Sense of Architecture

Sense of Architecture is a recording of visits to forty buildings in contemporary Austria - from private houses to galleries, offices, kindergartens and hospitals to crematoriums and columbaria. Grasping, designing, and experiencing space is the starting point - says Heinz Emigholz, the filmmaker who has spent the last 15 years making a series of experimental films about famous figures of architecture of the 20th century. Emigholz developed a specific, minimalist strategy of presenting architecture: with no verbal commentary, with soundtrack reduced to natural sounds of the surroundings, so that the audience can experience the space the director explores in its acoustic aspect, too. The same goes for images: the composition of images, empty spaces, frames slightly shifted away from the vertical axis give an impression of incompleteness. To see the continuity of particular details, the spectator has to imagine the space himself. The director's film and architecture projects force us to refresh our perception. I deeply believe in first impressions and in the cognitive power of first meetings - Emigholz explains.

Ewa Szabłowska