Press

Architektur.Film.Sommer 2023

Re-Learning Architecture

Many people in a courtyard sitting on chairs

Architektur.Film.Sommer 2019
© photograph: Pablo Leiva

The 11th season of the international open air architecture film festival presents documentaries, short films and experimental films under the heading: Re-Learning Architecture. On unlearning and re-learning architecture.

Wed 02., 09., 16., 23.08., from 20:30
Architekturzentrum Wien – in the courtyard, in case of bad weather in the Az W Podium

Criteria based on affordability, circularity and a radical decarbonisation in the building sector will significantly change the shape and practice of architecture in the future. In view of this urgently needed turnaround in the construction industry, is it time to rethink how we learn, teach and practice architecture? To what extent should basic design techniques, such as building with existing structures, be incorporated into the curriculum? What role do the users, architects and planners play in a systemic shift in architecture and urbanism? How do we behave in a sector where project phases stretch over years? Are we building the misjudgements of yesterday, today? Should we still be building at all? The open-air festival invites architecture enthusiasts and film buffs to linger and swap ideas.

Curators: Lene Benz, Marlene Rutzendorfer

In Kooperation with wonderland – platform for european architecture and the MuseumsQuartier Wien

PROGRAMME

Un/Common Grounds
Wed 02.08.2023, 20:30

klappe7, AT 2022,
08:46 min, German OV, Dir: Lisa Blenk, Johanna Maierhofer, Lena Pfeufer, Liliya Velikova
klappe7 was shot during a course held at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), and is dedicated to conversations about the former Nordwestbahnhof station grounds and the future of the area from the perspective of its residents.

The Originals, USA 2022,
10:32 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Cristina Costantini, Alfie Koetter
Once upon a time in Brooklyn: in this animation, five friends talk about their childhood and everyday life in the 1970s on their street in Carroll Gardens, New York.

Best in the World, DK 2022,
57:00 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Hans Christian Post
From being a city on the edge of bankruptcy at the start of the 1990s, Copenhagen has completed an enormous transformation, and is now described as one of the cities with the highest standards of living in the world. However the social and economic divide between the haves and the have-nots has become so wide that the city of those days seems more agreeable to some than the highly polished version we have today.

 

Sounds of Resilience
Wed 09.08.2023, 20:30

KlangKörperKrach, AT 2022,
03:53 min, no dialogue, Dir: Julia Bertermann, Adrian Hänsel, Gabriele Morkunaite, Klaus-Michael Urban
The second film in this year’s line-up to have been made at Vienna University of Technology is dedicated to an approach to the city based on the sound of its materials, spaces and locations.

Milaap – Where the salt meets the sweet water, PK 2023,
15:00 min, OV with English subtitles, Team: Marvi Mazhar, Zohaib Kazi, Abuzar Madhu
In poetry, songs and indigenous knowledge, three women tell the stories of their lives, which is characterised by environmental destruction and land grabbing resulting from negligent urban planning. European premiere!

Big Ears Listen with Feet, FR/TH 2022,
93:00 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Ila Bêka, Louise Lemoine
Boonserm Premthada is one of the most important Thai architects of the present day. Born deaf, he takes us with him on a walk with an elephant, which perceives noise mainly through his feet. Inspired by this kind of perception, Boonserm has developed an architecture of the senses.

 

Of Stories and Places
Wed 16.08.2023, 20:30

Saving Some Random Insignificant Stories, AT 2022,
13:50 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Anna Vasof
Two days after a disastrous flood an artist made a film to bid farewell to her parents’ house in Greece — in a search for its traces.

To Remain in the No Longer, CA 2023,
38:00 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Joyce Joumaa, CCA
In 1962 Oscar Niemeyer was invited to design the grounds for a trades fair in Tripoli, in Lebanon, that was never completed. Joyce Joumaa explores the way architecture functions in a city that neglects its duty of care and is fraught by socio-economic crises.

Gurbet is a Home now, DE 2021,
62:08 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Pinar Öğrenci
The film undertakes a critical examination of the urban planning principles adopted in Berlin during the 1980s, when immigrants were displaced by occupancy quotas. Pinar Öğrenci uses photographs and interviews to focus on the personal experiences of migrant workers and tell a central piece of Kreuzberg’s history.

 

Palaces of the everyday
Wed 23.08.2023, 20:30

Bernoullistrasse 1, AT 2022,
06:47 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Lorenz Zenleser, Laura Mann, Robert Bettinger
The Volkshochschule Donaustadt is a brutalist school building standing on the most expensive site in the district. Demolition is planned for 2024. How does the neighbourhood regard the matter?

Wrinkels, MEX 2023,
10:00 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Daisy Ziyan Zhang
People grow old, buildings grow old — so too, this one in the centre of Mexico City. Built in the 1970s, it was destroyed by an earthquake, abandoned, repaired and maintained. The film goes in search of an alternative reading of the architectural authorship and in doing so encounters the everyday lives of its residents.

City Symphony, USA 2022,
05:39 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Lucy Walker
The film casts a poetical glance at urban co-existence at a New York open-air swimming pool during the heat of summer, while in the background the Gospel hymn plays, ‘Oh What a Beautiful City’.

27 Storeys, AT/DE 2023,
82:00 min, OV with English subtitles, Dir: Bianca Gleissinger
27 storeys, 10,000 people: the world famous Alterlaa residential development in Vienna is considered an iconic monument and a palace of social Utopianism. Bianca Gleissinger returns to the setting of her childhood for her humorous debut as a filmmaker, and provides new insights into this social biotope.