Shelter: February highlights

Architecture and design streaming platform Shelter this month includes sustainable and unique housing, a blend of East meets West design, and the spirit of revolution.

Tiny Spaces: Episode 4 – Eco Shipping Home (15 mins) Australia 2022 (Available February 7 – World Premiere)
After exploring three unique and solitary living structures in regional Victoria, Tiny Spaces concludes this month with the fourth and final episode: Eco Shipping Home. It’s out with bricks & mortar, and in with three 20-foot recycled green-gray shipping containers. Blending luxury glamping with eco-sustainability, this 530-square-foot, solar-powered dwelling on the family farm was designed with a liberating minimalism in mind.“We wouldn’t be tied down by domestic duties and could enjoy surfing, gardening, and just being in nature,” designer and owner Amy Plank said to dwell. Nestled within the stunning and peaceful bush of South Gippsland and built by sustainable building company Modhouse, the construction took on a family shared approach in the collaboration of the design and build. Father, daughter and son in-law all came together to repurpose 3 shipping containers to support the housing needs of a growing family in rural Victoria.”We wanted it to look more grounded and refined, and less rustic, which is something you often see with container conversions,” continued Plank. A beautiful and unimposing structure, Eco Shipping Home is a perfect example of reusing and recycling while working in harmony with the natural environment.

Luc Durand Leaving Delhi (80 mins) Canada 2019 (Available from February 14)
Next for Shelter this February is a portrait of the eminent Canadian architect Luc Durand, and the return to his architectural beginnings in India. Luc Durand Leaving Delhi reflects upon this early work of Durand’s career, where Durand “learned his trade,” and the influence it would have upon some of his later designs in Montreal: including the Quebec Pavilion for the iconic Expo ’67, Place Dupuis and the monumental Athletes’ Housing complex for the 1976 Olympic Games. After studying with Eugène Beaudoin in Switzerland, Durand began his career in India, at the invitation of architect Jack Vicajee Bertoli to work on an Air India Pavilion for the 1961 Delhi Industrial Fair. What was initially a short-term project soon turned into a three year stay, where Durand would design private houses, apartments, cinemas, furniture, fabric, rugs, painting; and even try his hand at urban planning with master plans for Delhi and Calcutta. An Official Selection for the Montreal International Film on Art Festival (2019), the Winnipeg Architecture Film Festival (2019), and the Rotterdam Architecture Film Festival (2019), director Etienne Desrosiers follows Durand’s pilgrimage through his roots, as he wanders through India’s capital in search of the numerous projects he worked on between 1959 and 1962.

Super Designs (62 mins) Italy 2017 (Available from February 21)
From the globe-trotting design work of Durand we go to the Italian design revolution of the 60’s and 70’s, with Super Designs. The 1960s were undoubtedly a decade of change and radical new views upon the world, and this revolution caught full swing in the Italian world of design. Francesca Molteni & Maria Cristina Didero’s film follows 19 of the key figures in the Italian Radical Movement. Through their words and their stories, the film retraces the history and heritage of the movement. In an era troubled by a wave of political violence and social upheaval, the energy of Italian industrialists combined with the ability and the creativity of its designers kindled a ‘positive turbulence’, and saw Italy start to become a global focus for design. Borrowing and repurposing the language, creations and ideals of American pop art and European artistic avant-garde movements, these Italian creatives began to question the rational and functional past of Italian design, and leap into the future of creation. Encountering designers Emilio Ambasz, Franco Audrito, Dario Bartolini, Lapo Binazzi, Andrea Branzi and many more, Super Designs looks at the works of these architects, designers and curators; walks with them through the alleys of their cities; hears their revolutionary ideals; and asks ‘what is left today of the Radical Movement?’ An Official Selection for the Architecture & Design Festival (2017), Super Designs takes us back ‘to a time when everything seemed possible.’

Concrete Soldiers (65 mins) UK 2018 (Available February 28)
The spirit of hope from the Radical Movement of the 60’s and 70’s lives on, with a communities’ refusal to be swept aside in the name of progress in Concrete Soldiers UK. Nikita Woolfe’s documentary tells the story of the destruction of council estates in the UK, and exposes the epidemic of social cleansing currently raging in London; under the destructive guise of ‘regeneration’. Filmed just after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire, the documentary follows the efforts of a young firm, Architects for Social Housing, as they meet with communities threatened to be destroyed by irresponsible development. Narrated by historian, investigative journalist, and film director Andy Worthington, Concrete Soldiers UK focuses on three council estates all facing destruction: Aylesbury Estate in Southwark, Central Hill and Cressingham Gardens in Lambeth. The documentary seeks to amplify the voices of working class Londoners subjected to developer-led, council-backed regeneration; where the only winners are the profiteering developers and private landlords callously pricing out the residents and splitting communities apart. Yet the residents are not going down without a fight. Seemingly against all odds, these campaigners are finding ways to keep hold of their homes and through the will of people powerConcrete Soldiers won ‘Best documentary film’ at the European Cinematography Awards (2018), and was an official selection for the Lund International Architecture Film Festival (2018), Independent Talents International Film Festival (2018), Architecture & Design Film Festival Winnipeg (2018), CINETEKTON International Film Architecture Festival (2018), NCADFF (2018).

Guest Curator: Katie Philpott From Architecture+Film Blog

Finally for Shelter this February, Architecture+Film’s Katie Philpott is our second Guest Curator, and her selection reflects her passion for cinematic architecture. “Reflecting our love of cinema that features great architecture,” Philpott explains, “this edit begins with several documentaries that are either movie-related or which include some of cinema’s greatest architectural stars.We’ve also chosen some excellent urban design documentaries, several inspiring titles looking at social / grassroots architecture initiatives around the world, and a portrait of a pioneering female architect whose talent and influence were overlooked in her lifetime.” Philpott’s selections include Coast Modern, La Cupola, The Pruitt Igoe Myth, Do More With Less and Permanent Camping, and can be accessed via the Shelter home screen.