A architecture of a civilization tells a lot about its values. Theocracy pours their resources into lavish cathedrals, dictators embrace hard brutalism and unlimited hedonism produced Las Vegas and Dubai Skylines. It could be the ultimate artistic indicator for cultural priorities because – as A couple of filmmakers have Recently pointed out – Buildings must reflect both the individual creativity of their architects and the priorities of the powerful people who order them.
Russian Documentary Victor Kossakovsky’s new film “Architecton“Investigates our contemporary attitude to architecture in an attempt to find out what we are actually worshiping. And this may come as a shock, but its results are not very flattering!
The film is mainly about our relationship between two building materials: stone and concrete. Each architectural miracle that has been standing for thousands of years was made of solid boulders, while our ringed modern monstrosities are made of easy to make concrete. Kosakovsky and his primary subject, Italian architect Michele de Lucchi, clearly love stone and disgust concrete. One of them comes directly from the earth, can last forever, puts us in direct dialogue with the great architects that came in front of us and allows Mother Nature to seamlessly take over it with plant life when human civilization no longer needs it. The other is synthetic, man, utilitarian and crumbles within decades but pollutes the environment forever.
This is an important point, but Kosakovsky takes the time to get there. Much of the documentary consists of slow, fantastic images that place the relationships between man, nature, stone and concrete front and mine. He takes us into collapsing Turkish skyscrapers that were destroyed by a deadly earthquake from 2023 and shows us how the structures have been completely demolished while human kitchens and living rooms seem disturbing untouched. These images are composed of ancient stone ruins (which undoubtedly hold up much better) and a seemingly endless shot of an avalanche showing us the many different forms of stone and sediment that nature places at our feet.
For starters, it is easy to think about the film as part of the Nature documentary, some exploration for human industrial activities. But it can be equally easily claimed that the whole film is a natural document, since people in the end are a single species whose effects on the environment are as much a part of nature as any other animal. Each time a majestic shot of stone is composed of a pathetic secretion of wet concrete, it becomes clear that we permanently change our planet’s ecosystem by cutting corners on the things we build.
But “Architecton” claims that there is more than just our planet at stake. Our souls and humanity are also on their way. The depressing irony in the core of the film is that people clearly understood how to make buildings that last for thousands of years, but now actively chooses to build those that last for 40 years instead. If the whole point of organizing ourselves in civilized societies is to preserve our knowledge and to be better at all these artistic and technical employment, the shit is currently not losing anything other than insulting to the people who calculate how to build the pyramids and parthenon.
It is an uncomfortable reality that De Lucchi is struggling with every day. A decorated architect and designer with half a century of experience, he admits that he is ashamed of accepting a new assignment that builds a concrete skyscraper in Milan. The film sometimes checks in on him when he builds himself a garden, an implicit form of cure for his creative blasphemy. He is proud to ensure that a ring of stones is arranged in a perfect circle, something he notes has no other functional purpose other than beauty and the joy of striving for excellence.
No one is under any delusions like his little act of creative protest balances the skyscraper he builds. It is a drop in the bucket – especially when, as the film notes, concrete now is the second most common substance on earth after water. But the film ends on a hopeful note that suggests that if more of us start to think about the building material that we pass by every day, perhaps our civilization will stop sounding forever as hostage now.
Rating: B+
An A24 edition, “Architecton” opens in theaters on Friday 1 August.
Want to keep you updated on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here To our recently launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our main film critic and Head Review’s editor rounds off the best new reviews and streaming choices along with some exclusive Musings – all only available for subscribers.
