Synopsis

The series Architectures presents a privileged and unprecedented look at the work of superstar architects and some of their most brilliant creations. Co-produced by the European public television channel ARTE, this series of 5 DVDs looks at architecture and its historical and social functions to reveal its meaning and impact on humanity.

Each 26-minute film in the series focuses on a single building chosen because of the pioneering role it has played in the evolution of contemporary architecture. Meticulously filmed, each building is explored in great detail and this in-depth examination highlights all the concerns that confronted the architect from the genesis of the project through to its completion.

Close engagement of this kind, along with detailed scale-models of every building made specially for the films, permits each documentary to critically evaluate the principles behind its construction, the economics of the project, constraints of the commission and site, technical choices and materials used.

Architectures offers a unique and instructive insight into the greatest architectural achievements of our times.

Architectures is specially co-produced by Illuminations and ARTE for release in the UK and Eire.
Architectures is devised by Richard Copans and Stan Neumann.
A co-production between ARTE France (Thierry Garrel, Programmes Unit;
Luciano Rigolini, Commissioning Editor); Les Films d'Ici; Centre Pompidou;
Ministère de la Culture; Direction de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine;
Musée d'Orsay; and Fondation Sasakawa.

The full boxed set of 5 DVDs (totalling 29 films) can be purchased at a special price of £90.00 including VAT.

Architectures 1
Comprising of 6 x 26 minute films covering milestones like Germany's famed Bauhaus and the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris. This DVD examines the work of architects Jean Nouvel, Otto Wagner, Walter Gropius, Alvaro Siza, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and Jean-Baptiste-Andre Godin.
160 minutes (6 x 26 minutes)

Architectures 2
Comprising of 5 x 26 minute films analysing Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax building, the innovations of the Galleria Umberto I, the luxurious Stone Thermal Baths in Switzerland, and a high-speed train station, Satolas, in Lyon. This DVD examines the work of architects Santiago Calatrava, Peter Zumthor, Felix Duban, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
130 minutes (5 x 26 minutes)

Architectures 3
Comprising of 6 x 26 minute films examining the Jewish Museum of Berlin, designed by Daniel Libeskind, Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, a Dominican convent designed by Le Corbusier, Charles Garnier's Parisian Opera and buildings by Antoni Gaudi and Alvar Aalto.
160 minutes (6 x 26 minutes)

Architectures 4
Comprising of 6 x 26 minute films covering the Royal Saltworks of Arc and Senans, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Jean Prouve's House, the St. Foy Abbey, and the Sendai Mediatheque in Japan. This DVD examines the work of architects Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Pierre Chareau, Frank Gehry, and Toyo Ito.
160 minutes (6 x 26 minutes)

Architectures 5
Comprising of 6 x 26 minute films analysing the Alhambra in Granada, Adalberto Libera's Reception and Congress Building in Rome; the House of Sugimoto in Kyoto, Japan, Zaha Hadid's Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg; the Yoyogi Olympic Gymnasium in Tokyo by Kenzo Tange; and the Villa Barbaro by Andrea Palladio.
160 minutes (6 x 26 minutes)