streets as we understand them today, but the
further one moves into the center of the city, the more vehicles are shifted out of
sight, leaving large, spacious pedestrian-centered urban spaces.
While the scale of I, Robot's underground highways may sit firmly in the realm
of science fiction, the reality of underground mass transportation is not at all
unreasonable. Elon Musk's large investments into the development of
Hyperloop transportation is undeniably paving the way for some kind of
accessible underground system. Perhaps the most tangible aspect of the
technology is coming in Musk's major work creating the Boring Company, a
startup determined to develop advanced tunneling and construction methods,
initially focussing on Hyperloop tunnels and pathways for pedestrians and
cyclists.
4.3.6 THE SMART CITY
The biggest buzzword floating around the world today in regards to modern
urban design is "smart city". The idea essentially encompasses any number of
new forms of information and communications technologies in order to
optimize the running, management and simple livability of a 21st century city.
Some smart city innovations can be relatively innocent, such as the way
Barcelona has instituted traffic lights than can synchronize with public buses
and emergency vehicles. On the other hand, some are suggesting the term
"smart city" could be interchangeable with "surveillance city", as many of these
technological innovations inherently require large-scale data collection on
everything and everyone inhabiting the space.
One of the prevailing ideas presented in Minority Report, and becoming more
real by the day, is the vision of a future where every citizen is tracked moment
to moment as they inhabit a city. This, of course, is presented as a consumer-
friendly surveillance system, geared towards offering customized ads designed
to cater uniquely to each individual's needs. Sound familiar? It's better than
getting a barrage of ads about things that are irrelevant to you. isn't it?
Interestingly, the real-world has actually stepped past the vision of Minority
Report in so far as Spielberg's idea of mass surveillance depended on
omnipresent iris scanning. Instead, in reality, between smartphones and facial
recognition, modern technologies have transcended the cutely primitive idea of
iris scanning.
Successful smart cities tend to exhibit a holistic approach towards smart city
development, prioritising the integration of (new and legacy) city applications
and infrastructure under the same system to gain a complete view of the city.

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 Fig. 42 Minority report

4.3.7 THE SONGDO EXPERIMENT

While most modern cities are built on top of centuries of development and
culture, there are some cities around the world that are being built from the
ground up. Songdo, south of Seoul in South Korea, is one of those gigantic
social experiments. Built from scratch over 10 years and costing well over 40
billion dollars, this development was conceived to be the world's smartest city.
Sensors are built into everything, managing traffic flow and energy use. Every
household is constructed with built-in IoT controls and garbage is managed via
elaborate pneumatic tubes that send trash directly from each house to an
underground waste facility. Forty percent of the urban space is reserved for
green parks, and electric vehicle charging stations are everywhere.

Fig. 43 Songdo, South Korea's smart city built from the ground up Fig. 44 Judge dredd

Songdo was planned to be completed by 2015 but it is still a work in progress,

half-built and reportedly struggling to convince people to move in. One report
has described the city as resembling a "Chernobyl-like ghost town", while a
journalist perhaps less hyperbolically called it "eerily quiet". The story of
Songdo suggests no city can simply be built out of nothing. At worst it will turn
into an abandoned museum, and at best it will quickly become technologically
outdated.

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4.3.8 THE WORLD AS ONE GIANT MEGA CITY
Despite many different smart cities being built from scratch around the world, it
is our massive megacities that will arguably dominate the future urbanscape.
These megacities, containing tens of millions of people, will mostly be located
in emerging nations that are currently underdeveloped and ill-equipped for the
oncoming rapid urbanization they may face.
The biggest city in the world currently is Tokyo, with around 37 million people.
A recent population projection study from the University of Ontario estimated
by 2075 the three largest cities on Earth will be Kinshasa in Congo, Mumbai in
India and Lagos in Nigeria, all with populations numbering over 57 million.

Fig. 45 Coruscant Fig. 46 Wakanda in Black Panther

These are frightening figures, and it is hard to imagine a future world where
these megacities are shiny afrofuturist visions reminiscent of Wakanda in Black
Panther. Instead, Elysium's vision of Earth as a giant slum may be more
prescient.
A megalopolis is a giant continuous urban region, and science fiction has played
with the idea of cities getting so large they ultimately merge together on several
occasions. Mega-City One in the Judge Dredd fictional universe presented a
future in the United States where much of the Eastern seaboard had merged into
one massive city entity, while Demolition Man more cutely presented a future
with a megacity called San Angeles, which joined Los Angeles, Santa Barbara
and San Diego.
Perhaps the most absurd vision of a megacity takes this idea to its logical
conclusion. Coruscant in the Star Wars universe is a planet taken over by one
massive single city. It is a profound vision of what has been called an
ecumenopolis, the hypothetical concept of a planetoid city. Of course, the Star
Wars vision of this massive city is depicted in almost utopian terms, with the
word "coruscant" itself actually meaning glittering or sparkling. Coruscant's
ground-level is rarely depicted in the Star Wars movies but when we do briefly
see it we get a pretty standard Blade Runner-esque mess of neon and grime.

57
Even the utopian leanings of Star Wars can't put a gloss on the underside of a
gigantic megacity.
So where to from here?
Despite the glut of different sci-fi futurist depictions of our future, it feels
almost harder than ever to predict what our world will look like in 50 years.
Will we live in vertical shanty-towns immersed in utopian virtual reality worlds
à la Ready Player One? Or will income-inequality accelerate into a divided
world where the rich live in the clouds atop massive skyscrapers while the poor
scramble around on the dirty slum-like streets? Will new technologies free us up
from menial work, or will they contribute to creating a dystopian world where
we are slaves to devices and constantly surveilled?
5. CONCLUSION
Science fiction describes future scenarios in which the scientific rules are
altered from what we know by today. Different abductions are explored in often
extreme ways, and to make this plausible and engaging, certain scientific rules
will be let go of as well. This is what architecture could learn from science
ficton: if architects come up with extreme concepts. sometimes the basic rules
we value so much in present life have to be abandoned in order to maintain the
strength of the very concept. After exploring the value of science fiction to
architecture in this paper new questions are arising, rather than conclusions.
This is then also an essential part of the science fiction framework: the
continuous exploration with extrapolations and speculations that result again in
new grounds to explore. Therefore, we can discuss and speculate on the
questions that emerged from this paper that are in need of further research.

The first question deriving from this paper is: will science fiction become more
and more accurate? As this paper describes, the commercialization of the
depiction of the future as a current development. Society could find itselt in a
future situation in which large companies or governments develop the demand
for depictions about futures until such extend that they start to pay large
amounts of money for them. The higher profit for science fiction results in
signincanty higher quantities of extrapolations which could potentially lead to a
stronger general framework for futurity. Consequently, this extreme increase ot
depictions have a gher chance of gving accurate speculations and extrapolations
regarding to archirectural futurity.

The second question follows What can we conclude about current society based
on science fiction movies ? The fact that the world of science-fiction has

58
tremendous potential, and hence it should be a popular source of inspiration for
the architects. Science fiction provides the architects with the ideas that
challenge the accepted norms and advocates a bunch of ingenious solutions
coming up.

Therefore it is well laid that one cannot shun the vision of prophets and thinkers
because their vision has turn into sight of present generation.

6. BIBILOGRAPHY
• Journal paper 1: Architecture in science fiction movies (2015)
https://www.academia.edu/11672078/ARCHITECTURE_IN_SCIENCE_
FICTION_MOVIES
• Journal paper 2: The future of the city from Science to Science Fiction
and back (and beyond) (2014)
https://cityterritoryarchitecture.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2195-
2701-1-5
• Journal paper 3: Significance of Future Architecture in Science Fiction
Films ( 2007)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306000011_Significance_of_Fu
ture_Architecture_in_Science_Fiction_Films
• Journal paper 4: New Trends in Housing The House of the Future in the
Movies (2010)
https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/downloadFile/395140471095/Novas
Tendencias do Habitar - Resumo Inglês.pdf
• Journal paper 5 : Framing the Future: Imagining the City Through the
Lens of Film (2017)
https://surface.syr.edu/architecture_theses/396/
• Journal paper 6: Science fiction images of architecture and the future -
scenes from science fiction stories and cinema
https://www.academia.edu/34445428/Science_Fiction_Images_of_Archit
ecture_and_the_Future_ACSA_2006_Marie-
Paule_Macdonald_Science_Fiction_Images_of_Architecture_and_the_Fu
ture_-Scenes_from_science_fiction_stories_and_cinema

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Web links
• https://newatlas.com/science-fiction-cities-future-urban-visions-
architecture/55569/
• https://archer-soft.com/blog/sci-fi-writers-predictions-vs-2020-
technologies-reality
• https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/building-brave-new-worlds-
the-architecture-of-sci-fi-movies
• https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/fresh-perspectives/a1432-the-
architecture-of-science-fiction/
• https://www.archdaily.com/359365/through-the-lens-sci-fi-and-
architecture
• https://www.grin.com/document/305130
• https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-real-life-possibilities-of-
black-panthers-wakanda-according-to-urbanists-and-city-planners
• https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/147061809/Living.pdf
• https://www.iberdrola.com/innovation/virtual-reality
• https://www.wordsinspace.net/urbanintel/2017/03/08/a-manifesto-on-
futurology/

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