3D technology as a tool to explore contemporary architectural settings

Abstract

There have been a wealth of studies of architecture in cinema, but very little of the cinema of architecture. The cinematographic industry, as if it were another actor, has used important buildings from every era as settings for its own benefit, abusing them in its failure to capture the essence of the buildings filmed. But the cinema of architecture, through contemporary non-fiction, has managed to question the truth about architectural reality. The film If Buildings Could Talk (Wim Wenders, 2010) documents the construction of Rolex Learning Centre by the architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), conveying the sensation of the life of architecture, presenting the building as another actor, suggesting that it breathes, feels, talks and, in short, experiences the continuous winding space of the Japanese. The result is a 12-minute piece with no beginning or end, shot in 3D; a lyrical, poetic and intimate piece narrated (almost whispered) by a sensual feminine voice that embodies the building itself. Through his lens, Wenders changes our way of perceiving architecture, as photography did with modern architecture in the first half of the last century.