Venkata revanth Anantha
Intern Architect
Cinematic Passages & Thresholds | Centre for Film learning
Project Type : Institutional
Location: Exchange District, Winnipeg
Tools: Revit, SketchUp, Modeling, Photoshop.
ARCH 7070/90 : Design Thesis, University of Manitoba.
Advisor : Lisa Landrum
Film and architecture are similar. Both involve space, movement and time. Architecture is one of the great hinges on which the world of the film turns. Architecture and film are works of art, but they also inspire creative art practices.
Space and time can be related to each other beautifully when it comes to film and architecture. They both engage the viewer, one by projecting moving images while the viewer is still, the other by being still while the viewer moves. Both architecture and film play an important role in influencing how we physically and imaginatively interact with the world around us.
This thesis intends to investigate the interplay of film and architecture by following two paths.
The first involves studying the spatial depth, narrative sequence and camera movement through two films, “The cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” by Peter Greenaway [1989], and “Rear Window” by Hitchcock [1954]. In addition to a comparative analysis through drawing and model studies, the design research involves the creation of a new film interpreting spatial depth, sequence, and movement through spaces on campus.
The second research path involves, developing an architectural proposal that consists of a collage of different programs, including a film school, cinema, a multi-media experimentation centre and other public programs in downtown Winnipeg.
The focus lies on the question of how the architecture of film can be reinterpreted as filmic architecture. The project aims to enhance the experience of each art and deepen people's experience of the city as a whole.
By researching film techniques and investigating their application in an architectural project, this thesis intends to invent a design methodology that intertwines space and movement. The project will create a sequence of stimulating spaces with embedded meanings to be experienced by a cast of common characters as they interact with the building.
Reconstruction of the Kitchen view from The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover
Film Analysis
It is often said how much architecture influences film-making, this is an attempt to investigate the inverse. How can architecture be shaped by the film frame? Cinematic techniques can be used as a driver for design. The way film sequence is composed and framed can be translated in designing a physical space.
This chapter is analysis of film-making techniques and theories of the films “The cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” by Peter Greenaway (1989) and “Rear Window” by Hitchcock (1954) which used architecture in the foreground to narrate a story. The goal of this exercise is to understand the spatial cinematographic construction used by the directors and to take these theories foreword in designing program for film making and display.
Reconstruction of the courtyard view from Rear Window
The Spatial depth of the film frame is explored through model making and lit with color gradient through a light source on to the model to study the pan geometries created by a frame also to study experiential qualities of the space. and material quality is studied by sticking a wall paper on the model. This study is intended to document these experiences and use it in the proposed program.
Aerial view of the site .
Site Criteria
The process of film making doesn’t only deal with vision of the director but also the context in which it is created, culture that supports and commercial viability of the project. Why is it important to bring a new film discipline into Winnipeg? With in the city of Winnipeg there is an abundance of historical fabric mostly in surrounding area of exchange district.
With massive stone and brick warehouses, elegant Terra-cotta-clad skyscrapers, narrow angled streets and covered alleys recall the time when this district was built. This provides an opportunity for proposed program to communicate the history.
Site for the proposed program is located in exchange district near the junction of Albert Street and Notre dame Avenue including the existing building St. Charles Hotel. Through the history it was source for late night entertainment for the performers of the theaters around it, using it as a backdrop for the narrative in designing a new program in this existing structures. The exchange district is currently a home for Fine arts and music. A film focused proposal for Red river collage as an extention to the campus in downtown, west exchange district to celebrate the process of film making and display making visitors a one stop destination to experience several cultural amenities.
Aerial view of Exchange district highlighting the site
Cinematic Narrative | Centre for Film learning - Opening day
Cinematic Narrative | Centre for Film learning - Atrium
