The now-demolished council estate Robin Hood Gardens often occupies opposing positions within the architectural imagination. Was Alison and Peter Smithson's 1972 brutalist contribution to the London cityscape a misunderstood masterpiece or a well-intentioned failure? Fifty years on, filmmakers capture the building in all its glory right before the wrecking ball brings an end to the Smithson's magnum opus. While the controversial East London council estate is honoured at the Venice Biennale, the film revisits the building's critics, champions, and the inhabitants themselves, to determine the true legacy of this concrete utopia.
Like an alien spacecraft landed on a poisoned wasteland, the Millenium Dome makes a fitting tribute to the works of New Labour. Taking the dome as a potent architectural symbol of the new millennium, MM is a meditation upon time reflecting the changing landscape in London’s East End.
Documentary with fictional elements exploring issues around housing in the United Kingdom.
The camera of the veteran neo realist director Rossellini explores the high tech/postmodern architecture of the Georges Pompidou center and its surroundings in the Beaubourg area of Paris, on its opening day.