11309 Architecture, Cinema and Representation

This subject examines the way in which architecture and 'the architect' have been represented, and to a certain extent constructed, through the cinema. It uses examples from various periods of film history to examine some ways in which architects, architecture as a profession, and architecture (as building) itself, have been perceived, and also stereotyped. Making a critical reading of such cultural 'texts' can reveal much about what society wants to believe about architecture, whilst also demonstrating the (often vast) distance between this romanticised image of the architect, and who architects actually are and what they actually do. Similarly, the ways in which architecture and the city have been represented through film can be critically examined for what they conceal, as much as for what they reveal, about real and ideal conditions in the built environment.