Cinema and architecture are two closely intertwined disciplines, as both are fundamentally built upon space, time, light, and human experience. From the invention of cinema to the present day, I have listed below, chronologically, films in which architects are positioned as heroes (or anti-heroes) or in which architecture itself plays a leading role.
Here is the historical journey of films that center on architecture and architects:
In this period, architecture is often portrayed through futuristic cityscapes or as a tool for constructing social order.
Metropolis (1927) – Director: Fritz Lang
Often considered the grandfather of architectural cinema. Its vertically stratified city, influenced by Art Deco and Bauhaus, expresses class divisions through spatial design. The city’s creator, Joh Fredersen, appears as a kind of “architect-god” figure.
The Black Cat (1934) – Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
The villain, Hjalmar Poelzig (named after the famous architect Hans Poelzig), is an architect who builds his Art Deco home atop the ruins of a World War I fortress. Modernism is presented as an unsettling and ominous force.
The Fountainhead (1949) – Director: King Vidor
The character Howard Roark, said to be inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, is an uncompromising advocate of modernism. A cult classic that most clearly explores the ego and visionary drive of the architect.
This era questions post-war modern housing, glass towers, and the loss of human scale.
Rear Window (1954) – Director: Alfred Hitchcock
The courtyard of an apartment block functions like a cinema screen. Architecture becomes the primary medium of voyeurism and storytelling.
Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967) – Director: Jacques Tati
Tati humorously critiques the coldness of modernism, the absurdity of excessive functionality, and the difficulty of living in over-designed homes like the Villa Arpel. The glass towers in Playtime form a labyrinth of modern office life.
L’Avventura (1960) and L’Eclisse (1962) – Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni uses architecture to express his characters’ inner emptiness and emotional disconnection. Spaces such as Rome’s EUR district become protagonists in their own right.
Contempt (Le Mépris) (1963) – Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Much of the film takes place in the iconic Casa Malaparte in Capri, designed by Adalberto Libera. The rooftop staircase scenes are among the most famous architectural moments in cinema history.
The Towering Inferno (1974) – Director: John Guillermin
The story revolves around a fire that breaks out during the opening of a skyscraper. It highlights the tension between the architect’s vision and the developer’s cost-cutting priorities.
This period foregrounds creative crises and dark urban futures.
Blade Runner (1982) – Director: Ridley Scott
A vision of Los Angeles in 2019, blending cyberpunk aesthetics with real architectural landmarks such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House and the Bradbury Building.
The Belly of an Architect (1987) – Director: Peter Greenaway
Follows an American architect organizing an exhibition in Rome for visionary French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée, while undergoing both physical and psychological collapse. Obsessions with symmetry and monumentality dominate the narrative.
Gattaca (1997) – Director: Andrew Niccol
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Marin County Civic Center is used to construct the cold, sterile atmosphere of a genetically engineered future.
The Truman Show (1998) – Director: Peter Weir
Set in Seaside, Florida, a symbol of the New Urbanism movement. The film critiques an artificially perfect, eerily orderly suburban life.
In this period, architecture is no longer only a background for storytelling, but becomes a narrative device in itself. Cities, buildings, and interiors are used to construct dream worlds, social hierarchies, and psychological landscapes. The figure of the architect often appears as a mediator between imagination, power, and desire.
(500) Days of Summer (2009) – Director: Marc Webb
The protagonist, Tom, aspires to become an architect. The film functions as a love letter to Los Angeles’s architectural fabric, particularly its historic buildings, presenting the city as an emotional and spatial memoryscape.
Inception (2010) – Director: Christopher Nolan
The character known as “the Architect,” Ariadne, designs dream worlds. Physics-defying cities, folding streets, and paradoxical staircases form the conceptual core of the film, positioning architecture as a tool for shaping consciousness.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) – Director: Wes Anderson
Through obsessive symmetry, pastel palettes, and miniature models, Anderson creates a dollhouse-like architectural aesthetic. The hotel becomes a nostalgic monument to a disappearing European cultural memory.
High-Rise (2015) – Director: Ben Wheatley
Significance:Set in a brutalist tower block, the film depicts how residents descend into savagery according to their floor-based hierarchy. Architecture becomes a vertical class system, with the architect living at the very top.
The Architect (2016) – Director: Jonathan Parker
A satirical portrait of a narcissistic architect who prioritizes his artistic vision over his clients’ needs. The film critiques authorship, ego, and the myth of the creative genius.
Parasite (2019) – Director: Bong Joon-ho
The house is the film’s most important character. The architectural contrast between the modernist Park residence and the semi-basement home of the Kim family visually articulates class division, transparency, and spatial inequality.
In documentary cinema, architecture is no longer fictionalized. Instead, it is examined as a lived, intellectual, and cultural practice. These films shift attention from iconic forms to processes, from spectacle to everyday life, and from finished buildings to the people, ideologies, and contradictions behind them.
Architectural documentaries reveal how space is shaped by memory, labor, ethics, and power relations. The architect appears not only as a designer, but as a cultural figure negotiating between imagination, responsibility, and reality.
My Architect (2003) – Director: Nathaniel Kahn
Widely regarded as one of the most important architectural documentaries ever made. Louis Kahn’s son embarks on a deeply personal journey to understand his father’s buildings, philosophies, and enigmatic private life. The film presents architecture as an emotional and ethical pursuit rather than a purely technical discipline.
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006) – Director: Sydney Pollack
An intimate portrait of Frank Gehry, focusing on his creative process, hand sketches, and the transformation of abstract ideas into built form. The documentary humanizes the figure of the “starchitect,” revealing vulnerability, doubt, and constant experimentation.
Koolhaas Houselife (2008) – Directors: Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
Rather than glorifying the architect, this film follows the daily life of a house designed by Rem Koolhaas. Architecture is shown as a lived, imperfect, and constantly negotiated environment.
Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio (2010) – Directors: Sam Wainwright Douglas and Catherine Gund
Focuses on Samuel Mockbee’s Rural Studio and its socially engaged design philosophy. Architecture is portrayed as a tool for social responsibility, community building, and ethical practice rather than prestige.
How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? (2010) – Director: Norberto López Amado
A comprehensive portrait of Norman Foster, exploring the relationship between high-tech architecture, engineering, and global systems of power. The film situates architectural practice within networks of capital, technology, and political influence.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2011) – Director: Chad Freidrichs
Revisits the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex, challenging the simplified narrative that modernist architecture alone caused its failure. The documentary reframes architectural history through social, political, and economic lenses.
Urbanized (2011) – Director: Gary Hustwit
Expands the focus from individual buildings to cities. The film examines how urban environments are shaped by designers, politicians, activists, and citizens, presenting architecture as a political and collaborative process.
The Human Scale (2012) – Director: Andreas Dalsgaard
Based on the work of Jan Gehl, the film explores how cities can be designed around the human body, movement, and social interaction. It critiques car-centered planning and anonymous mega-structures, advocating for more humane urban spaces.
The Practice of Architecture: Visiting Peter Zumthor (2012) – Director: Michael Blackwood
A documentary that explores the work and philosophy of Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, focusing on his creative process, studio environment, and the deep relationship between material, context, and spatial experience. Through conversations with the architect and critical reflections on his major works, the film presents architecture as a thoughtful, sensory, and deeply embodied practice.
Concrete Love: The Böhm Family (2014) – Directors: Maurizius Staerkle-Drux and Petra Höfer
A deeply personal portrait of three generations of architects within the Böhm family. Architecture becomes a medium of inheritance, emotional continuity, and intergenerational conflict.
The Infinite Happiness (2015) – Directors: Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
Set in Bjarke Ingels’ 8 House in Copenhagen, this film questions whether architectural utopias truly produce happiness. It shifts attention from formal ideals to everyday life and lived experience.
Big Time (2017) – Director: Kaspar Astrup Schröder
Significance: Follows Bjarke Ingels as he transitions from a young architect into a global brand. The documentary explores the psychological cost of ambition, speed, visibility, and creative pressure.
Abstract: The Art of Design – Architecture Episodes (2017– ) – Netflix Series
Featuring figures such as Bjarke Ingels, Ilse Crawford, and Cas Holman, this series frames architecture as a form of storytelling, philosophy, and cultural expression rather than mere construction.
My Art: Gokhan Avcioglu (2023) – Director: Zuhal Demirarslan
Part of the documentary series Benim Sanatım, this episode portrays Gökhan Avcıoğlu not only as an architect but as a multidisciplinary thinker whose work intersects with art, philosophy, and cultural production. Rather than focusing solely on finished buildings, the documentary emphasizes his conceptual approach, his relationship with context, and his understanding of architecture as an intellectual and cultural practice. It frames the architect as a figure who produces meaning, not only form.
