Now at its sixth edition, the Short Films Walk in SoHo on 2 October explored the design universe on film. Eight showrooms took part in the annual event that kicks off the month of architecture in New York: Flos, USM, Flou, Artemide, Luceplan, Gandia Blasco, Studio Anise Rolf Benz, DePadova.
Along the NYC design promenade, between Greene and Wooster streets, each of the participants opened its doors for the screenings of shorts coordinated by ADFF – Architecture & Design Film Festival. In the elegant loft-atelier of DePadova Ruling directed by Dorian de Rijk explored the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, choreographing judicial procedures and interpreting the architectural form as in a court case, examining the semiotics of power.
At FLOS the film KAPSARC by Hans Georg Esch was a journey inside the innovative research center of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, home of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, a non-profit institution that focuses on more efficient use of energy and resources for social wellbeing.
Hosted by Gandia Blasco, The Big Build by Desmond Loren Delanty – founder of the architecture and research firm Hangzhou Art & Design Collaborative (HADC) – involved students, architects, professionals, artisans and inhabitants in a process of discovery of contemporary rural culture and its problematics, for six weeks in Hangzhou (China). The Mysterious Order of Fay Jones by John Olivio – at USM – retraced the work of E. Fay Jones, known as one of the greatest architects of the 20th century. His use of locally supplied materials, the taste for Arkansas stone and timber in the construction of pavilions and residences constitute a model of sustainability.
At Flou Brian Leitten’s Bulgaria: East to West revealed a new perception of local architecture thanks to the use of drones: from ancient Greek ruins to a monastery dating back to 1000 years ago, all the way to the monuments of the communist era covered with graffiti.
Luceplan presented the film by Jeff Durkin Borrego Springs Library – a structure designed in the desert by RNT Architects to give identity to the town of Borrego Springs – while the spaces of Studio Anise Rolf Benz hosted the narrative by Spirit of Space in Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, documenting an important project by the studio of Steven Holl on the university’s campus in New Jersey.
Finally, Radura, directed by Matteo Grimaldi and Giacomo Boeri – screened in the Artemide space – presents an idea of decongestion of public space as a place to stop, rest and wait. A limited place inside an larger open space for an experience that counters the fast pace of urban life.
Short Films Walk
New York
www.adfilmfest.com
