ABSTRACT 
 
 
 
 
Title of Thesis: FRAMING INDUSTRY: FILM-MAKING TO 
PLACE-MAKING  
  
 Timothy Shook, Master of Architecture, 2018 
  
Thesis Directed By: Lecturer, Michael Abrams, RA-NCARB, 
School of Architecture, Planning, and 
Preservation 
 
 
This thesis looks at the relationship between film-making and place-making. More 
specifically, the cinematic techniques used in film and how to translate them into 
architecture. The thesis proposes a film institute that will celebrate the industry of 
film, as well as enhance post-industrial redevelopment and create a new mixed-use 
hub for Toronto, Ontario. The industry of film in Toronto is at a peak and continues 
to grow into an integrated asset for the city. This thesis explores the expansion of the 
city’s planned redevelopment to transform the Port Lands, along with the out-of-
commission Hearn Generating Station, into a beacon for the city. The Port Lands 
Film Institute will invite film-makers and film enthusiasts, of all ages and professions, 
to participate in a unique place of production, education, and innovation. 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FRAMING INDUSTRY: FILM-MAKING TO PLACE-MAKING    
 
 
 
by 
 
 
Timothy Shook 
 
 
 
 
 
Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the  
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of 
Master of Architecture 
2018 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Advisory Committee: 
Lecturer Michael Abrams, RA-NCARB, Chair 
Professor Emeritus Karl F.G. Du Puy, AIA 
Associate Professor Hooman Koliji, PhD 
Associate Professor Brian Kelly, AIA 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Copyright by 
Timothy Shook 
2018 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
Acknowledgements 
I personally want to thank everyone who has been part of this thesis process. This 
includes my thesis committee Professor Michael Abrams (Thesis Chair), Professor 
Emeritus Karl F.G. Du Puy, Professor Hooman Koliji, and Professor Brian Kelly. I 
couldn’t have done this without your inspiring and dedicated advice. I also wanted to 
thank my peers at the Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation 
who have helped me in the times of need. Lastly, I wanted to thank my immense 
family. They have been the most supportive people in my life for all these years, 
leading up to this moment. They taught me that hard work and dedication leads to 
amazing opportunities. I hope to continue my education into my career as an 
emerging architect and continue to inspire and make you proud.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ii 
 
 
 
Table of Contents 
 
 
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ii	
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iii	
List of Tables ............................................................................................................... vi	
List of Figures ............................................................................................................. vii	
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1	
2. Process of Film-making ............................................................................................ 2	
Journey to the Screen Environment .......................................................................... 2	
Scriptwriting ......................................................................................................... 2	
Production Design ................................................................................................. 4	
Cinematography .................................................................................................... 6	
Post-Production ..................................................................................................... 7	
Screening ............................................................................................................... 8	
Approaches to Cinematic Design .............................................................................. 8	
The Moving Camera ............................................................................................. 9	
Visualization ....................................................................................................... 12	
Composition ........................................................................................................ 16	
3. Process of Place-making ......................................................................................... 22	
Journey to the Built Environment ........................................................................... 22	
Clients, Users, and Program ................................................................................ 23	
Site and Context .................................................................................................. 23	
Design Conception .............................................................................................. 24	
Design Development and Detail ......................................................................... 25	
Construction and Occupation .............................................................................. 25	
Approaches to Place Design ................................................................................... 26	
Understanding Place ........................................................................................... 27	
Shaping Place ...................................................................................................... 29	
Inhabiting Place .................................................................................................. 37	
4. Film and Place ......................................................................................................... 43	
Film and Urbanism ................................................................................................. 43	
Industrialization .................................................................................................. 44	
Small Town De-urbanization .............................................................................. 45	
Utopian and Dystopian Modernity ...................................................................... 47	
Postmodernism .................................................................................................... 49	
Class and Race .................................................................................................... 50	
Film and Architecture ............................................................................................. 53	
iii 
 
 
 
Confinement and Vastness .................................................................................. 53	
Cinematic Poetry ................................................................................................. 56	
Immensity and Intimacy ..................................................................................... 60	
Cinematic Narrative ............................................................................................ 63	
Cinematic Geometry ........................................................................................... 65	
Cinematic Place-making ......................................................................................... 67	
Narrative Qualities .............................................................................................. 68	
Optical Qualities ................................................................................................. 74	
Temporal Qualities .............................................................................................. 80	
5. Site .......................................................................................................................... 85	
Site History ............................................................................................................. 86	
1850’s – 1950’s ................................................................................................... 86	
1860’s – 1980’s ................................................................................................... 87	
1890’s – 2050’s ................................................................................................... 87	
Site Selection .......................................................................................................... 89	
Site Analysis ........................................................................................................... 92	
Existing Context Analysis................................................................................... 92	
Future Development Analysis ............................................................................. 94	
Climatic Analysis ................................................................................................ 95	
6. Program ................................................................................................................... 99	
Programmatic Typology ......................................................................................... 99	
Port Lands Film Institute .................................................................................... 99	
Program Matrix ................................................................................................. 100	
Graphic Program ............................................................................................... 103	
Precedents ............................................................................................................. 104	
Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts, France ............................ 104	
Cultural Cinema Centre, Paris .......................................................................... 106	
Swedish Film Institute ...................................................................................... 109	
Program Organization ........................................................................................... 111	
Site Placement ................................................................................................... 111	
Building as a Prop ............................................................................................. 112	
Building as a Frame .......................................................................................... 113	
Building as a Backdrop ..................................................................................... 114	
Building as a Sequence ..................................................................................... 115	
Building as a Portal ........................................................................................... 116	
Concluding Thoughts on Program Placement .................................................. 117	
7. Proposal................................................................................................................. 118	
Cinematic Place-making ....................................................................................... 119	
Site Proposal ......................................................................................................... 121	
Site Diagrams .................................................................................................... 123	
Building Proposal ................................................................................................. 125	
Detail Proposal ...................................................................................................... 127	
Building Systems .............................................................................................. 127	
iv 
 
 
 
Canopy System ................................................................................................. 129	
Catwalk System ................................................................................................ 132	
8. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 133	
Presentation Thoughts ........................................................................................... 134	
9. Appendices ............................................................................................................ 136	
A- Proposal Drawings ........................................................................................... 136	
B- Spatial Sequence .............................................................................................. 143	
C- Dynamic Spaces ............................................................................................... 150	
D- Physical Models ............................................................................................... 151	
Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 152	
 
 
 
v 
 
 
 
List of Tables 
 
Table 5.1: Site Selection Matrix (Source: Author) ..................................................... 92 
Table 6.1: Program Matrix (Source: Author) ............................................................101 
vi 
 
 
 
List of Figures 
Figure 1.1: Film-making to Place-making Diagrams (Source: Author) ....................1 
Figure 2.1: Process of Film-making (Source: Author) ..............................................2 
Figure 2.2: Batman storyboard 21B (Source: Robin Hall. February 23, 2009.) ........5 
Figure 2.3: Film Production: Cinematography  .........................................................7 
 (Source: Vancouver Film School. September 9, 2010.) 
Figure 2.4: The Moving Camera (Source: Author) ...................................................10 
Figure 2.5: Example of a finalized storyboard (Source: Ryzom. July 18, 2013.) .....13 
Figure 2.6: Storyboarding (Source: Author) ..............................................................15 
Figure 2.7: Shot Sizes (Source: Author) ....................................................................17 
Figure 2.8: Foreground, Mid-ground, and Background (Source: Author) ................18 
Figure 2.9: Line of Action and The Triangle System (Source: Author) ....................20 
Figure 3.1: Process of Place-making (Source: Author) .............................................22 
Figure 3.2: Noumea Cultural Center (Source: JOOZLy, 2013.) ................................28 
Figure 3.3: Interior, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas  ................................29 
 (Source: Jmabel, December 1993) 
Figure 3.4: Paris, France, Champs Elysee  ................................................................31 
 (Source: NakNakNak, September 16, 2017) 
Figure 3.5: The Moving Person (Source: Author) .....................................................32 
Figure 3.6: Division and Gathering Spaces (Source: Author) ...................................33 
Figure 3.7: Solid and Void (Source: Author) .............................................................34 
Figure 3.8: Outside and Inside (Source: Author) .......................................................35 
Figure 3.9: Perception (Source: Author) ....................................................................36 
vii 
 
 
 
Figure 3.10: The Danteum Project by Giuseppe Terragni .........................................37 
 (Source: Thomas Schumacher. 1993) 
Figure 3.11: Pantheon, Rome (Source: Richijheath, 20 June 2008) ..........................39 
Figure 3.12: Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Mechernich, Germany  .............................39 
 (Source: seier+seier, 4 October 2008) 
Figure 4.1: Process of Film-making and Place-making (Source: Author) .................43 
Figure 4.2: Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin (Source: Taste of Cinema) .................45 
Figure 4.3: Set of Cinema Paradiso in Sicily .............................................................46 
 (Source: National Telefilm Associates) 
Figure 4.4: Metropolis – Fritz Lang (Source: Breve Storia del Cinema) ..................47 
Figure 4.5: Playtime – Jacques Tati (Source: Playtime. Jacques Tati, 1967) ............48 
Figure 4.6: Blade Runner – Ridley Scott ...................................................................49 
 (Source: Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Ridley Scott, 2007) 
Figure 4.7: Do The Right Thing – Spike Lee ............................................................51 
 (Source: Do The Right Thing. Spike Lee, 1989) 
Figure 4.8: The Truman Show – Peter Weir ..............................................................52  
 (Source: The Truman Show. Peter Weir, 1998) 
Figure 4.9: The Set of Rope – Alfred Hitchcock .......................................................54  
 (Source: Steven Jacobs. The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred 
Hitchcock, 2013) 
Figure 4.10: Rope – Alfred Hitchcock (Source: Rope. Alfred Hitchcock, 1984) .....55 
Figure 4.11: Confinement and Vastness (Source: Author) ........................................55 
Figure 4.12: Nostalgia – Andrei Tarkovsky ..............................................................57 
viii 
 
 
 
 (Source: Nostalgia. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983) 
Figure 4.13: The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb – Hans Holbein ..................57 
 (Source: The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb. Hans Holbein, 1522) 
Figure 4.14: Nostalgia – Andrei Tarkovsky ..............................................................59 
 (Source: Nostalgia. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1983) 
Figure 4.15: The Church of Light – Tadao Ando ......................................................59 
 (Source: Mith Huang, September 17, 2011) 
Figure 4.16: The Shining – Stanley Kubrick – Immense  ..........................................61 
 (Source: The Shining. Stanley Kubrick, 1980) 
Figure 4.17: The Shining – Stanley Kubrick – Intimate ............................................61 
 (Source: The Shining. Stanley Kubrick, 1980) 
Figure 4.18: Immensity and Intimacy (Source: Author) ............................................62 
Figure 4.19: The Passenger – Michelangelo Antonioni .............................................65 
  (Source: The Passenger. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975) 
Figure 4.20: The Set of Rear Window – Alfred Hitchcock .......................................66 
(Source: Steven Jacobs. The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred 
Hitchcock, 2013) 
Figure 4.21: Cinematic Place-making (Source: Author) ...........................................67 
Figure 4.22: Narrative Qualities: Sequence/Events (Source: Author) .......................68 
Figure 4.23: Jewish Museum Berlin Aerial – Daniel Libeskind ...............................71 
 (Source: Photo by Studio Daniel Libeskind. Taken on 23 July 2008) 
Figure 4.24: Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany ........................................................71 
 (Source: Dominic Simpson, 21 March 2009) 
ix 
 
 
 
Figure 4.25: Spectator Qualities: Movement/Passage (Source: Author) ...................73 
Figure 4.26: The Swiss Pavilion, Expo 2000 – Peter Zumthor .................................74 
 (Source: Photo by pep romero garces. Taken on October 29, 2008) 
Figure 4.27: Piazzale degli Uffizi (Source: JoJan, 12 October 2005) .......................75 
Figure 4.28: Optical Qualities: Framing of Space (Source: Author) .........................76 
Figure 4.29: Immensity and Intimacy (Source: Author) ............................................77 
Figure 4.30: Confinement and Vastness (Source: Author) ........................................77 
Figure 4.31: Grundtvig’s Church, Copenhagen, Denmark  .......................................79 
 (Source: Matthew Black, 15 May 2012.) 
Figure 4.32: Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal ...........................................................79 
 (Source: Dziczka, 14 November 2007) 
Figure 4.33: Spectator Qualities: Rhythm/Sound (Source: Author) ..........................81 
Figure 4.34: MFO Park in Zurich-Oerlkon  ...............................................................82 
 (Source: Roland zh. Taken on 3 October 2010.) 
Figure 4.35: Cinematic Place-making Synthesis (Source: Author) ...........................83 
Figure 4.36: Cinematic Place-making Parti Model (Source: Author) .......................84 
Figure 5.1: Toronto Districts (Source: Google Earth, 2018 and Author) ..................85 
Figure 5.2: Development of the Port Lands ...............................................................86 
 (Source: City of Toronto. Port Lands Planning Framework, 2017.) 
Figure 5.3: Site Selection Map (Source: Google Earth, 2018 and Author) ...............90 
Figure 5.4: The R.L. Hearn Generating Station (Source: Author) .............................91 
Figure 5.5: Port Lands Existing Conditions ...............................................................93 
x 
 
 
 
 (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
by Author.) 
Figure 5.6: Port Lands Planning Framework  ............................................................94 
 (Source: City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto. 3dMassings, Toronto 
 Centerline, Parks. Edited by Author.) 
Figure 5.7: Sun Chart .................................................................................................95 
 (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
by Author.) 
Figure 5.8: Wind Chart ..............................................................................................96 
 (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
 by Author.) 
Figure 5.9: Greater Toronto Watershed Map .............................................................97 
  (Source: 3dMassings, Parks, Waterbodies. City of Toronto. Edited by 
  Author.) 
Figure 5.10: Hydrology Map .....................................................................................98 
 (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
 by Author.) 
Figure 6.1: Program Organization (Source: Author) .................................................100 
Figure 6.2: Visual Program (Source: Author) ............................................................103 
Figure 6.3: Le Fresnoy – Front Entrance (Source: Petr Smideck, 2009) ...................105 
Figure 6.4: Le Fresnoy – The In-between (Source: Petr Smideck, 2009) .................105 
Figure 6.5: Le Fresnoy – Diagrammatic Sketches (Source: Author) .........................106 
Figure 6.6: Cinema Cultural Centre – Aerial View ...................................................107 
xi 
 
 
 
 (Source: Patrick Lynch. UNstudio. 22 February 2018.) 
Figure 6.7: Cinema Cultural Centre – Film Studio ....................................................107 
 (Source: Patrick Lynch. UNstudio. 22 February 2018.) 
Figure 6.8: Cultural Cinema Centre – Programmatic Organization  .........................108 
 (Source: Author) 
Figure 6.9: Cultural Cinema Centre – Participatory Program (Source: Author) .......108 
Figure 6.10: Cultural Cinema Centre – Building Form (Source: Author) .................108 
Figure 6.11: Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden – Approach .....................110 
 (Source: Author) 
Figure 6.12: Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden – Plans and Elevations ...110 
 (Source: Author) 
Figure 6.13: Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden – Axonometric  ...............110 
 (Source: Author) 
Figure 6.14: Building Typologies (Source: Author) ..................................................111 
Figure 6.15: Building as a Prop (Source: Author) .....................................................112 
Figure 6.16: Building as a Frame (Source: Author) ..................................................113 
Figure 6.17: Building as a Backdrop (Source: Author) .............................................114 
Figure 6.18: Building as a Sequence (Source: Author) .............................................115 
Figure 6.19: Building as a Portal (Source: Author) ...................................................116 
Figure 6.20: Parti Sketch of the Final Proposal (Source: Author) .............................117 
Figure 7.1: Port Lands Film Institute – Aerial (Source: Author) ...............................118 
Figure 7.2: Cinematic Place-making Qualities (Source: Author) ..............................119 
Figure 7.3: Cinematic Place-making – Exploded Isometric (Source: Author) ..........120 
xii 
 
 
 
Figure 7.4: Site Proposal – Urban Extension  ............................................................122 
 (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
  by Author.) 
Figure 7.5: Site Proposal – Streetcar Network ...........................................................122 
 (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
  by Author.) 
Figure 7.6: Site Proposal – Public vs. Private (Source: Author) ...............................124 
Figure 7.7: Site Proposal – Open and Green Space (Source: Author) .......................124 
Figure 7.8: Site Proposal – Noise Disturbance (Source: Author) ..............................124 
Figure 7.9: Building Proposal – Program Use (Source: Author) ...............................126 
Figure 7.10: Building Proposal – Interior Circulation (Source: Author) ...................126 
Figure 7.11: Building Proposal – Dynamic vs. Static Spaces (Source: Author) .......126 
Figure 7.12: Building Systems – Structural Layout (Source: Author) ......................127 
Figure 7.13: Building Systems – Mechanical Layout (Source: Author) ...................128 
Figure 7.14: Canopy System – Partial Exploded Isometric (Source: Author) ...........130 
Figure 7.15: Canopy System – Canopy Bay Section (Source: Author) .....................131 
Figure 7.16: Catwalk System – Catwalk Exploded Isometric (Source: Author) .......132 
Figure A.1: Second Floor Plan (Source: Author) ......................................................136 
Figure A.2: First Floor Plan (Source: Author) ...........................................................136 
Figure A.3: Ground Floor Plan (Source: Author) ......................................................137 
Figure A.4: North West Elevation (Source: Author) .................................................138 
Figure A.5: North East Elevation (Source: Author) ..................................................139 
Figure A.6: Longitudinal Section (Source: Author) ..................................................140 
xiii 
 
 
 
Figure A.7: Transverse Section (Source: Author) .....................................................141 
Figure A.8: Section Perspective Through Film School (Source: Author) .................142 
Figure B.1: Film School Entrance (Source: Author) .................................................143 
Figure B.2: Film School Public Catwalk Entrance (Source: Author) ........................144 
Figure B.3: Catwalk in Film School (Source: Author) ..............................................144 
Figure B.4: Catwalk near Backlot 3 and Sound Stage 7 (Source: Author) ................145 
Figure B.5: Catwalk and Frames by Roof Terrace (Source: Author) ........................145 
Figure B.6: Outdoor Cinema Entrance near Ferry Dock (Source: Author) ...............146 
Figure B.7: Catwalk and Frames near Innovation Center and Ship Channel ............146 
 (Source: Author) 
Figure B.8: Catwalk in-between Backlot 1 and 2 (Source: Author) ..........................147 
Figure B.9: Catwalk and Frames near Backlot 1 (Source: Author) ...........................147 
Figure B.10: Spectate Room viewing into a Sound Stage (Source: Author) .............148 
Figure B.11: Street in-between the Film Institute and the Hearn ..............................148 
 (Source: Author) 
Figure B.12: Production Studio Entrance (Source: Author) ......................................149 
Figure C.1: Dynamic Sound Stage (Source: Author) ................................................150 
Figure C.2: Dynamic Backlot 1 and 2 (Source: Author) ...........................................150 
Figure D.1: Physical Models a Various Scales (Source: Author) ..............................151 
 
 
 
  
xiv 
 
 
 
1. Introduction 
This thesis looks at the relationship between film-making and place-making. More 
specifically, the cinematic techniques used in film and how to translate them into 
architecture (Figure 1.1). Film and place has been historically analyzed before, 
however this thesis looks at how to process of film-making can be translated into 
architecture. The cinematic qualities described in this thesis is intended to be applied 
to any spatial scenario. They are meant to be timeless and placeless. The thesis 
proposes a film institute that will celebrate the industry of film that will enhance the 
post-industrial redevelopment and creates a new mixed-use hub for Toronto, Ontario. 
The industry of film in Toronto is at a peak and continues to grow into an integrated 
asset for the city. This thesis explores the expansion of the planned redevelopment to 
transform the Port Lands, along with the out-of-commission Hearn Generating 
Station, into a beacon for this upcoming part of town. The Port Lands Film Institute 
will invite film-makers and film enthusiast, of all ages and professions, to participate 
in a unique place of production, education, and innovation. 
Figure 1.1: Film-making to Place-making Diagram (Source: Author) 
 
1 
 
 
 
2. Process of Film-making 
Journey to the Screen Environment 
The process of film-making is an extensive process that directly relates to the 
industrialization movement throughout the world. The film-making process starts 
from conception as a narrative script and transitions through the cinematic process to 
become a film (Figure 2.1). This section will examine the linear process of film-
making and discuss its relationship to the development of film through time. 
 
Figure 2.1: Process of Film-making (Source: Author) 
Scriptwriting 
Film-making, from conception to screening, involves a substantial amount of 
planning and execution. Film-making involves narration, like other disciplines 
including art, music, dance, and even architecture. In film, a narrative starts with a 
script. Scripts or screenplays are the living heart of a production and where the 
journey begins. In the film industry, the narrative and visual elements became 
separated processes since the division-of-labor mode.1 This was often applied to 
manufacturing process by assigning different task to improve efficiency. Keeping 
these elements separate do not restrict how a script is composed into a film. Early 
conceptions of a script start with the generation of ideas that evoke memories and 
                                                
1 Steven Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen” (Studio City, CA: 
Michael Wiese Productions, 1991), 98. 
2 
 
 
 
feelings of a narrative, which includes the development of dramatic content that will 
be use. Scriptwriters must keep in mind the different variables that relate to the 
structure of a narrative. For example, scene transitions act as the connection points of 
a narrative and are considered early in the filmmaking process. Other variables 
include sound, music, and camera techniques which also tie the narrative together. 
Since a script only contains the dialogue film, the location and visual elements of the 
story must be determined in the production design stage.  
Early in the production design stage, film-makers begins with a breakdown of the 
script. This stage allows the visual side of the industry to interpret and visualize the 
narrative sequence from the script. Filmmakers spend as much time figuring out 
economical ways to shoot the film as they do on the dramatic and visual elements of 
the film.2 Directors can also coexist as the scriptwriters of films to limit any 
manipulation from narration to visualization. There are two types of visual designs 
elements relating to film-making: pictorial and sequential. Pictorial design is the 
environment that is created for the sake of the film.3 This includes film sets, 
costumes, props, makeup, etc. The environments created can have a big impact on the 
audience’s perception of space within the film. In Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear 
Window (1954), the set portrayed a block of apartments at 125 West 9th Street in 
Manhattan. The actual set was built in one of the sound stages at Paramount Studios 
in Hollywood. It is said that “Rear Window is a good example of production design 
                                                
2 Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 102. 
3 Ibid., 103. 
3 
 
 
 
which, with the help of art works and props, presents a narrative – not only 
supporting it, furthering and interpreting it but actually telling it.”4 
Production Design 
Visualization is an important step in the process, as it is the first time the story comes 
to life. Sequential design is the visual composition of a narrative built into the film. 
Sequential or continuity design focuses on the flow of the film, rather than the visual 
attributes. Translations from a script allows production designers to structure 
individual shots, staging of action, lens choices, and orders of shots into the film.5 In 
film-making, visualizing narratives are captured by the act of storyboarding, which is 
a sequential art that allows the structure of a film to be put into visual means, while 
decoding what is happening compositionally shot by shot. To visualize the structure 
of a film, locations of individual scenes must be scouted. As discussed before, these 
locations could exist in a film studio, or a separate site outside of the constructed film 
environment and within a built or landscape environment. The pictorial and 
sequential elements developed in the production design stage visualizes the 
environment and continuity of the film. This tactic will be used for the design portion 
of this thesis.  
Another useful tool to initially organize shot composition is called a shot plan, which 
is a descriptive method of organizing a storyboard (Figure 2.2).6 A shot plan will 
describe the staging of action, the size of the shot, the choice of lens, and the camera 
                                                
4 Heidi & Toni Ludi, “Movie Worlds: Production Design in Film” (Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges, 
2000), 20. 
5 Ibid., 104. 
6 Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 105. 
4 
 
 
 
angle. This usually is done in multiple drafts where the amount of descriptive 
information for each shot gets developed over time. After the shot plan is reviewed 
and analyzed, a storyboard can be produced. Some shots can be more complex than 
other. For instance, you could have a shot that includes a dialogue between two 
people and may not need much attention to design. In contrast, you may have a shot 
with hundreds of people and props, multiple camera angles, and various dialogues, 
which could take an extensive amount of time to organize and design. Film-makers 
will often make models, both digital and physical, to aid the visualization and 
organization of shots in a scene.7 Visualization is the design technique to get a script 
from a literary stage to a pictorial stage.  
Figure 2.2: Batman storyboard 21B (Source: Robin Hall. February 23, 2009.) 
                                                
7 Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 114. 
5 
 
 
 
Cinematography 
Soon after the scripts and storyboards are complete, the cinematographer can conduct 
their portion of the process. Cinematography involves all the design and execution 
that relates to lighting, filming, and framing determined by the production designers 
(Figure 2.3).8 The cinematographer will review the choices of locations, storyboards, 
sets, props, costumes and makeup. Depending on the type of shots that are intended, 
the cinematographer and director may need to shoot test shots related to any of these 
elements. Although the cinematographer controls much of the rigging involved to 
capture the shots, it is the director who controls the pictorial and sequential elements 
of the shots. In architecture, this seems to relate to the collaboration between 
architects and engineers in the design process. The next step toward final production 
involves a lot of rehearsal and scene preview to work out any preceding problems, as 
well as opportunities, that may occur during shooting.9 In the field, putting a frame 
around the anticipated actors and their environments can tremendously change how 
the envisioned shot will be taken. The process of film-making consist of an extensive 
amount of trial and error during design process.  
                                                
8 Ibid., 115. 
9	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 116.	
6 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2.3: Film Production: Cinematography (Source: Vancouver Film School. September 9, 2010.) 
Post-Production 
After shooting, the post-production and distribution stages will begin. During the 
post-production phase, there may be a series of re-shoots that could occur. This is due 
to any inadequate shots that were filmed previously. Although necessary, re-shooting 
can be very expensive to get the perfect shot to fit into the sequence of shots. The 
largest part of the post-production phase is editing.10 Editors work from the beginning 
to study the storyboards and get an essence of the film sequence. Editors are usually 
in charge of, but not limited to, stitching the film together. Other tasks include special 
effects, sounds, graphics, and final edits. Once the final film is all put together, the 
film is ready for the screening and distribution process to theaters, homes, mobile 
                                                
10	Ibid., 117.	
7 
 
 
 
devices, and festivals all over the world. While having an extensive process of design, 
the film-making process consists of various approaches to how films are designed.  
Screening 
The screening process allows all the people involved to review the film that was 
created. This process is usually when final edits to the film have been made. It is 
possible that this process could happen many times and at various durations of the 
film. Screening is essentially the film-makers putting themselves into the viewers’ 
eyes, to make sure that everything that was planned in the previous phases has been 
executed. Screening usually happens in a screening room, which is basically a small-
scale movie theater that is setup to create the same experience of the viewers.  
This process sets up the film to move to the distribution stage. Once the film has been 
approved by the film-makers, the final edits and distribution of the film is executed. 
This means that the film will be made available to the public, whether it is through 
movie theaters, DVD’s, or online streaming. This is the most important part, as it is 
the moment that the film-makers are waiting for throughout this process. Someone 
watching a film that the film-makers made is the same moment of someone 
occupying the spaces that architects create for the very first time.  
Approaches to Cinematic Design 
The most prominent cinematic approach in the film industry is the continuity style, or 
classical style of film. The style is highly faithful to the original strategies of 
Hollywood productions and set motion pictures apart from all other methods of 
reproduction. The continuity style was developed when pioneer film-makers such as 
8 
 
 
 
D.W. Griffith and Edwin S. Porter built on this basic tendency of the motion picture 
viewing experience.11 Many basic strategies of the movies that we have come to call 
cinematic, or at least the conventions of what is known as the continuity style, were 
developed or suggested in the popular art of the nineteenth century.12 This included 
nineteenth century theater, literature, magazine, and photography as generators of the 
continuity style. Interestingly, this was around the same time as the rise of industry, 
where newer technologies allowed for quicker manufacturing processes. In the early 
1900’s, shortly after the industrial revolution, is when film developed into an 
industry. This is when branded production studios, such as Universal, MGM, 20th 
Century-Fox, Paramount, and Warner Brothers were internationally recognized.13 The 
continuity style was generated by the rise of industry and film-making can be thought 
of as a process driven industry. In a sense, the continuity style is the assembly line of 
the film industry.  
The Moving Camera 
Before getting into the process of design, it will be good to understand the camera and 
how it used. Up until the early 1900’s, camera techniques were very static in motion. 
In the early 1900’s, here were technological shifts to get the camera to move and 
immerse viewers into the cinematic spaces created within the frame. One example of 
this was in Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929), where he explored the 
motion of the camera by putting it onto a moving vehicle. This allowed him to 
                                                
11	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen, 3.	
12	Ibid.	
13	Harry Benshoff M., “America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the 
movies” (Chicester: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2009), 74.	
9 
 
 
 
capture shots of movement, that he would not been able to if static. However, the 
notions toward the camera being in motion was pioneered by Alfred Hitchcock. He 
was one of the first directors to break the rules of film-making and introduce new 
techniques for capturing shots. There are a couple basic techniques for the camera 
that attempt to immerse people into multi-dimensional film environments: panning, 
tracking, zooming, and craning (Figure 2.4). The moving camera combines multiple 
views into a single shot, as an alternative to editing multiple shots, to create graphic 
and rhythmic variation in a shot. 
Figure 2.4: The Moving Camera (Source: Author) 
The Pan 
The panning or tilting shot is the only moving shot that does not involve a change in 
camera placement. The pan shot is also the easiest to setup and is used to: include 
space greater than what can be viewed through the fixed frame, follow actions as the 
move through a space, connect two or more points of interest graphically, and create a 
logical connection between two or more subjects.14 The pan can be used so show 
wide landscapes and moving subjects. It can also be used in scenarios where various 
actions could be happening at the same time. Imagine you are immersed in an 
environment filled with activity, such as a shopping center, and you try to connect all 
                                                
14	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 283.	
10 
 
 
 
the images that surround you with one continuous pan. In doing so, you can create 
logical connections solely based on the graphical compatibility.15 
The Track 
The tracking shot is used to follow a subject in action or to explore the environments 
within a shot. This could be shot by framing a subject’s action or a complex of 
actions that connect a sequence of a narrative.16 Tracking can follow a subject, or 
circle around a subject. Its range of motion has an emphasis on horizontal movement 
and direction. Tracking shots are usually setup on a track, but can also be a free-
roaming rig. Dolly carts or even handheld rigs can enhance the mobility of the camera 
in one direction. 
The Zoom 
The zooming or dolly shot is like the tracking shot as it allows for horizontal 
movement as well. This type of shot allows the camera to move closer or farther away 
from the subject. It can also be setup on tracks or hand-held devices. Zooming and 
tracking allows for the free range of horizontal movement, in both directions. This 
can be very effective in the composition of shots at the level of the subject. 
The Crane 
Directors often want to capture a scene that requires more than just horizontal 
movement. The crane shot allows for movements in many different directions, both 
vertically and horizontally. Although a pan shot shows us the vastness of an 
environment, the crane shot permits us to “feel” the dimensions of that world by 
                                                
15	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 279.	
16	Ibid., 295.	
11 
 
 
 
penetrating space.17 In Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious a crane shot is used to descend 
two stories from the ceiling of an enormous hall into the hands of a character who is 
holding a set of keys.18 Typically, a crane shot is used to show the vastness of an 
environment and intimate situations all in one shot. It can also be very useful in point 
of view shots where subjects are in motion rather than static. The crane shot allows 
for a full range of motion in all directions and can be useful when composing shots in 
more complex environments and actions.  
Visualization 
As stated previously, visualization is very important to the birth of a film. The 
continuity style is based off Hollywood’s idealization of narration, which highly 
depends on storyboarding as an organizational tool. Maurice Zuberano, a respected 
production illustrator and art director who has worked on dozens of films, says 
storyboarding is the “diary of the film.”19 Alfred Hitchcock, pioneer film-maker of 
the 1900’s, was known to use storyboarding to layout the structure of the films he 
directed.20 The director’s role in storyboarding is usually a rough draft and the final 
storyboards will get sent to a production illustrator or artist for refinements. 
Production illustrators are familiar with staging, editing, and compositional elements 
of film design and craft storyboards accordingly (See Figure 2.5).  
 
 
                                                
17	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 287.	
18	Ibid., 287.	
19	Ibid., 23.	
20	Ibid.	
12 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2.5: Example of a finalized storyboard (Source: Ryzom. July 18, 2013.) 
There are many techniques that make up storyboarding. Before one starts drawing, 
there are a lot of elements to be considered. The medium used in a story board is very 
important to the expression of the shots. Whether it is drawn in pencil, ink, charcoal, 
markers, or even digitally, is important to choose a fast and easily controlled 
medium.21 Storyboarding isn’t just about visualizing the framing of shots; it shows 
the camera techniques and motion that are embedded into the shot. The motion of the 
camera is very important to the compositional flow of shots. Motion can be defined in 
a variety of ways in storyboarding, depending on the type of shot that is anticipated.  
                                                
21	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 37.	
13 
 
 
 
As previously mentioned, panning shots, tracking shots, zoom shots, and crane shots 
are the basic types of shots used in film and are represented in the creation of 
storyboards. Panning and tracking shots are usually represented by wide frames with 
arrows that depict the camera movement (Figure 2.6).22 In special cases, a pan shot 
may move closer or farther away from an action where multiple frames may be 
represented within a single wide frame. Dolly and zoom shots are usually associated 
with the cameras action to obtain medium, close-ups, and extreme close-ups. These 
types of shots are usually represented with a frame within a frame with arrows at the 
corners representing the motion of the zoom or dolly (Figure 2.6).23 The crane shot 
requires an extensive amount of organization to achieve. This type of shot is usually a 
full, unbroken shot sequence.24 In storyboarding, the crane shot is usually represented 
as if it were many different frames that are stitched together visually (Figure2.6). This 
shot is important to represent the frame of a moving camera as it relates to the uncut 
shot composition. The shot can consist of many different types of shots all created 
with the crane. Some frames within the sequence will bleed into one another to 
represent pan and tracking shots and full frames to represent zoom and dolly shots. It 
is all dependent on the type of shots that will tell the narrative of a certain scenario.  
                                                
22	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 39.	
23	Ibid., 40.	
24	Ibid., 42.	
14 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2.6: Storyboarding (Source: Author) 
Although storyboarding is focused on the framing and staging of shots, other 
variables are taken into consideration. Storyboards and shot plans usually have two 
kinds of information associated with the visuals: a description of the physical 
environment of the scene (set design/location) and a description of the spatial quality 
of a sequence (staging, camera angle, lens and the movement of elements within a 
shot). As the storyboards become more refined, the more detail artists can include to 
express the director’s intentions. Through artistic representation, attributes like mood 
and character expressions can be included in the interpretation of the director’s design 
intentions. Storyboards, although usually hand drawn, is not the only way to visualize 
a film. Photo boards, video, animation, and computer-aided drafting are a few 
15 
 
 
 
alternatives techniques that can be added to the storyboarding process25 Storyboards 
are visualized from scripts and act like the blueprints of a film. Films are visualized 
through the act of storyboarding, which is an important element to cinematic 
narration.  
Composition  
Shot composition is another design element of film that is important to the continuity 
of film. Connections from one shot to another, or one scene to another, must be 
designed in tangent with the visuals. Directors and cinematographers will usually 
work together to compose shots together. There are two types of connections to 
compose shots together: spatial connections and temporal connections.26 Spatial 
connections focus on the physical environment that is being perceived by the viewer. 
Relationships between people and objects are important when composing a shot. 
There are a couple things that should be considered when making these spatial 
connections. Shot sizes, such as, the close-up shots, medium shots, and full shots are 
used together to create spatial/temporal order within a frame (Figure 2.7).  
The close-up shot frames from the shoulders to the top of the head. This type of shot 
was extensively popular in the development of television, due to the fact of the small 
screens that existed during that time.27 Close-ups pull you into the more intimate 
relationships of the environment and focuses highly on the subject matter. The shot 
can even be an intrusion into personal space, as if the subject has welcomed you into 
                                                
25	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 85.	
26	Ibid., 121.	
27	Ibid., 123.	
16 
 
 
 
their space. Extreme close-ups, which confines space, cause a sense of wonder about 
the surroundings and make viewers feel cut off from the rest of the environment. The 
medium shot is often shot from the waist to the top of the head. The medium shot 
captures the subject’s gestures and body language and usually works well with the 
dialogue between subjects.28 The full shot is framed from the ground to the top of the 
head. Essentially, the full shot encompasses the subject in full and the environment 
the subject is within. This type of shot is often underutilized because it requires 
dialogue scenes to be played in long takes.29 Alfred Hitchcock, in his film Rope 
(1948), captured the entire film with 4 long take shots stitched together. The film 
included close-up shots, medium shots, and full shots, depending on the actions and 
dialogues occuring.   
Figure 2.7: Shot Sizes (Source: Author) 
Although close-ups and medium shots are used more often, having a variation of 
shots to fulfill the narrative requirements of a scene is necessary. Although the frame 
is a confined view, the frame can have a strong sense of depth, or lack thereof. The 
frame consists of a couple different depths, the foreground, mid-ground, and 
background (Figure 2.8).30 The depths of a frame is understood by the space that is 
                                                
28	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 127.	
29	Ibid., 128.	
30	Ibid., 229.	
17 
 
 
 
available within the shot. For example, the shot may exist in an interior room, where 
the depth may be challenging to depict. Shots like this are often restricted to close-up 
shots, and medium shots. Another situation could be a landscape shot, where the 
depth of the frame could almost seem infinite. Framing can also be described as open 
and closed compositions, which either include or exclude the viewer from the picture 
space.31 An open frame, usually found in documentaries, has elements within it that 
are beyond the filmmakers control. A closed frame is a carefully positioned 
composition for maximum clarity and graphical balance. In creating aesthetic 
distance and levels of intimacy, it is completely up to the director on how they want 
to use these types of framing. The frame of a shot is limited, but allows for many 
opportunities to compose the shots being taken.  
Figure 2.8: Foreground, Mid-ground, and Background (Source: Author) 
Camera placement is another spatial connection that organizes the shot. The most 
basic technique of camera placement is the line of action. The line of action, or 180-
degree rule, organizes camera angles to preserve consistent screen direction and 
space.32 This has a lot to do with the rigging or setup that goes into a shot. It makes 
more sense to create scenes that can be shot from various angles without having to 
                                                
31	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 259.	
32	Ibid., 128.	
18 
 
 
 
setup the lighting for the camera various times. Imagine there is a fictitious line that 
runs down the middle of the subjects in dialogue, which the camera can’t pass. This 
allows all the rigging to exist behind the camera and the set environment to exist 
behind the subjects. The line of action creates what is known as the triangle system, 
which is the connection of 3 angle points that the camera placement can achieve with 
any setup. There are five basic camera setups that can be obtained within the triangle 
system: angular shots, over-the-shoulder shots, point-of-view shots, and profile shots 
(Figure 2.9).33 The only time the line of action is crossed, is when a new line is 
established. This happens when a new subject is introduced, which also introduces a 
new dialogue. When a new dialogue is introduced the line of action will be associated 
to which ever dialogue takes over. Another situation is when an existing subject 
crosses the existing line of action, creating a new line of action. In this scenario, 
alternative camera placements will have to adjust to the new line of action. Although 
the line of action is a rule, the rules can be broken.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                
33	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 130.	
19 
 
 
 
 
Figure 2.9: Line of Action and The Triangle System (Source: Author) 
Another type of composition is the use of temporal connections. This refers to the 
editing of shots, sequences and scenes as they relate to the narrative. Another useful 
tool used in the composition of shots is transitions. Transitions are the connections in 
between two shots. The types of transitions are: cut, dissolve, wipe, fade-out, fade-in, 
white-in, and white-out.34 These terms relate back to the celluloid films that were 
                                                
34	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 321.	
20 
 
 
 
physically cut or faded to transition shots. A cut is a stopping point of film, continued 
with another point of film, which an instantaneous point of transition. There may be a 
need for a smoother transition where dissolves, wipes, and fades are used. Cuts tend 
to happen at important actions throughout the film. This could be when a character is 
exiting or entering the frame, during movement, such as leaping over something, and 
during dialogue sequences. Montage is also a brief sequence of quick shots that 
convey the passage of time or a series of locations. It is usually used to convey ideas 
or concepts that depict dreams, drunkenness, after-death experiences, and other 
altered states, but is often not used in today’s film-making.35  
The film industry will continue to evolve in the coming years, however, the creative 
process of film-making will continue to have similar tactics of production design. The 
film industry grew from the industrialization of film-making due to the advancements 
in technology and demand of film viewers. These systems allowed film-makers to 
make films move rapidly and efficiently, without losing focus on quality. The 
digitalization of film, as well as the techniques of design, continue to enhance the way 
filmmakers innovate. From digital cameras and editing, to digital storyboarding and 
sequencing, to three-dimensional modeling and computer-generated imagery. These 
are the advancements in the industry that got us to where we are today.  
 
   
                                                
35	Katz, “Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen”, 325.	
21 
 
 
 
3. Process of Place-making 
Journey to the Built Environment 
The idea of place is defined in a variety of ways, from a place creating a sense of 
comfort, to a place having an identity. The built environment surrounds everyone and 
creates opportunities to experience it in their own way. As defined by Yi-Fu Tuan, a 
Chinese-American humanistic geographer, place has security, stability, and identity.36 
Architects, engineers, urban designers work together to evoke the sense of place when 
creating buildings and cities. In both film-making and place-making, there is a 
process of design. There is a sequence of events that is followed to design places for 
everyone to experience. Architecture should evoke the stories and memories that 
people hold, as well as create new ones. Architectural design is generally a 
chronological process, however there is iterative design intertwined. The process 
consists of 5 stages, starting with the client and ending with occupation (Figure 3.1). 
The design process isn’t just about getting buildings built, it consists of problem 
solving, experimentation, improving skills and communication of new ideas.37  
 
Figure 3.1: Process of Place-making (source: author) 
                                                
36	Yi-Fu Tuan, “Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience” (Minneapolis, MN: University of 
Minnesota, 1997), 3. 
37	Jane Anderson. “Basics Architecture: Architectural Design” (Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA 
Publishing SA, 2011), 63.	
22 
 
 
 
 
Clients, Users, and Program 
In architecture, the place-making process starts with clients, users, and program. 
Design projects are generally meant to fulfil the needs and meet the goals of the 
client.38 The client and the users are the most important part to consider in the design 
process. However, as designers, we work to enhance those goals into something that 
that client had not thought of. The client should be involved with most of the design 
process, as they can inform their intentions, which could change throughout the 
architectural design process. The client brings the idea and architects turn the idea 
into a more defined and developed reason for being. It is the architects job to analyze 
and understand the clients’ intentions, so that the final program for the project can be 
determined. This stage includes many activities, including client meetings, sketching, 
researching, and organizing for the design phases.  
Site and Context 
The next phase of the architectural design process is determining and analyzing the 
site. Although the site can be previously determined, the program and uses are 
important to have before the site and context phase is started. The site and context of 
a project is essential to place-making. Place-making involves a sense of identity. The 
site and surroundings will generate place identity for the project. Through the sites 
location, resources or cultural significance can provoke a project into being.39 In this 
                                                
38	Anderson, “Basics Architecture: Architectural Design”, 64.	
39	Ibid., 82.	
23 
 
 
 
phase, studying the site and its immediate context should evoke the generation of 
ideas. Typical activities in this phase includes site visits, sketching, analysis, and 
mapping.40 When analyzing context, it is essential to look at the project from various 
point of views and scales. The initial project is understood by looking at the site, the 
immediate context and the regional context. The creation of place is the 
understanding of location.   
Design Conception 
The generation of ideas is affected by understanding the client needs and the site. 
This phase is the most iterative part of the design process. Ideas come from anywhere 
and it is the architects job to find them. This is the first time the ideas come to life. 
This phase involves a lot of hands-on work by the iterative design process, which is 
the repetition of the generation of ideas. The idea is that architects will generate as 
many ideas as possible to accurately decipher solutions. Most importantly, these ideas 
must be come out or the idea does not exist. The idea in the architect’s mind and what 
is expressed by hand are closely linked.41 This phase consists of sketching and 
modeling, testing ideas, researching, inspiration, collaboration and feedback.42 The 
iterative design process is also a collaborative process and usually consists of a design 
team. The design team works together to generate ideas that will support the client, 
users, program, site, and context.  
                                                
40	Anderson, “Basics Architecture: Architectural Design”, 82.	
41	Anderson, “Basics Architecture: Architectural Design”, 104. 	
42	Ibid., 104. 	
24 
 
 
 
Design Development and Detail 
Once a design direction is chosen, the idea is moved forward. It is possible that a 
couple design ideas are possible and can be moved forward together. This phase is 
about finalizing the schemes to meet the needs of the program, site, and aesthetic. 
This phase involves materiality, research, scaled drawings, details, and execution.43 
Once getting into the details of a design, ideas may morph, generate, or dissipate. It is 
necessary to “fix” some ideas to explore the consequences.44 The design phases will 
entail the revisiting and interrogating possibilities that will enhance the design. This 
phase studies the practicality of forms and spaces, as it relates to the people, health 
and safety, and aesthetics. It is also crucial to get feedback from clients, as well as 
others outside of the design team, in case there were missing ideas. Collaboration is 
the most important part of the design phases, since it is only steps away from reality.  
Construction and Occupation 
During the transition from the design development phase to the construction phase, 
construction drawings are generated for the project. The construction documents are 
the legal documents that get permitted for the allowance of a project to be built. They 
also commence the process of finding a contractor. Contractors bid on the project and 
the clients can choose who fits their needs. Although the building is ready to be 
placed into the built environment, the architects work does not stop there. Unexpected 
contingencies may arise during construction that must be catered to.45 Throughout 
                                                
43	Anderson, “Basics Architecture: Architectural Design”, 126. 	
44	Ibid.	
45	Ibid., 150. 	
25 
 
 
 
this phase, there may need to be changes to the design, construction details, or 
finishes. This process exists throughout the projects existence. Although changes may 
occur, architects must stay true to the main design concepts, since it essential to the 
integrity of the design and narrative that is trying to be told.  
The architectural design process, from conception to occupation, tells a narrative. 
From the users of the buildings to the small design details, the narrative should not be 
withheld. The narrative lives in the initial design ideas and continue to live as users 
experience the place that was created. Place-making is about experiences and how 
people perceive place. 
Approaches to Place Design 
Place-making is the making of experience. Experience is built from sensations, 
perceptions, and conceptions.46 These terms are modes in which a person knows and 
constructs a reality. As a person moves through life, decisions are constantly made 
about what something is, where something is, who someone is, when something is, or 
why something is. As decisions about an environment are made, one is constructing 
their perceived reality. Yi Fu Tuan mentions, “To experience is to learn; it means 
acting on the given and creating out of the given.”47 When a person experiences 
places, they learn from them. This allows for the understanding of a true meaning of 
place.  
                                                
46	Tuan, “Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience”, 8.	
47	Ibid, 9. 	
26 
 
 
 
Understanding Place 
Understanding place is understanding the environment that surrounds it. If people 
don’t understand their environment, then is it really a place? Site and context is an 
opportunity to understand a place in a moment of time and as part of a cultural 
matrix.48 Place and culture play a big role in understanding place. Understanding the 
culture of a place will accentuate the sense of place that is being perceived. Although 
architects and engineers can never fully know the complexity of these underlying 
cultural influences, an effort to open the cultural foundations of a place is critical to 
the meaning of place.49 Understanding cultural place, is also understanding truth.50 
Knowing truth, through the experience of a place will help establish the identity of 
that place. One of the best ways to understand a culture within a place, especially 
when designing place, is to understand the clients and users. The clients and users can 
inform architects of the necessary aspects of the culture that can be applied to the 
design intentions of the place and in return give an identity to the place. The French 
architect, Renzo Piano, has been able to achieve the connection of culture to 
architecture in various places throughout the world and his career. For example, 
Piano’s government center in Noumea, New Caledonia explores indigenous building 
typologies by achieving a complex, new expression of construction, climatic and 
programmatic response, and symbolism (Figure 3.2).51  
                                                
48	Buzz Yudell and John Ruble. “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place” (Mulgrave, Australia: The 
Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd., 2004), 14. 	
49	 Ibid.	
50	Yi-Fu Tuan, “Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values” 
(Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1974), 61.	
51	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 15.	
27 
 
 
 
 
Figure 3.2: Noumea Cultural Center (Source: JOOZLy, 2013.) 
Building typology is a powerful corollary to explore place, program, and culture. 
Typology can be looked at in a variety of ways: as a taxonomy of pure building forms 
or formats, as a body of architectural ideas that incorporates the deeper purpose of an 
institution, or as an array of formal themes to be played out in endless variations.52 
Understanding typology is to understand the order and form that is driven by place, 
program, and culture. The work of Louis Kahn shows how form and order is 
embedded into the design of typology and place. Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum 
is a great example of the elemental, and phenomenal essence embedded into a 
buildings form (Figure 3.3). The form of the museum and its devotion to the presence 
of light, and the procession of movement centered along the axes of light, relate to his 
description of a moment when a reader takes a book to the light.53 Understanding 
places that are created and experienced is important to architect’s who are interested 
                                                
52	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 16.	
53	Ibid.	
28 
 
 
 
in place-making. People who experience created place will be evoked with the 
essence of that place and it is the architect’s job to envision this place.  
 
Figure 3.3: Interior, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (source: Jmabel, December 1993.) 
Shaping Place 
Shaping place is the design of experience. The search of form is the central act of 
creating place.54 Determining forms that create place and experience is architectural 
and urban design. Underlying concepts and narratives are going to be what drive the 
creation of a place. The Ecole des Beaux Arts, established in 1863, insisted students 
to develop a “parti,” typically a formal geometric diagram. “Parti” derives from the 
word “partisan,” with the implication that students would become advocates for their 
original diagram.55 A parti diagram usually holds the underlying concepts of what 
                                                
54	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 69.	
55	Ibid.	
29 
 
 
 
makes a place. Parti diagrams are usually drawn in a floorplan view. This thesis 
argues that it is much more complicated than that, where a parti diagram should 
embody the true essence of what makes a place. If place is created through 
experience, then parti diagrams should show experience through plan, section, and 
perspective diagrams.  
When place-making, there are a variety of design aspects that are taken into 
consideration. One of the most recognized and historical aspects used in place-
making is geometry and order. Geometry is a timeless tool for architects and meant 
“measure of the world” in Greek literacy.56 Geometric shapes is what makes up 
existing and created places. It is the first step of understanding form and experiencing 
place. Order is much different than geometry, since it is not as focused on 
measurements and shapes. Order encompasses modes such as numbers, sequences, 
structure, and systems. While geometry is about the form of place, order is about the 
organization of place. Both geometry and order work together to connect the 
experienced world and the imagined world, while embedding the cultural dimensions 
of the physical world. 57 
Since geometry and order make up the physical environments of a place, axes and 
connections can help people with experiencing environments. An axis simply 
connects two or more points or places. Connections comprise of axes, but also 
include an array of other relationships. Connections can appear in many variations, 
                                                
56	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 71.	
57	Ibid.	
30 
 
 
 
such as physical, symbolic, kinesthetic, programmatic, and electronic modalities.58 
Architects and engineers live to make things connect and function together. This can 
be done both physically or symbolically, which operates in space and time. Edmund 
Bacon, in “Design of Cities,” talks about axes and connections as an urban design 
tool.59 In both buildings and cities, people move through axial connections to get 
from point A to point B. Like on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, these axial connections 
start to become prominent spaces, with great activation (Figure 3.4). Physical and 
symbolic connections continue to be tools of understanding and shaping a set of 
meaningful relations to the built and natural world.60 This relates people to the 
existing and created narratives embedded into the design of place. Narratives relate 
people to their past, strengthen the sense of the present, and drive the creation of the 
future.  
 
Figure 3.4: Paris, France Champs Elysee (source: NakNakNak, September 16, 2017) 
                                                
58	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 73. 	
59	Edmund Bacon. “Design of Cities” (New York: Penguin Books. 1976)	
60	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 73.	
31 
 
 
 
 
The dimensions of place consist of space and time as a medium. Essentially, 
architecture is a four-dimensional medium, where space is made up of three axes of 
movement, and experience through time is the fourth.61 Architects often work in two 
and three dimensional representations of a place. Taking time into consideration, the 
physical embodiment of a place takes advantage of the fourth dimension of place. 
There is couple ways to look at the fourth dimension. It could be looked at through 
the lens of the building, where the architecture and its lifetime is studied and 
recognized throughout the design process. It can also be looked at through the lens of 
the people and how people experience place, which this thesis argues. While physical 
place is made up of three dimensions, or the XYZ axes, often forgot is the experience 
of interaction or visual perception (Figure 3.5). People can move within space 
horizontally in two axes, and vertically in one axes. However, people interact with 
their environment by simply looking around, which is the fourth dimension. This is 
what creates a full range of motion when people move throughout a place.  
Figure 3.5: The Moving Person (Source: Author) 
                                                
61	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 74.	
32 
 
 
 
Place is also shaped by division and gathering. In architecture, architects create places 
for dividing and places for gathering (Figure 3.6).62 A wall divides and defines space, 
by creating a sense of security and control. The classical example is the paradise 
garden which includes techniques to separate, to distinguish, and to sanctify. The 
paradise garden is a walled space where there is the opportunity to create order.63 In 
contrast to the wall, the pavilion is an open shelter from which we can look out. These 
places at its simplest form, provide shelter under a roof with four columns. It is 
closely associated with a place of gathering and openness. It is places like this where 
people feel more open to talk and gather. Dialogue between people and how the 
architecture can inform those interactions is important to place-making.  
Figure 3.6: Division and Gathering Spaces (Source: Author) 
As previously stated, geometry is one of the basic attributes of place-making. 
However, sculpting the geometry into forms is also important. This is specifically 
translated through the phenomenon of solid and void (Figure 3.7). Sculpting form by 
addition and subtraction is the most common way of generating form. So many 
building forms are repeated in the built environment, architects tend to push beyond 
                                                
62	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 76. 	
63	Ibid.	
33 
 
 
 
the basics forms, especially in modern place-making.64 Architects sculpt basic 
volumetric shapes into recognizable building forms. Those forms translate into 
geometric solids, walls, extended floor planes, and vertical elements, like chimneys, 
towers, and sloping roofs.65 Architects also deal with voided forms. Voids are the 
spaces that are created for people to inhabit and interact. Spaces, like rooms, 
courtyards, and hallways, as well as windows are voids from the solid forms that 
create space. 
Figure 3.7: Solid and Void (Source: Author) 
One of the most revealing expressions of place is the relationship between inside and 
outside (Figure 3.8).66 Climate is a big consideration for this topic. Whether people 
are inside or outside, depends on climate, location, and time. Outdoor gardens and 
courts, that associate themselves with the interiors spaces, become places of 
gathering. This is due to the human’s instinct of being associated with nature. At a 
more intimate scale, shaping the differentiation between inside and outside links the 
specific context to the deeper needs of habitation. Certain forms accomplish this kind 
                                                
64	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 78.	
65	Ibid., 79.	
66	Ibid., 80.	
34 
 
 
 
of joinery so well that architects continue to use them: bay windows, porches, and 
small rooms with sky towers.67 The relationship between inside and outside is about 
the experience of visual connections, or views.  
Figure 3.8: Outside and Inside (Source: Author) 
In place-making, a narrative structure can offer a way of shaping the understanding of 
habitation (Figure 3.9). Different from the ordering techniques based on geometric 
form, repetition, or simple hierarchy, the shaping of narrative appropriates other 
strategies in a unique sequence, based on special insights, needs, and desires.68 As 
humans, we are natural storytellers and intuitively understand these aspects of 
narration. As people meander through spaces, these types of attributes should evoke 
what a place is. Being able to experience as place that can evoke feelings of surprise, 
memory, anticipation, and choice, is essentially dwelling in a narrative.  
 
                                                
67	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 81.	
68	Ibid., 82.	
35 
 
 
 
Figure 3.9: Perception (Source: Author) 
Storytelling is used often in place-making. Some projects do this in a very literal way, 
like Giuseppe Terragni’s Danteum Project (Figure 3.10). This unbuilt project was a 
literal interpretation of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, where the progression of 
spaces related to the Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradiso that were discussed in the epic 
poem.69 The poem tells the journey of Dante through hell and then onto heaven. 
Although the Danteum project was never built, it was still a narrative which made it 
important as a project. A narrative sequence can be made from a variety of methods. 
It can be as simple as a spine, or axis, which may be bent, broken, and reconnected or 
split or not.70 Shaping a narrative is related the subtlety and complexity of habitation 
and experience, which is important to the human tendency for storytelling and 
mythmaking.71 
                                                
69	Thomas Schumacher. “Terragni’s Danteum” (New York, New York: Princeton Architectural Press., 
1993), 31.	
70	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 81.	
71	Ibid., 83. 	
36 
 
 
 
Figure 3.10: The Danteum Project by Giuseppe Terragni (Source: Schumacher, Thomas. “Terragni’s 
Danteum.” New York, New York: Princeton Architectural Press., 1993, 52.) 
Inhabiting Place 
Shaping place is all about forming the environments that people experience. 
Architects shape places based on an understanding of culture, site, and shared 
aspiration, but the effects of a given place are not totally realized until the space is 
inhabited.72 When inhabiting a place, there is a dialogue between building and site. 
Good inhabiting is when architecture is strong enough to stimulate, challenge, and 
surprise, but quiet enough to activate the unfolding of individual and communal 
space.73  
Scale and surrogates help users adapt to their surroundings. Surrogates are 
representations of human figure, miniatures of buildings, iconic elements and an array 
                                                
72	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 161.	
73	Ibid.	
37 
 
 
 
of objects which have the power to stand for us. 74  These are objects that people 
relate to, such as statues, furniture, or even art. This relates to the use of props in film-
making, which creates a sense of scale and relatability. However, scale is important 
for how small or grand people may feel in a place. Buildings are created at various 
types of scales and sizes. People interact with buildings as individuals, groups, and 
communities, which have relationships with their sites, contexts, and regions.75 
Stepping into a small bedroom at home, is going to have an immense difference to the 
sensation of walking into Pantheon in Rome (Figure 3.11). Although these different 
experiences, they are both important to the design of place. Iconic spaces, like the 
Pantheon, evoke sensations of human scale and remind people of how small we are. 
In contrast, like Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, can make people feel 
larger than ever (Figure 3.12). Scales and surrogates give a human presence to a 
place, without having anyone there. They also challenge people to see, experience, 
and understand in new and transformative perspectives.  
                                                
74	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 161.	
75	Ibid.	
38 
 
 
 
 
Figure 3.11: Pantheon, Rome, Italy (Source: Richijheath, 20 June 2008) 
 
Figure 3.12: Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Mechernich, Germany (Source: seier+seier, 4 October 2008) 
39 
 
 
 
Architects are makers and crafters. The architectural design process of shaping 
material, detail, and color is like an imaginative inhabitation.76 Architects inhabit the 
spaces and places that are not built yet. They work in the imagined world and expand 
it into the experience of dwelling. When designing, architects are not only focused on 
the forms at which people perceive, but in how those forms are put together. Making 
is the process of becoming. The blend of materials, structure, and systems is what 
creates the places we inhabit. Craft is the process of making. Architects go through an 
integrated design process to make sure these elements work together.  
Place is also experienced by the interactions with the cycles of the natural world. 
These include cycles that relate to light, wind, water, and earth. Theses natural 
elements of the world create a sense of permanence of physical laws and the 
temporality of its expression.77 Place-making does not ignore the natural elements, it 
embraces them. Whether it is through materiality or strategy, places should engage 
with its natural environment. This topic is quite regular in today’s design 
conversations and technologies. Due to environmental concerns, engaging nature as a 
sustainable strategy is an effective way to create place. A building that engages with 
or is built within its surroundings is a place-dominated building.  
Buildings also engage with the people who use them. When place-making, giving the 
opportunity for users to engage with their environments is important to their 
experience of a place. The more a building is interactive and sense evoking, the more 
it becomes a place. People moving through space and time evoke the complementary 
                                                
76	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 162.	
77	Ibid., 164.	
40 
 
 
 
kinesthetic and tactile senses. People sense the materiality of an environment through 
their bodies.78 The movement of people through spaces is like a choreography. The 
choreography of human movement takes place inside and outside of buildings, on 
sites and in landscapes. The movement throughout space is not only about the user’s 
personal experiences of the space, but also supports the opportunity for social 
interactions. Architects shape places that encourage a range of ways of fitting into and 
moving throughout space.79 
Place-making is also about the creation of identity. Identity that people can relate to 
and experience. In urbanism, landmarks establish a spatial order to a place, which 
engages and activates memories. The reinforcement of place identity relates to the 
recognition and remembering of landmarks within it.80 Usually landmarks are larger 
in scale, but that does not always have to be the case. Landmarks can exist at any size 
or proportion. Anything that can be recognized and unique to its place can be a 
landmark.  Landmarks create a quality within a place, that make them recognizable 
by people. These could be statues or fountains, parks or plazas, and iconic buildings 
or churches. Landmarks are a useful tool for way-finding and can create place that is 
recognizable.  
Place-making is the creation spaces and their relationships to the experience of 
people. Place relates to how people perceive the spaces they inhabit. When people 
move throughout spaces, they sense it and remember it. If the spaces evoke the 
                                                
78	Yudell, “Moore Ruble Yudell: Making Place”, 166. 	
79	Ibid., 167.	
80	Ibid.	
41 
 
 
 
narratives and memories embedded into the design, then a true sense of place can be 
achieved. Places are to be meaningful to its site, context and users who experience the 
spaces. The process of place-making is about how designers and people understand, 
make, and inhabit places, which relates to the perception of the places being designed.  
42 
 
 
 
4. Film and Place 
The relationship between film and place is not a new topic. There have been many 
studies and projects that dive into this topic. Film is part of the human culture, where 
people experience the imagined world in the physical world. One of the basic 
examples of this is the theater. Theaters, even before film, were gathering places for 
events. It is a ritualistic experience to go to the theaters, get some food and mingle, 
and watch a performance or film with the community. This chapter will look at film 
through the lens of urban history and architectural spaces of cinema, in search for 
cinematic approaches to place-making (Figure 4.1). Buildings and cities create and 
preserve images of culture and a way of life, cinema illuminates the cultural 
archeology of both the time of its making and the era it depicts.81  
 
Figure 4.1: Process of Film-making and Place-making (Source: Author) 
Film and Urbanism 
Film can be examined through urban history by looking at cinematic expression. 
There is no better medium than film that captures the development of urban 
modernity.82 Film has only existed for over a century now, but shows the 
                                                
81	Juhani Pallasmaa. “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema” (Helsinki, Finland: 
Building Information Ltd., 2001), 13.	
82Nezar AlSayyad. “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real” (New York, 
New York: Routledge., 2006), 1.	
43 
 
 
 
development of modern urbanism. Films that were made during different urban 
periods, have the extraordinary ability to express the character of that time. Films 
influence the way we construct images of the world and the way we operate within 
it.83 It is necessary to review pre-twentieth century urban history to fully understand 
the relationship of urbanism and the celluloid city. In the mid 19th century, the French 
poet Charles Baudelaire was the first one to capture a new emerging mode of 
experience and link it to social interaction and economic exchange.84 Economic and 
social factors will always impact the development of cities. Charles Baudelaire lived 
through the opening of the great boulevards, buildings, parks, and infrastructure of 
Paris delivered by Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann, his urban planner.85 These 
urban decisions were intended to improve cities through urban renewal. It aimed to 
create a new city that would push new forms of urbanization, industrialization, and 
capital accumulation. This section will examine 20th century urbanism and its 
relationship to films. 
Industrialization 
During the mid-1900’s, when industries around the world continued to rise, film was 
born. This was during the peak of new technologies, industrialization, population 
growths, and modern ways of life.86 Around this time, film-makers were 
experimenting with the newly developed technologies of film. Films like Berlin: 
Symphony of a Big City (1927) and Modern Times (1936), expressed the new 
                                                
83	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 1.	
84	Ibid., 2. 	
85	Ibid.	
86	Ibid., 5.	
44 
 
 
 
Taylorist modes of production, Fordist modes of consumption, and the dramatic 
acceleration of life.87 Both films have very different takes on its expression of the 
city. Walter Ruttman’s Berlin takes you through the typical day in the life of the city 
of that time. The film complies disparate images that are viewed as having an 
intended narrative. Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times is an acerbic critique of the same 
forces of industry in New York. Its comedic rendition of industry focuses the 
dehumanization of workers by reducing their ability to perform mechanical tasks and 
sends a message of what workers should do, how it should be done, and the exact 
amount of time allowed for doing it (Figure 4.2).88  
 
 
Figure 4.2: Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin (Source: Taste of Cinema) 
Small Town De-urbanization 
Another topic is the city and its relationship to the country. Throughout the 1900’s, 
there was the debate over the merits of being a city-dweller or a country-dweller. 
                                                
87	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 5.	
88	Ibid, 6. 	
45 
 
 
 
Modern urban strategies, like the Landscape Movement, tried to bring nature to the 
city, while others, like the Garden City Movement, retreated people to rural/suburban 
areas. This led to films, such as Cinema Paradiso (1989) and It’s a Wonderful Life 
(1946), which were renditions of the pressures on small-town life.89 Frank Capra’s 
It’s a Wonderful Life tells a story of morality in the setting of a suburban American 
town. Halfway through the film, the setting is contrasted with a wild urban dystopia. 
Across the Atlantic Ocean, Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso is set in a small 
Sicilian town of Giancaldo (Figure 4.3). The film narrates the life of a young boy, 
with a love of film, who grows up in this town and eventually moves to the city. The 
film describes the introduction of modernity through the evolution of cinema and its 
relationship to the audience, as well as its impact on thoughts and lifestyles of the 
residents within the town.90 
 
Figure 4.3: Set of Cinema Paradiso in Sicily (Source: National Telefilm Associates) 
                                                
89	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 7.	
90	Ibid. 	
46 
 
 
 
Utopian and Dystopian Modernity 
Another response to modern urbanism in film was the science-fiction idea of utopian 
and dystopian societies. Utopias and dystopias were positive and negative depictions 
of the city of the future, whether perfect or not. The film’s Metropolis (1927) and 
Brazil (1985) were depictions of theses futuristic cities. The idealization of utopian 
cities cannot be understood without the idea of dystopian cities, since positive and 
negative images of the city were often intertwined. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis dealt with 
the social division between capitalist aristocrats and dehumanized laborers (Figure 
4.4).91 In contrast, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil was a rendition on post-modern experiences 
of modernity of the state.92 The protagonist tries to escape daily routine and his part 
of a bureaucratic apparatus who runs the city.93 Both films are takes on this idea 
urban modernization and its relationship to the idealization of cities.  
 
Figure 4.4: Metropolis –Fritz Lang (Source: Breve Storia del Cinema) 
                                                
91	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 8.	
92	Ibid.	
93	Ibid. 	
47 
 
 
 
Jacques Tati’s films Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967) presents another view of 
the modern city, or cynical modernity.94 These films focus on the disillusionment 
with the physical outcomes of modern architecture and urbanism.95 Mon Oncle is 
about the clash between the protagonist, who lives in a traditional city block, and his 
brother-in-law who lives in a modern cubist house. The film critiques the marriage 
between urban renewal as a policy and modernism as an architectural ideology.96 
Playtime explores in further detail the banality of the modern city (Figure 4.5). The 
lack of originality is shown through the architecture/urbanism, as well as in the 
people and their needs. The film implies the Americanization of Europe, which 
affects everything form household appliances to films.97 
 
Figure 4.5: Playtime – Jacques Tati (Source: Playtime. Directed by Jacques Tati. Specta Films, 1967. 
DVD. The Criterion Collection, 2001. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
                                                
94	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 8.	
95	Ibid. 	
96	Ibid. 	
97	Ibid.	
48 
 
 
 
Postmodernism  
The departure of modernism led to postmodernism, which influenced many of the 
arts, including urbanism, architecture, and film. Postmodernism involves the crisis of 
knowledge and representation.98 It emerged from the recognition that there was no 
longer a stable, neutral, outside place, and that is often impossible to differentiate 
between the real and the simulated.99 American cities eventually led to a new type of 
economic arrangement, where labor, consumption and production followed new 
patterns of flexible accumulation.100 Films like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) 
combines the idea of utopian and dystopian societies by framing postmodern 
aspirations (Figure 4.6). Blade Runner is set in apocalyptic Los Angles of 2019, 
where political and spatial fragmented city no longer has an organized or controlled 
society. 
Figure 4.6: Blade Runner – Ridley Scott (Source: Blade Runner: The Final Cut.  Directed by Ridley 
Scott. The Blade Runner Partnership, 2007. DVD. Warner Bros, 2007. Screenshot taken May 16, 
2018.) 
                                                
98	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 9.	
99	Ibid.	
100	Ibid.	
49 
 
 
 
Class and Race 
Films also explore class and race within urbanism. Class and race is an important 
topic in the development of urbanism and film. Class is explored in Woody Allen’s 
Manhattan (1979) by studying how the city may be imagined and reinterpreted by 
individuals of different social backgrounds.101 Another strong example of social 
interactions is Do The Right Thing (1989) by Spike Lee (Figure 4.7). Do The Right 
Thing looks at race and ethnicity and its relationship to the fragmented city and 
society. The multiethnic community portrayed in the film consist of African, Italian, 
Asian, and Hispanic Americans.102 The film consisted of a balanced community that 
is shattered by a confrontation of who should be represented on the wall of an Italian 
pizzeria: Italian-American or African-American celebrities. Two years after the film 
was released, the Los Angeles riots were triggered by the verdict in the Rodney King 
beating case.103 Film can use strong narratives that take conflicting stances on current 
events and attitudes toward social interactions within urbanism.  
 
 
                                                
101	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 12. 	
102	Ibid., 13.	
103	Ibid.	
50 
 
 
 
Figure 4.7: Do The Right Thing – Spike Lee (Source: Do The Right Thing. Directed by Spike Lee. 
Universal City Studios Inc., 1989. DVD. The Criterion Collection, 2001. Screenshot taken May 16, 
2018.) 
In the 1990’s, postmodern New Urbanism looked to the necessary idealization. This 
was an ideal for scopic control and paranoid security.104 Films like The Truman Show 
(1998), by Peter Weir, portrays a protagonist who lives in a reality TV show (Figure 
4.8). His entire life is manipulated and manufactured around him to fit the needs of 
the show. As he starts the realize his situation, after discovering his “late father”, it 
makes him and the audience to call into question their own definition of reality by 
highlighting the virtues of the virtual city.  
 
 
 
                                                
104	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 14.	
51 
 
 
 
Figure 4.8: The Truman Show – Peter Weir (Source: The Truman Show. Directed by Peter Weir. 
Paramount Pictures, 1998. DVD. Paramount Pictures, 2010. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
 
Film expressed urbanism ever since the rise of industry and the development of film 
as an industry. The industry of film looks to express the current ideals and events of 
the time. The journey through the history of film and urbanism many relationships. 
From an urban standpoint, our modern cities developed from the industrial revolution. 
After the industrial revolution, movements like the City Beautiful and Landscape 
Movements looked to clean up and shape the city. While others, like the Garden City 
Movement, attempted to get people out of the city and into suburban ideals. The 
idealization of our cities was expressed through the ideals and issues of 
modernization. Today’s cinematic city often reflects the nostalgic desires of 
postmodernity that translates in acts of replication and self-representation.105 
                                                
105	AlSayyad, “Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real”, 15.	
52 
 
 
 
Cinematic and urban history goes from tradition and the modernist utopias and 
dystopias, to the anguish of postmodern fragmentation, and then finally to the only 
thing that is left to desire – to go back. 
Film and Architecture 
Architecture and its relationship to film is also explored often. Film is studied for a 
discovery of more a subtle and responsive architecture.106 There are many architects 
who have explored the utilization of cinematic tactics in their design approaches. 
Many notable architects including Bernard Tschumi, Rem Koolhas, Coop Himmel 
and Jean Nouvel, have explored the role of film in design.107 Like film, there are other 
forms of art that relate architecture, like music. Even though music is sought to be the 
closest in relation to architecture, film is even closer due to its temporal and spatial 
structure.108 This section will go through a series of films that express the relationship 
of these two art forms. Architecture and film defines the dimensions and essence of 
existential space; they both create experiential scenes of life situations.109 
Confinement and Vastness 
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), which is set in Manhattan, New York, is about two 
young protagonists’, in the search for their status as superior beings, who commit a 
murder in the comfort of their own home and have a party with the relatives of the 
victim to “cover it up.” This masterpiece was filmed all in one set and consisted of 4 
                                                
106	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 13.	
107	Ibid. 	
108	Ibid.	
109	Ibid.	
53 
 
 
 
seamless shots that captured the whole story (Figure 4.9). Alfred Hitchcock uses 
cinematic minimalism to immerse people into the experience with minimal 
interruption. British film theorist Peter Wollen claims that the best films are those that 
have only one location.110 This creates a sense of confined space. The theory is that 
the more time spent in a single location, the more discoveries can be made about that 
location. Alfred Hitchcock utilizes single locations in other films as well, like Rear 
Window (1954), which is filmed entirely in the small flat of a photographer in 
Greenwich Village in New York. In Hitchcock’s films, there are unique dualities of 
confinement and vastness. While the intent of confinement is portrayed by small sets, 
the balance is depicted by the vastness beyond the set.  
 
Figure 4.9: The Set of Rope – Alfred Hitchcock (Source: Jacobs, Steven. The Wrong House: The 
Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock. Nai010 publishers, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2013, 267. Book 
scanned on May 16, 2018.) 
                                                
110	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 39.	
54 
 
 
 
In Rope, the apartment is set in an apartment within the vastness of New York City. 
There are only two times that the viewers get a sense of vastness; in the beginning 
when the camera is outside the apartment window and at the end when the window is 
opened to signal the neighboring community (Figure 4.10). Viewer can even here the 
sirens in the distance getting closer and closer. The sense of vastness, makes people 
aware of the claustrophobic space of the narrative and the relief of reality that exists 
just outside the window (Figure 4.11). This film takes you through a journey of 
confined space and vastness by expanding on what can be seen from a single location. 
  
Figure 4.10: Rope – Alfred Hitchcock (Source: Rope. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Transatlantic 
Pictures Corp, 1948. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2006. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
Figure 4.11: Confinement and Vastness (Source: Author) 
55 
 
 
 
Cinematic Poetry  
Architecture, like film, is a form of art. Many films are cinematic poetry of space and 
light. Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalgia (1983), is an example that deals with cinematic 
poetry. Through the images of space, matter, light, and time they evoke an experience 
of pure existence, the metaphysical poetry of being.111 Water and fire specifically 
make an appearance in many ways throughout the film. The film expresses 
Tarkovsky’s memories into a cinematic experience. Symbolism is the important 
entity in the creation of poetry. Film can intensify symbolism through visual means. 
Tarkovsky’s uses repeated images of water, fire, earth, wind, fog, trees, horse, dogs, 
mirrors, candles, and hair, that symbolize mythological and religious iconology.112 
The film is all about the poetic thought derived from the director’s memory. Poetry is 
an awareness of the world and Tarkovsky’s films have an extraordinary emotional 
impact precisely because they carry a pure cinematic expression.113 Tarkovsky often 
evokes the recollections of paintings from the early Renaissance. The use of 
symmetrical framing is utilized in his films, like the perspective representations born 
in early Renaissance paintings. Interestingly, Tarkovsky did not try to imitate the 
paintings, but rather used very similar tactics of rendering space to evoke emotional 
impact. For example, Hans Holbein’s horizontally stretched painting The Body of the 
Dead Christ in the Tomb, has a closed comparison to a scene in Nostalgia, where 
there is a slow pan of Gorchakov lying on his back on a stone wall (Figure 4.12 and 
4.13). Tarkovsky’s films also explore movements throughout space. He utilizes slow 
                                                
111	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 65.	
112	Ibid., 67.	
113	Ibid., 68.	
56 
 
 
 
prolonged camera shots that track parallel to the picture plane or along the 
perpendicular depth direction. The camera movements allow the camera to carve 
through spaces and transfer that information directly into the mind of the viewer.  
Figure 4.12: Nostalgia – Andrei Tarkovsky (Source: Nostalgia. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Rai 
Radiotelevisione Italiana, 1983. DVD. Kino Lorber Inc, 2014. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
Figure 4.13: The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb – Hans Holbein (Source: The Body of the Dead 
Christ in the Tomb. Painted by Hans Holbein. Termera on wood, 1522. Accessed May 16, 2018.) 
57 
 
 
 
As mentioned, Tarkovsky explores the poetics between space and light in his films. 
This has a direct connection to architecture, as it is necessary to get light into the 
spaces we create and can be symbolic in character. In poetry, light and dark can 
represent the sacred and profane. This can exist in architecture as it relates to the 
poetics of light and space. In the “Poetics of Space,” by Gaston Bachelard, he talks 
about the oneiric house and its relationship to the vertical poetry of the attic and the 
cellar.114 The oneiric house is an architectural metaphor for the location of memories 
and thought. Bachelard relate the attic to positive thoughts and the basement to 
negative thoughts. In Tarkovsky’s films, windows and doors play an essential role. 
They are for looking out of or into and openings for light to enter, as much as for 
people to pass through.115 Like Tadao Ando’s architecture, the presence of light is 
intensified in space to create a sense of place. There is a strong relationship between 
film and architecture and presence of light, especially looking at the works of 
Tarkovsky and Ando (Figure 4.14 and 4.15). between Tarkovsky also utilizes the four 
pre-Socratic elements: fire, air, water, and earth and their various mixtures and 
dissolutions (smoke, vapor, clay, mud, slime, and dust). This is what Gaston 
Bachelard references as the imagination of matter that classifies the law of the four 
elements.116 The idea is that the four basic elements can be morphed into anything to 
create an elemental expression in poetic space. For example, Tarkovsky utilizes fog to 
                                                
114	Gaston Bachelard. “The Poetics of Space” (New York, New York: Penguin Group LLC., 1964), 
38.	
115	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 78.	
116	Ibid, 79.	
58 
 
 
 
emulate the movement of air though space. Tarkovsky’s films are about the perpetual 
search for home, the lost home of childhood.117  
Figure 4.14: Nostalgia – Andrei Tarkovsky (Source: Nostalgia. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Rai 
Radiotelevisione Italiana, 1983. DVD. Kino Lorber Inc, 2014. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
 
Figure 4.15: The Church of Light – Tadao Ando (Source: Photography by Mith Huang, September 17, 
2011. Accessed May 16, 2018.) 
                                                
117	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 92.	
59 
 
 
 
Immensity and Intimacy 
Film has a lot to do with the mentality of the characters and viewers watching. In The 
Shining (1980), Stanley Kubrick explores the relationship of the minds of the 
characters and their surrounding environment (Figure 4.16 and 4.17). The film is set 
in the Colorado mountain at the isolated Overlook Hotel, where the protagonist and 
his family move to watch over the hotel during the winter. The isolation causes the 
protagonist to terrorize his wife, as well as his son who is plagued by psychic 
premonitions. Kubrick shifts the emphasis from external horror towards an internal 
fear arising from the minds of the character as well as the viewer, by embedding the 
mounting fear in architectural structures and metaphors.118 The idea of structural fear 
is built into the architectural setting itself. Architecture serves as a metaphor for the 
human mind in accordance with the traditional psychoanalytical view: characteristics 
of architecture are reflected in mental structures and mental contents are projected in 
architecture.119 The terror not only exists in the horrifying back story of the hotel, but 
within the minds of the characters themselves. 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                
118	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 97.	
119	Ibid.	
60 
 
 
 
Figure 4.16: The Shining – Stanley Kubrick – Immense (Source: The Shining. Directed by Stanley 
Kubrick. Warner Bros, 1980. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
 
Figure 4.17: The Shining – Stanley Kubrick – Intimate (Source: The Shining. Directed by Stanley 
Kubrick. Warner Bros, 1980. Screenshot taken May 16, 2018.) 
 
61 
 
 
 
The immensity of the hotel emphasizes the mental space of the family and polarizes 
their internal relations. The isolation within the immense hotel becomes a spatial 
imprisonment for the family. The hotel doesn’t include any staff during the winter 
term, which heightens this sense of abandonment and emptiness. The scale of this 
empty hotel makes intimacy almost impossible. Ironically, the protagonist decides to 
do his creative writing is a vast open lounge, where as many of the other scenes are 
shot in more intimate rooms like bathrooms and bedrooms. There is a duality between 
intimate and immense spaces (Figure 4.18). The detachment of human figures from 
the scale of their settings is underlined by the hard echoes of their voices.120 For 
example, the echoing sound of the protagonist throwing a ball against the fireplace 
wall effectively underlines the terrorizing scale of that space.121  
 
Figure 4.18: Immensity and Intimacy (Source: Author) 
 
                                                
120	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 109.	
121	Ibid.	
62 
 
 
 
Cinematic Narrative 
In most films, there is a strong emphasis on the narrative, as well as the environment 
supporting the narrative. Michelangelo Antonioni, who directed The Passenger 
(1975), had an interest in architecture. The settings in his films are priority over the 
narratives. Interestingly, Antonioni would not follow a precise plan when filming, and 
would often spend a lot of time before the shoot analyzing the setting to accurately 
define how the shot will be shot.122 The film is the opposite of Hitchcock’s Rope, 
where it explores a mosaic of settings throughout the entire film, from the African 
desert to the metropolitan of London, Munich, and Barcelona. The journey is a 
trajectory that takes the protagonist from the African desert momentarily back to his 
London home, but the gravity of the desert pulls him back on a southward journey 
towards the landscape of placeless and isolation, which ends up being his ultimate 
isolation123 The final shot ends up being shot in the confinement of a motel room. The 
film even includes settings in two Antoni Gaudi buildings: the Palacio Guell and Casa 
Mila, which further enhance the ambience of journey, strangeness, rootlessness, and 
unreality.124 The female protagonist is an architecture student who brings the 
awareness of architecture to the film. Antonioni’s is interested with the interaction of 
people and their settings, which goes beyond film-making. Antonioni’s says, “Every 
time I enter a strange office, public place or private home, I get the urge to rearrange 
the scene.”125 Cinematic narratives give an expression of the surrounding 
                                                
122	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 117.	
123	Ibid, 120.	
124	Ibid, 117.	
125	Ibid, 119.	
63 
 
 
 
environment. In Passenger, the cinematic techniques aim to dissolute the narrative 
and emancipate expression from the camera. The camera seems to wander throughout 
the environment which creates a distance between narration and story.126  
The film also goes into the theme of identity. Identity is created though an 
individual’s personal history and experiences. In the film, the protagonist trades 
identity with someone else and goes through a journey of self-discovery to find what 
he is meant to be. The most important scene of the film is the final seven-minute take, 
which captures the fate of the protagonist. The camera absentmindedly observes the 
casual events of everyday life, but leads the viewer into a state of metaphysical 
transcendence (Figure 4.19). This scene is said to be the most evocative and beautiful 
shots in the history of film.127 The slow-moving camera and cinematic techniques 
create a religious feeling, where the protagonist’s soul is parting from his tortured 
body. The senses can be directly evoked by cinematic techniques and narratives used 
in film.  
 
 
 
                                                
126	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 123.	
127	Ibid., 138.	
64 
 
 
 
Figure 4.19: The Passenger – Michelangelo Antonioni (Source: The Passenger. Directed 
Michelangelo Antonioni. Proteus Films Inc., 1975. DVD. Sony Pictures, 2006. Screenshot taken May 
16, 2018.) 
Cinematic Geometry 
One of Alfred Hitchcock’s best constructed films is Rear Window (1954). The film 
takes place during four days in an apartment block of Greenwich Village in New 
York City. All the events are filmed through the eyes and from the apartment of the 
protagonist, who is wheelchair bound. The set was one of the largest indoor sets ever 
created by Paramount Studios. Since being modeled after a real block in the real 
Greenwich village, the “Fredrick Style” housing typology was picked up and used in 
the film set (Figure 4.20).128 Hitchcock is known for his suspense-driven films. In 
Rear Window, the suspense is based off the irrefutable logic of terror. The film has 
realistic sense of terror built into the messages and symbols of the character choices 
and decisions. There is an exploration of extraneous and contradictory series of 
events. Since the film involves the protagonists cause to watch his neighbors, there is 
                                                
128	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 145. 	
65 
 
 
 
an intermingling and occasionally triviality to the narrative. But this suspenseful 
technique is perfect for the buildup of events that occur. The film is all about this idea 
of watching and the more you watch, the more you understand, or think you 
understand. In Rear Window, the window is metaphor for what you can see, and what 
you can’t. This shaped the way the protagonist shapes the narrative in his own mind, 
as he interprets the meaning of the unrelated events he observes and directs how it is 
developed.129 This makes the viewers wonder in their own mind, and interpret the 
events to create their own narrative and experience the film.   
 
Figure 4.20: The Set of Rear Window – Alfred Hitchcock (Source: Jacobs, Steven. The Wrong House: 
The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock. Nai010 publishers, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2013, 279. Book 
scanned on May 16, 2018.) 
                                                
129	Pallasmaa, “The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema”, 138.	
66 
 
 
 
Cinematic Place-making 
Urbanism and architecture are similar in the spatial qualities that are created. As 
discussed, they both relate to film from a historic and spatial point of view. There is 
much to take away from these relationships, but cinematic place-making is at the 
center of this thesis. How does film-making drive place-making? In Richards Koecks 
book, “CineScapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities,” there are four 
different qualities of space that must be considered in the creation place. Narrative, 
spectator, optical, and temporal are the cinematic qualities that make up place-
making.130 These four qualities focus on various cinematic techniques related to 
storytelling and evoking the senses. These include sequences and events, movement 
and passage, framing of spaces, and awareness of time (Figure 4.21).131  
 
Figure 4.21: Cinematic Place-making (Source: Author) 
                                                
130	Richard Koeck. “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities” (New York, New York: 
Routledge., 2013), 108. 	
131	Ibid.	
67 
 
 
 
Narrative Qualities  
From conception to screening, film-making is a sequential art form. It consists of 
sequential events that are put together to create a narrative. Film is also designed and 
shot in a sequence. Sequential art has been seen throughout the history of urbanism 
and architecture in many forms. The human culture is deeply rooted by this idea of 
sequence and events (Figure 4.22). This can be seen in the Renaissance frescos and 
sculptural relics that served as a visual aid for journey through spaces.132 Even early 
place-making manifested itself with linear arrangements, which were the repetition of 
elements in a sequence. Even today, architects tend to organize buildings around 
central circulation axes. Bernard Tschumi states that the “sequence of space, 
configurations-en-suite, enfilades, spaces aligned along a common axis – all are 
specific architectural organizations, from Egyptian temples, through the churches of 
the Quattrocento to the present.”133 
 
Figure 4.22: Narrative Qualities: Sequence/Events (Source: Author) 
 
                                                
132	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 85.	
133	Ibid. 	
68 
 
 
 
Architectural and urban space also have a lot to do with how it is perceived. Kevin 
Lynch’s “Image of the City,” Jane Jacob’s “The Death and Life of Great American 
Cities,” and Gordon Cullen’s “The Concise Townscape” were all published in the 
early 1960’s and talk about the way people perceive urban landscapes.134 They all 
explore landscapes by looking at them from an eye-level perspective, while focusing 
on navigation, legibility, neighborhoods, communities, and spatial design qualities. 
Gordon Cullen studies cities through virtual analysis. He places a virtual camera in 
space, which allows him to study urban space through virtual abstractions, this allows 
him to omit everything outside of the frame and his chosen field of vision.135 Cullen 
argues that his method of understanding spaces is directly linked to the core 
principles of movement used in film. Although he cannot match the time of a camera, 
he captures his frames by hand, which gives him timed spatial snapshots of 
movement throughout time and space. This work is closely related to that of Bernard 
Tschumi, who worked on projects like The Screenplays in 1977 or The Manhattan 
Transcripts in 1976-81.136 These projects explored theories of montage and editing, 
and discourse of film and cinema, which resemble visual storyboarding. 
Storyboarding is a way to spatially organize the narrative of sequence and events in a 
place. Tschumi also goes into the idea of what he calls a “shock.” This can be looked 
at as the moment in a film or narrative where there is a sudden surprise. In writing 
and film, this is commonly known as the climax of the narrative. This can exist in 
                                                
134	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 86. 	
135	Ibid., 87.	
136	Ibid., 88.	
69 
 
 
 
architecture to evoke the viewers to a “thought-provoking surprise,” which Tschumi 
argues must be manufactured by the architect if architecture is to communicate.137 
Sequences and events can create pronounced narrative qualities in architectural and 
urban places. An example of this can be found in Berlin at Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish 
Museum (Figure 4.23 and 4.24). It creates a tremendous amount of emotions through 
the meaning they carry, but also from the transformation of social, cultural, and 
political history of Jewish citizens in Berlin into an embodied spatial experience.138 
The Jewish Museum is a sequential and illusionistic journey through space with 
sloped floors, tilting walls, hard surfaces and sparse lighting that all contributes to the 
perception of the spaces.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                
137	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 88.	
138	Ibid., 111.	
70 
 
 
 
 
Figure 4.23: Jewish Museum Berlin Aerial – Daniel Libeskind (Source: Photo by Studio Daniel 
Libeskind. Taken on 23 July 2008) 
 
Figure 4.24 Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany - Daniel Libeskind (Source: Dominic Simpson, 21 
March 2009) 
 
71 
 
 
 
Spectator Qualities 
Another technique, which is related to the spectators of film and place, is movement 
and passage. Basically, film captures movement in live action and replays it through a 
mechanism. In early films, like A Man with a Movie Camera (1929) or Berlin (1927), 
represent cities and urban spaces in natural and sparsely mediated form. During this 
time, cameras were either fixed or on a moving vehicle, and hand-cranked to capture 
theses spaces. Movement adds spacial dimension to two-dimensional images, which 
adds a vital factor to the perception of a sense of place.139 Movements across a frame 
start to suggest depth and continuity of space, beyond the framed image.  
In architecture, the discussion of movement starts to suggest a composition of site and 
perception of architectural space. The idea of the architectural and cinematic path, is a 
notion toward the phenomena that someone walking through architectural space is 
absorbed with the visual sense of movement. The Acropolis in Athens, Greece 
comprises of a sequential order of spaces which create an architectural path and hence 
require the movement of a human eye across the site to engage fully with the depth of 
the space.140 Sergei Einstein suggests that there are two distinct phenomena that are 
centered around the “spatial eye” along a pathway.141 There is the cinematic path, 
where a spectator follows an imaginary line among a series of object, through sight 
and mind. Then there is the architectural path, where, a person moves through a series 
of carefully disposed phenomena, which is observed sequentially with a visual 
                                                
139	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 92.	
140	Ibid., 92.	
141	Ibid., 93.	
72 
 
 
 
sense.142 This idea suggest that architectural spaces can have cinematic qualities 
created using movement and passage (Figure 4.25).  
 
Figure 4.25: Spectator Qualities: Movement/Passage (Source: Author) 
The spectator qualities of a place tend to create self-awareness and generates a sense 
of being. Movement is closely linked to activity, in the form of body movement, like 
walking, driving, swimming, or even flying. Simple enough, the act of walking 
through space gives a self-awareness within a space. A great place, with an 
underlying narrative, is Peter Zumthor’s temporary Sweden pavilion at the 2000 Expo 
in Hannover, Germany. It is a 2,800m3 of larch and Douglas pine from the Swiss 
mountains stacked on top of each other (Figure 4.26).143 The pavilion was meant to 
symbolize and represent Switzerland as an environmentally-conscious, sustainable 
and open country. It had many different entrances and events happening within it, 
which the spectators found as a surprise around corners throughout the pavilion. The 
pavilion was a multi-sensory experience that included the fragrance of fresh wood, 
                                                
142	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 93.	
143	Ibid, 109.	
73 
 
 
 
which became of story-telling apparatus, and a space that created transitory and 
ephemeral experiences.144 
 
 
Figure 4.26: The Swiss Pavilion, Expo 2000 – Peter Zumthor (Source: Photo by pep romero garces. 
Taken on October 29, 2008) 
Optical Qualities 
During the Renaissance period art, both paintings and sculpture, worked together with 
stage-like theoretical space. During this time, the perspective was conceived in 
paintings, which helped to place a spectator at the center of a frame. The Renaissance 
period had a lot to deal with architecture as an object. The dialect between an object 
and the viewer became a powerful visual agent that is loaded with meaning.145 A 
                                                
144	Ibid.	
145	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 96.	
74 
 
 
 
great example of this is in Florence, Italy, where the archway in the Piazzale degli 
Uffizi frame the Pallazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria (Figure 4.27).  
 
 
 
Figure 4.27: Piazzale degli Uffizi (Source: JoJan, 12 October, 2005) 
Frames can be thought of as a screen in cinematic space and as windows in 
architectural space (Figure 4.28). Jacques Aumont draws the attention to two material 
characteristics of film relating to the border and the frame. First, he suggests a still 
photograph that is framed by a material and then moves into the difference of the way 
75 
 
 
 
people see a moving image.146 In film, the frame cuts off the visibility of filmic 
elements, or mise-en-scene, beyond the picture plane. The frame also cuts off 
everything that is behind the camera, which includes all the mechanisms behind 
cinematic production.  This goes back to the idea of the line of action in film-making, 
where one side of line is part of the filmographic space and the other is not. 
Throughout the development of film, film industry used a variety of different aspect 
ratios for the frame, which standardized the frame for the industry. Originally, ratios 
like 4:3 (1.33:1), or the Academy standard, and 16:9 (1.78:1), were used in television 
shows. During the 1950’s, the American film industry moved away from the 
Academy standard and moved towards ratios like 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. In Jacques Tati’s 
Playtime (1967), there are various scenes of the film that explores the idea of multiple 
frames. One scene has the protagonist looking over a glass railing into of room filled 
with cubicle, where each cubicle acts as sub-frames within the cinematic frame that 
tell separate narratives. There is also another scene where the windows of the building 
façade become a monitor for the numerous narratives being told.  
Figure 4.28: Optical Qualities: Framing of Space (Source: author) 
 
                                                
146	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 99.	
76 
 
 
 
The framing of spaces can be analyzed from two different perspectives: the size of 
frames and what is being framed. The size of the frame relates to the immensity and 
the intimacy of space (Figure 4.29). As stated previously, Stanley Kubrick used this 
tactic in The Shining (1980) which evoked emotions upon the spectators. The other 
perspective of framing space is the confinement of spaces that relate to the vastness of 
space (Figure 4.30). In other words, the awareness of vastness could be expressed 
through the framing of the landscape beyond the building or the context. These tactics 
used in film can be applied to the creation of place and effectively evoke the senses of 
the people. 
Figure 4.29: Immensity and Intimacy (Source: Author) 
Figure 4.30: Confinement and Vastness (Source: Author) 
 
77 
 
 
 
In architecture and cities, spaces have qualities that relate to visual and optical 
effects.147 A frame in film divides the foreground and background of spaces, which 
directs the viewers’ attention to what is on the screen. The frame in the built 
environment is a device for mobile seeing.148 Beatriz Colomina points out that Le 
Corbuiser’s Villa Savoye is “no more than a series of views choreographed by the 
visitor, the way a filmmaker effects the montage of a film.”149 This idea gives the 
viewers of space a choice to create their own narrative. An architectural example of 
optical quality is Grundtvig’s Church by Peter Vilhelm in Copenhagen, Denmark 
(Figure 4.31). This is a great religious example of a place with immense and intimate 
spaces that evoke powerful emotions within the occupants. Spaces like this can pull 
out many emotions, like happiness and sadness, depending on the narrative being 
told. Another example is a section of the new High Line in New York City. There 
were openings cut into the side structure where people could view the city from 
terraces steps. These act as a screen which frames the city skyline, which are seen 
through a high angle perspective and aspect ratio. This is commonly referred to the 
wide-screen crane shot in film-making.150 The Casa da Musica by Rem Koolhas in 
Portugal is also another building that explores how contemporary architecture can 
become an optical instrument for mobile seeing (Figure 4.32). It is designed as a 
series of rooms that meander around a grand auditorium. The building invites visitors 
to see the city through bright openings, which act as cinematic widescreen through 
                                                
147	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 112.	
148	Ibid., 113. 	
149	Ibid.	
150	Ibid., 114.	
78 
 
 
 
which the city is framed.151 The building even starts to give impressions of optical 
filters, such as distortions of light. 
Figure 4.31: Grundtvig’s Church, Copenhagen, Denmark (Source: Matthew Black, 15 May 2012) 
Figure 4.32: Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal (Source: Dziczka, 14 November 2007) 
                                                
151	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 115. 	
79 
 
 
 
Temporal Qualities 
Film is a time-based medium and is often related to the reconfiguration of time and 
space by editing. Editing film is an architectural notion of cuts, which is a logical and 
structured process.152 Cuts in film have significantly changed throughout history, 
which is due to changes in technology, periods, and stylistic preferences. The 
synopsis of this is that the slower the shot lengths are, the more time the viewer can 
explore and engages with the space seen in the film. Sound and music also 
contributes to the temporal qualities to film and perceived space. Michel Chion states 
that there are three aspects that relate to the influence of sound and time in an image, 
the “temporal animation of the image,” that “sound endows shots with temporal 
linearization,” and that “sound amplifies or dramatizes shots,” which creates a feeling 
of “imminence and expectation.”153 In buildings and cities, one can argue that the 
culture of vision and sound is a temporal construct, where they are constantly 
changing over time. People design and regard places in terms of rhythm (Figure 
4.33). Rhythm can be built into facades, as well as buildings and the urban fabric. 
Rhythm is known to be the formal means of composition in classical music, poetry, 
and architecture. In architecture, rhythm employs stress, contrast, reiteration, and 
grouping in architectural elements.154 
                                                
152	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 101.	
153	Ibid, 103.	
154	Ibid.	
80 
 
 
 
 
Figure 4.33: Spectator Qualities: Rhythm/Sound (Source: author) 
 
Architectural place-making can have an infinite amount of sound characteristics. This 
can include internally and externally generated noise, such as sounds shaped by the 
geometry and surface qualities of space.155 This is like hearing footsteps though a 
church due to is surfaces and immense spatial qualities. This can also be examined at 
the Casa da Musica, where the music is designed to permeates the building’s interior. 
As people walk through cities, the noises around them hold important spatial clues. 
Interestingly, people in cities like to walk around with headphones and listen to 
music, which blocks out these cues. This is not dissimilar to a cinematic experience in 
which music and urban space are synchronized, where people choose the sound that 
fits their journey. Sounds can be interpreted in both figurative and cinematic terms as 
spatial scenes that transforms the experience of a perceived physical space.156  
The temporal quality is also related to the change of time, or awareness of time. This 
is expressed in two various ways, as the relate to film and place: light/shadow and 
life. As we have seen in Tado Andos’s work, the Church of Light uses light and 
                                                
155	Koeck, “Cinescapes: Cinematic Spaces in Architecture and Cities”, 116. 	
156	Ibid., 118.	
81 
 
 
 
shadow to change to quality of the space throughout the day. It has a perfect balance 
of light and shadow to grasp the emotions of the people. The other way to access the 
temporal quality is the awareness of life, or for this instance vegetation. Vegetation 
can help aid the awareness of time of year or the seasons. Depending on the time of 
year, both the vegetation and weather captures the temporal quality throughout the 
seasons. The MFO Park in Zurich, Switzerland uses vegetation to capture temporal 
qualities, along with the shading used to heat and cool the spaces during various 
seasons (Figure 4.34).  
 
Figure 4.34: MFO Park in Zurich-Oerlkon (Source: Roland zh. Taken on 3 October 2010.) 
 
 
82 
 
 
 
Cinematic place-making is the synthesis of how the cinematic techniques used in film 
can be translated into the creation of place. This will challenge how designers and 
architects design spaces. These cinematic qualities are meant to be used in various 
types of design and spatial scenarios. They are meant to be both placeless and 
timeless. This thesis will use these cinematic techniques to shape the spaces that 
people are able to participate and experience. It will be applied to this unique place of 
education, innovation, and production. When these techniques are combined, there 
will be opportunity for the creation of a unique place, with the relationship of film 
(Figure 4.35). These techniques were also translated into physical form by using a 
parti model to designate a sequence of frames and how people can move throughout 
it, creating their own experience. (Figure 4.36).  
 
Figure 4.35: Cinematic Place-making Synthesis (Source: author) 
83 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 4.36: Cinematic Place-making Parti Model (Source: author) 
 
84 
 
 
 
5. Site 
This thesis tests these ideas in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. More specifically the post-
industrial zone, which is almost the size of downtown Toronto itself (Figure 5.1). The 
Port Lands is to the east of downtown Toronto, where urban renewal and 
redevelopment plans are already in progress. There is an iconic ship channel that runs 
through it, that is still used for ships when importing and exporting goods. This is a 
unique place due to its central location between the urban center to the west and the 
natural edge to the east and next to Lake Ontario. The City of Toronto and Waterfront 
Toronto intends to turn this existing industrial zone into a modern, vibrant mixed-use 
city district and media hub.  
  
Figure 5.1: Toronto Districts (Source: Google Earth, 2018 and author) 
85 
 
 
 
Site History 
There is a significant amount of developmental history in Toronto. After it was 
incorporated in 1834, it continued to rise into one of Canada’s most economic 
capitals. Throughout the 1850’s to the present there was a lot of development that has 
been going on in the Port Lands, the City of Toronto, and the world. There is also a 
lot that will be coming to this area in the years to come. The time line shows how the 
Port Lands developed over the years, in relation to the city and the world (Figure 5.2).  
Figure 5.2: Development of the Port Lands over Time (Source: City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto. 
Port Lands Planning Framework, 2017. Edited by Author) 
1850’s – 1950’s 
The development of the Port Lands started in 1886 and continues to into the future. 
The Port Lands sits on top of used to be the Ashbridge’s Bay Marsh. In 1886, the Don 
River, located north of the Port Lands, originally ran into the marsh, unlike the inner 
harbour today. The man-made construction of the Keating Channel rerouted the 
mouth of the Don River into the inner harbour, which allowed for the development of 
the ship channel and turning basin at the center of the Port Lands by the 1920’s. The 
86 
 
 
 
Port Lands was envisioned to be the gateway for shipping in the city of Toronto, but 
never gained stronghold like the other Canadian cities.157  
1860’s – 1980’s  
By the 1960’s Toronto had another wave of development to construct the Leslie Spit 
and other iconic infrastructure. There was also the opening of the St. Lawrence 
Seaway, which connects Toronto and other Canadian cities to the Atlantic Ocean. 
This opening allowed for ships to come to Lake Ontario. However, Toronto’s 
aspiration to be a port city waned due to the containerization of shipping, which 
allowed cargo to be shipped to eastern ports and trucked to Toronto. This led to the 
underutilization of the outer harbour, due to the lack of port activity. However, this 
development did allow for infrastructure like the R.L. Hearn Generating Station and 
associated hydro-electric industries, as well as the Commissioners Incinerator to 
support the broader city.158 
1890’s – 2050’s 
In the 1990’s, the city started to see these areas being underutilized. The city started 
plans to develop these waterfront districts into mixed recreational, cultural, 
commercial, and residential zoning uses. There were also attempts to reconnect the 
don river with the outer harbour again. Further planning in the 2000’s started to 
transform and re-energize the waterfront of Toronto. In 2015, due to flood protection 
                                                
157		City of Toronto. “Port Lands Planning Framework.” (City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto. 
September 2017.) Accessed May 13. 2018, 20. 	
158	City of Toronto, “Port Lands Planning Framework”, 21.	
87 
 
 
 
issues, the plans to re-naturalize the mouth of the Don River was approved. This 
allows for more development to occur in the Port Lands area. This plan is to be 
completed by 2025, which is just the start of the 50-yearlong plan for the Port Lands.  
Another important evolution of the Port Lands is the development of production 
studios, which this thesis focuses on. Production studios are treated as industry in the 
Port Lands. Naturally, open spaces in industrial districts are perfect for large 
production facilities. Production companies like Pinewood Toronto Studios, formally 
known as the Film Port development, prefer these areas of openness and seclusion. 
Pinewood Toronto Studios, as well as other notable studios, contribute to the city’s 
impressive inventory of production space and growing creative sector that allows the 
city to compete with other global cities for productions.159  
This extensive development has several key factors that will guide the improvements 
to the Port Lands. These improvements are part of a larger regeneration effort to 
reactive the waterfront of Toronto. Even today, the Port Lands is an underutilized 
resource to the city, but not completely. It currently has 5,500 people working in the 
area.160 The regeneration will infuse new uses and activity, while celebrating the 
active industry, including the production studios. The development will also converge 
the urban context with the wilderness, activate waterways and ports, introduce 
regional and urban mobility, while celebrating history and industry located in the Port 
Lands. 
                                                
159	City of Toronto, “Port Lands Planning Framework”, 23. 
160	Ibid., 24.	
88 
 
 
 
Site Selection  
The Port Lands is comprised of industrial infrastructure, with film production 
facilities weaved into the fabric. The site selection of this thesis was highly influenced 
by the relationship of industry and film. The industry in Toronto was limited due to 
the fact of its location and accessibility. However, the film industry preferred this 
typology of seclusion, which allowed for the development of film in Toronto. The 
film industry developed with the rise of industry around the world. This thesis intends 
to look at the relationship between film-making and place-making, by creating a 
unique place in the context of a film studio district.  
The Port Lands has a lot of potential sites for the thesis research to be tested on. The 
ideal site selection was split by two site typologies: open lots and post-industrial 
infrastructure. There were four sites that were studied in the Port Lands: 1. The R. L. 
Hearn Generating Station, 2. The Unilever Soap Factory, 3. The Studio Open Lot, 4. 
The Hearn Open Lot (Figure 5.3). Out of the sites studied, two of them are vacant 
buildings that have previously housed a significant industrial infrastructure. 
89 
 
 
 
 
Figure 5.3: Site Selection Map (Source: Google Earth, 2018 and Author) 
The R. L. Hearn Generating Station, the Hearn for short, is an out-of-commission 
power generating plant for Toronto (Figure 5.4). The Hearn is one of the biggest 
industrial buildings of its time being around two hundred and forty thousand square 
feet, as well as one hundred and forty feet tall at its highest point. These 
measurements do not include the Hearn’s smoke stack that reaches seven hundred and 
five feet tall. This smoke stack creates a beacon for the Port Lands skyline and can be 
seen from sixteen miles away. The Hearn’s industrial vastness allows for current 
activities and events to occur within the Hearn, specifically art festivals and film 
production. The next site studied was the Unilever Soap Factory which is currently 
being used as rentable space for office and film production. The site is currently part 
of a different real estate project called East Harbour, which is to be a new high-rise 
commercial development. The building will be an adaptive reuse project that consists 
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of additions and renovations to create more office spaces. Both industrial buildings 
were studied regarding the option of a post-industrial adaptive reuse project, with 
their relationship to film and industry.  
 
Figure 5.4: The R.L. Hearn Generating Station (Source: Author) 
The open lots were considered for their clean slate approach, which is much needed 
in the Port Lands. The two sites that were studied were chosen due to their proximity 
to significant areas within the Port Lands, like film studios and the Hearn. The third 
site is located near the Pinewood Toronto Studios, which created a direct connection 
the studio and even a possibility for a studio expansion. The last site studied was the 
Hearn open lot, which is located directly east of the Hearn. This site is directly across 
the ship channel of the major film studio district, which is intended to be a new and 
vibrant mixed-use district, themed toward media and film. This site is at the cross-
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section of that development and the iconic Hearn Generating Station. The site 
selection matrix shows the ranking of these site in relation to the desired site 
situations (Table 5.1). Even though the Hearn was at the highest rank, a big 
complication was the access to existing documentation. The lack of access led this 
thesis to choosing an open lot, for the better. The Hearn open lot is the selected site 
for this thesis, which allows for a new building to anchor the development of a unique 
place. This thesis proposes that the site could be used as an expansion of the film 
stuFrdaimoin dg iInsdtursictrty, :b Fyilm s-emqakuiengn ttoia Plllayce -cmoankinngecting across the ship channel to the Hearn.  
By Timothy Shook
Legend
Site Selection Matrix 0 1 2 3
Site Criteria 1. The Hearn Generating Station 2. The Soap Factory 3. Pinewood Open Lot 4. The Hearn Open Lot
1 Adjacency to Film Studios 2 2 3 2
2 Transportation (Car, Bus, Train, Boat) 2 2 2 2
3 Pedestrian Access 2 2 2 2
4 Film Program 3 2 0 0
5 Waterfront 3 1 0 2
6 Views 3 2 0 1
7 Avoidance of Noise Pollution 2 0 1 2
8 Vegetation 2 0 1 2
9 Approach Sequence 3 0 1 2
10 Historical Significance 2 2 0 0
11 Future Development 0 2 3 2
12 Open Space/Green Space 2 1 2 3
13 Amenity (recreation, retail, etc.) 2 1 1 3
The Hearn Soap Factory Pinewood Open Lot The Hearn Open Lot
Total 28 17 16 23
Table 5.1: Site Selection Matrix (Source: Author) 
Site Analysis 
Existing Context Analysis 
As previously mentioned, there is a lot of development being proposed in the Port 
Lands. However, it is necessary to understand the existing conditions and how it 
relates to future developments. Currently the Port Lands is split by the ship channel 
with active ports and industry occurring on its edges. The northern part of the lands 
includes most of the industrial buildings, which consists of scattered film studios 
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throughout. The southern part of the lands includes more open spaces, parks, and 
recreation. 
As mentioned before, the Port Lands includes an extensive amount of active industry 
involving various film production facilities weaved into the context (Figure 5.5). This 
site is a unique selection, with a little bit of everything to support this thesis. It has a 
working port and turning basin that allows the movement of ships to pass through the 
site with ease. Currently, there is one draw bridge located in the south-western region 
of the Port Lands. Since this thesis will propose the activation of the south ship 
channel, there will be a proposal of another bridge to activate these areas. The 
existing street grid and their relationship to the Hearn start to develop a series of 
regulating lines that will start to generate an urban relationship to the other side of the 
ship canal, where most of the other planned development is happening (Figure 5.6).  
 
Figure 5.5: Port Lands Existing Conditions (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of 
Toronto. Edited by Author.) 
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Future Development Analysis 
The current plan, as of September 2017, is the Port Lands Planning Framework, 
which is being proposed by the City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto (Figure 5.6). 
Their comprehensive plan envisions to capture the character, potential, and success of 
the Port Lands. The transformation of the of the Port Lands will include the edits to 
the river and additions of greenways, extension of street grids, stitching the harbour 
and wildlife, and introducing a blue-green park network. The plan will also focus on 
the creation of 4 districts: Lower Don Lands, Film Studio District, East Port, and 
South Ship Channel. These districts will focus on connecting various destinations 
together, such as the Hearn, parks, and community hubs.  
 
Figure 5.6: Port Lands Planning Framework (Source: City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto. 
3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited by Author.) 
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Climatic Analysis 
One of the aspects of place-making is taking into consideration what makes the site a 
unique place. One way to understand place is to understand the natural elements that 
relate to the site. These elements include light, air, earth, and water. Light and air are 
often compared together when place-making. Both light and air are elements that 
designers and architects bring into the building. The study of light and air in the Port 
Lands shows the relationship of the sun and wind patterns, which can be translated 
into data charts. The sun chart shows the pattern of the sun on an annual basis, with 
the summer and winter solstice being the extremes of that study (Figure 5.7). This 
study also delineates the sunrise and sunset at those extremes. The wind chart shows 
annual wind patterns, which delineates most of the annual wind comes from the 
western direction. (Figure 5.8) 
 
Figure 5.7: Sun Chart (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited by 
Author.) 
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Figure 5.8: Wind Chart (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited by 
Author.) 
 
Earth and water are also compared together when talking about shedding elements 
away from the building. The study of earth and water elements are often depicted by 
topography and hydrology maps. One way to understand the movements of water 
compared to topography in the Port Lands is to understand the greater Don River 
Watershed, which feeds into the Toronto harbour and then into Lake Ontario. (Figure 
5.9) The proposed thesis site has a relatively flat landscape. The topography lines are 
in increment of 5 feet, which shows that most of the water flow on the site does not 
have to travel more that 5 feet to 10 feet in height to reach the ship channel or outer 
harbour. (Figure 5.10)  
 
 
 
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Figure 5.9: Greater Toronto Area Watershed Map (Source: 3dMassings, Parks, Waterbodies. City of 
Toronto. Edited by Author) 
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Figure 5.10: Hydrology Map (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of Toronto. Edited 
by Author.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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6. Program 
Programmatic Typology  
Port Lands Film Institute 
This thesis intends to celebrate film as an industry by the selection of a post-industrial 
site, and through an analysis of cinematic techniques. It is fitting to say that the 
program for this thesis will have a strong emphasis on film-making and what it means 
to be a creator or enthusiast of film. This will be a place where film enthusiasts and 
makers will be able to come to participate in the production, education, and 
innovation of film. Due to the site location, in Toronto’s new, vibrant mixed-use film 
district, this building will be very a key asset to the Port Lands.  
Not only will people be able to come learn about, produce, and research films, this 
film institute will be a place of experience. People who come to this place will be able 
to participate and interact with their environment. People, even tourists who are 
interested in film, will be able to observe film-making in action. The entire building 
will be organized by 4 themes, almost like the four dimensionalities of film and place. 
these themes are production, education, innovation, and lastly, participation (Figure 
6.1). Production, education, and innovation will act as the main program, which will 
include production space for film-making, educational spaces for a film school, and a 
research spaces for innovation opportunities within a Mediatheque. The last theme is 
participation, which will be program related to the public. These spaces will evoke 
opportunities for circulation and program to start to weave in between the main 
themes. Participation will act as the fourth dimension of film and place, as if people 
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were the camera tracking through time and space to capture the experience of the 
place. As people move through these spaces, they can view, interact with, and 
experience film and place.  
 
Figure 6.1: Program Organization (Source: Author) 
Program Matrix 
The program is divided up by theme to delineate the individual spaces that will 
support each space. (Table 6.1 and Figure 6.2) The production theme consists of 
program related to a Film Studio, which can be used by students in the film school 
and new film-makers who may want to rent these spaces out for small productions. 
The film studio will include a series of sound stages, green rooms, and workshops to 
support the creation of film. This part of the program will also include flexible spaces 
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for art and sound departments, including offices and meeting rooms, which will be 
working spaces for the film-makers.  
 
 
Table 6.1: Program Matrix (Source: Author) 
The Film School will include spaces for students who will be studying and making 
films. These spaces will consist of classrooms, computer labs, post-production suites, 
and study areas. Spaces like this will give students the opportunity to learn by 
studying and edit film-related materials. There will even be opportunities for these 
educational spaces to directly interact with the film-making spaces. 
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The Innovation Center will be a place of research and innovation. This will be a 
research facility that consist of a library, various research labs, and collection spaces 
for archiving film media. These spaces will be accessible to students, professors, and 
film-makers interested in doing research on modern innovations of film-making and 
study film history. This place will give the opportunity to connect to the film industry 
and create a place where people can come to learn about newer advancement in the 
film-making and technology. 
The participatory spaces, as stated before, are going to be the public spaces, where the 
community and visitors will be able to interact will the program. These will be spaces 
of gathering and sequence. The gathering spaces include cinema and performing 
theatres, as well as a gift shop, café, and bar. The sequential spaces will be 
opportunities for circulation, a museum, and exhibition spaces to interact with the 
variety of different spaces throughout the building. This will be a sequential path that 
allows people to experience what it is like to be part of the film-making process. Even 
though this is a sequential experience, there will also be opportunities for choice and 
discovery of different experiences.  
This thesis will also will study the development of the surrounding exterior spaces 
and how they relate to the master plan of the Port Lands, as well as the Hearn 
Generating Station. The sequence across the ship channel will be a carefully 
examined experience. The exterior spaces will look at the context as a backdrop to the 
building, by creating a sequential experience that relates the building to its context. 
This sequence will include various bridges, parks, event pavilions, and nature walks. 
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This will make the vastness of context and confinement of the building a much 
stronger experience to the viewer of film and place. 
Graphic Program 
 
 
Figure 6.2: Visual Program (Source: Author) 
 
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Precedents 
This section will analyze a series of precedents are relevant to the development of this 
thesis. They all have aspects that relate to film and place, as well as have similar 
program to this film institute. The precedents are the Le Fresnoy National Studio for 
Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing, France. The next being a Cultural Cinema Center, 
which is an unbuilt project for the new EuropaCity development in Paris, France. 
Lastly, the Swedish Film Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.  
Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts, France 
The first precedent is the Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts in 
Tourcoing, France, which was designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects (Figure 6.3 
and 6.4). The art center is an adaptive re-use project that turned an existing warehouse 
building into a working film studio, film school, and arts center. The design of the art 
center keeps the existing buildings and adds on some new buildings on the ground 
level, as well as a canopy that covers over top most of the site (Figure 6.5). Most 
importantly, there is a catwalk structure that intertwines itself in between the structure 
of the large canopy and buildings beneath (Figure 6.5). There are opportunities for 
seating, walking, climbing, as well as viewing into other spaces. This created a real 
immersive experience, where the person walking can experience the place in a 
different way than the others. This is very important to this thesis regarding the 
participatory program that will be utilized. The Le Fresnoy also has skylights in the 
canopy which allows there to be a connection to the sky, while allowing for light to 
pour into the spaces. (Figure 6.5) 
 
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Figure 6.3: Le Fresnoy – Front Entrance (Source: Photo by Petr Smideck, 2009) 
 
 
Figure 6.4: Le Fresnoy – The In-between (Source: Photo by Petr Smideck, 2009) 
105 
 
 
 
Figure 6.5: Le Fresnoy – Diagrammatic Sketches (Source: Author) 
Cultural Cinema Centre, Paris 
The second precedent is an unbuilt project by UNstudio. The building is a Cultural 
Cinema Centre for the EurpaCity development in Paris, France (Figure 6.6 and 6.7). 
The building also has a similar programmatic organization to the program of this 
thesis. The proposal includes three thematic programs that are organized around a 
central space that has most of the public atrium spaces and circulation (Figure 6.8 and 
6.9). This precedent was also designed with wind direction in mind (Figure 6.10). The 
form of the building was generated from the average wind direction, which comes 
from two directions. The natural context of the site and the participatory program 
creates a sense of place within and around the Cultural Cinema Center.  
 
 
 
 
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Figure 6.6: Cinema Cultural Centre – Aerial View (Source: Patrick Lynch. “UNStudio Wins France’s 
Largest Private Architecture Competition for Cultural Cinema Center in EuropaCity” 22 Feb 2018. 
ArchDaily. Accessed 16 May 2018. <https://www.archdaily.com/889575/unstudio-wins-frances-
largest-private-architecture-competition-for-cultural-cinema-center-in-europacity/> ISSN 0719-8884) 
 
 
Figure 6.7: Cinema Cultural Centre – Film Studio with Participatory Program (Source: Patrick 
Lynch. “UNStudio Wins France’s Largest Private Architecture Competition for Cultural Cinema 
Center in EuropaCity” 22 Feb 2018. ArchDaily. Accessed 16 May 2018. 
<https://www.archdaily.com/889575/unstudio-wins-frances-largest-private-architecture-competition-
for-cultural-cinema-center-in-europacity/> ISSN 0719-8884) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
107 
 
 
 
 
Figure 6.8: Cultural Cinema Center – Programmatic Organization (Source: Author) 
Figure 6.9: Cultural Cinema Center – Participatory Program (Source: Author) 
 
Figure 6.10: Cultural Cinema Center – Building Form (Source: Author) 
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Swedish Film Institute 
The third precedent is the Swedish Film Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. This 
building was design by Peter Celsing in 1971 (Figure 6.11, 6.12, and 6.13). The 
Swedish Film Institute houses one of Stockholm’s largest cinemas. This is a 24,700 
square-meter film institute that consists of 6 floors related to national film activities. 
It has 3 cinemas, 4 studios, a library devoted to the literature on film, and a cafe. The 
building is located to the east of downtown, right next to the Gardet plain. The 
concrete and sharp lines offer a contrast to the surrounding plain and context. It starts 
to act as an object in the surrounding landscape. The site can be easily accessed by 
vehicle, bike, bus, and metro. Since before it was built, the Brutalist building has 
arisen controversy. Some find that the building is one of Stockholm’s most beautiful 
buildings, while others call it depressing. Peter Celsing designed the Swedish Film 
Institute with the topic of film in mind. The facades and window lines resemble the 
tectonics of celluloid film. Within the building, there are stairwells that look like 
coiled strips of film.  The elevators even start to look like dressing-room mirrors. 
Some would even say that the whole building is shaped like a camera. This precedent 
is a literal approach to a film-inspired institute; however, it shows us how buildings 
related to film can act as objects within the landscape. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Figure 6.11: Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden - Approach (Source: Author) 
 
Figure 6.12: Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden – Plans and Elevations (Source: Author) 
 
 
Figure 6.13: Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden – Axonometric (Source: Author) 
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Program Organization 
Site Placement  
The program organization on the site is a large area and involves a lot of iteration to 
understand the relationship between site and program. All the design studies will take 
the new developments into regard. This study starts off by understanding what the site 
placement could be and what the building identifies as. The site placement utilizes the 
proposed road as edges and the Hearn Generating Station’s linear axis to judge the 
best placement for the building or series of buildings. This thesis studies five different 
building typologies or identifiers. The building as a prop or object, a frame, a 
backdrop or terminus, a sequence or series of events, and as a portal (Figure 6.14). 
The next series of studies will look at these typologies by placing them on the site, 
while showing a plan, perspective, and axonometric drawing of the building or series 
of buildings.  
 
Figure 6.14: Building Typologies (Source: Author) 
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Building as a Prop 
This typology studies the building as if it was a stand-alone object in space (Figure 
6.15). This type of building is about its singularity and can be seen from a distance as 
a single item. This scheme can exist on various axes and edges that are on the site. 
This type of building will compete with the Hearn, especially due to the immense size 
of it and singularity. This scheme focus on how the participatory program can interact 
with the production, education, and innovation programs. This building typology can 
be positioned anywhere on the site and does not engage with any of its surrounding.  
 
Figure 6.15: Building as a Prop (Source: Author) 
 
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Building as a Frame 
The frame typology utilizes the intervention of the program layout to frame areas on 
the site (Figure 6.16). The Hearn and the Toronto skyline is the only significant 
elements of height that are worth framing in the urban context. Even though they are 
the only elements, the idea of framing these elements will be a great experience for 
the viewers who are using these spaces. The framing effect can be achieved by using 
separated buildings as a framing device or it can happen within the building itself. 
These schemes are blocked out to create a series of corridors that frame space, 
especially the immediate Hearn.  
 
  
Figure 6.16: Building as a Frame (Source: Author) 
 
 
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Building as a Backdrop 
This set of schemes studies the building form as a series of three building, related to 
each program (Figure 6.17). This allows for the building to act as a terminus or a 
backdrop. Due to this situation, the building creates a significant courtyard space that 
allows for the programmatic elements to interacts well. This typology, unlike 
framing, hides elements within the site. The Hearn, even though it will most likely be 
seen from anywhere, it screens that relationship by placing building in front of the 
viewing plane. These schemes focus on how people would arrive to this terminus and 
how it relates to the masking of site elements.  
 
 
Figure 6.17: Building as a Backdrop (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
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Building as a Sequence 
This typology focuses on the narrative qualities of space (Figure 6.18). The schemes 
focus on how the program can be transformed into a series of events or pavilions that 
tell a narrative. This creates a poetic journey through buildings and landscape. This 
would be an interesting way to program the various events. These schemes take up 
most of site coverage, since the buildings are spread out. These schemes would also 
act as a campus that would be within a landscape next to the ship channel. This 
typology would also involve a lot of traveling for the viewers of space, which may 
not be the most desirable to tell narrative. 
 
 
Figure 6.18: Building as a Sequence (Source: Author) 
 
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Building as a Portal 
The last building typology is a portal, which is similar the prop typology, but allows 
people to pass through it (Figure 6.19). These alternatives focus on the building as an 
entrance into the site. These schemes would turn the building into a portal, which 
essentially allows people to pass through it into a new world. Due to this entrance 
typology, the schemes are situated toward the ship channel, which is the entrance to 
the site. One scheme focuses on the portal as an opportunity to point to the Hearn as 
an amenity. These schemes create a sense of place right away. Since the building is 
located closer to the entrance, there needs to be a focus on what happens on the other 
side of the portal, which could cause some issues of design strategies.  
 
  
Figure 6.19: Building as a Portal (Source: Author) 
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Concluding Thoughts on Program Placement 
The program placement analysis led this thesis to various opportunities and missed 
opportunities. Looking at the building as a prop, frame, backdrop, sequence, and 
portal created immense potential for this project. All five of these qualities are 
important and were intended to be used in the final proposal of the thesis. Although 
these qualities were great for the building itself, they seemed to lack to opportunity of 
reaching beyond the building itself. The final proposal, being reviewed in the next 
chapter, takes these ideas and enhances them by creating a building that uses many 
different props, has frames that frame objects and landscapes, has a backdrop that 
connects itself to the historical context, creates a narrative using a sequence of events, 
and acts as a portal into a new and unique place (Figure 6.20).   
Figure 6.20: Parti Sketch of the Final Proposal (Source: Author) 
 
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7. Proposal 
The final proposal for the site is the Port Lands Film Institute which is intended to 
enrich the post-industrial redevelopment in the Port Lands and create a new, mixed-
used hub for the city of Toronto (Figure 7.1). The site is located along the ship 
channel, next to the Hearn Generating Station. This proposal tackle both architectural 
and urban design challenges to create a place that activates the water’s edge, connects 
to historical context, allows opportunities for urban expansion, houses various types 
of practical and educational programs, and most importantly invites the public to 
experience film-making in their own way. Please use Appendix A, B, C, and D for 
reference material related to the process and final architectural drawings.   
 
Figure 7.1: Port Lands Film Institute – Aerial (Source: Author) 
 
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Cinematic Place-making  
The film institute is made up of 4 different layers that relate to the cinematic qualities 
previously mentioned in the Film and Place chapter: the buildings, the catwalk, the 
structural frames, and the canopy (Figure 7.2 and 7.3). The narrative quality is related 
to the buildings layer of the proposal, which act as the event or activities that the 
public can experience. The spectator qualities are achieved by the catwalk layer, 
which is meant to be the participatory part of the program. This catwalk, which is red 
in most of the drawings, allows the spectators of the public to come into the film-
institute and be as close to the action as possible. It is meant to weave through site 
and give each person their own story when they leave. The structural frame layer is 
what grasps the aspects to the optical quality. It is intended to frame the object 
buildings and the people within the site, as well as frame the landscapes beyond the 
site, like the Toronto skyline. The canopy is related to the temporal quality, which 
uses light and shadow to create an awareness of time. It shades the southern light and 
diffuses the northern light, which creates emotional experiences throughout the day, 
as well as creates manageable lighting for the exterior backlots.  
Figure 7.2: Cinematic Place-making Qualities (Source: Author) 
 
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Figure 7.3: Cinematic Place-making – Exploded Isometric (Source: Author) 
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Site Proposal  
The future redevelopment of the Port Lands is intended to create a new, mixed-use 
hub for the city. This is a unique site due to its industrial history. The Port Lands are 
being proposed as this community that ties into the industrial urban fabric. Most of 
the industrial zones are to the south west and north east of the proposed site. This 
thesis intends to build upon the Port Lands Planning Framework by extending the 
urban fabric through the industrial zone to connect with the more natural zones of 
Toronto (Figure 7.4). The extension is meant to cut through the existing industrial 
zone and frame the Hearn Generating Station, which will allow it to be the beacon of 
this site. The Hearn Generating Station is being proposed as a flexible convention 
space to be used by the city. This will cause a mass amount of people to come to the 
site on various occasion. Due to this, the urban extension will also allow for the 
famous Toronto streetcar network to connect to the site, as well as the natural zones 
beyond the site (Figure 7.5). The proposed bridges to the site will also create a 
walkable environment from the surrounding Port Lands. The site will also tie into the 
existing bike trails which is a 20-minute ride from downtown Toronto. This site has a 
lot of potential and this thesis uses it to create an interactive place that relates to its 
surrounding context.  
 
 
 
 
 
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Figure 7.4: Site Proposal – Urban Extension (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City of 
Toronto. Edited by Author.) 
 
 
Figure 7.5: Site Proposal – Streetcar Network (Source: 3dMassings, Toronto Centerline, Parks. City 
of Toronto. Edited by Author.) 
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Site Diagrams 
This proposal is about the mix between public and private programs (Figure 7.6). The 
catwalk level introduces the public into the private program. It allows people to go up 
onto the second level to experience the buildings associated with the film-making 
process. The catwalk has many different entrances which allows for various 
experiences as people start their journey. Throughout the edges of film institute there 
are twelve different entrances to the catwalk. The catwalk also connects to an art 
gallery within the Hearn Generating Station. Fortunately, the Hearn Generating 
Station is being proposed as an adaptive re-use convention center for the Port Lands. 
The Hearn Generating station will be a new home for various events, festivals, and 
conventions throughout the years. It has opportunities to be a new beacon for the city 
and to attract locals and tourists to the site. Even though the catwalk is directly 
connected, the buildings are set back from the Hearn Generating Station to allow for a 
street to pass through. This street will be activated with retail, as well as serve as a 
service street for the soundstages. The public surroundings also allow for various 
open spaces and green spaces, which allows for gathering and isolation, giving people 
various options for their experiences (Figure 7.7). The most important open space is 
the flexible space in the middle of site. This space acts as a flexible space for events 
during the day, as well as an outdoor cinema and concert venue during the night. This 
fits into the program, like theaters and concert venues that currently exist within the 
Hearn Generating Station. There was also a considerable amount of attention put on 
noise disturbances, which led to the placement of the sound stages in the back of the 
site (Figure 7.8). 
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Figure 7.6: Site Proposal – Public vs. Private Spaces (Source: Author) 
 
 
Figure 7.7: Site Proposal – Open and Green Spaces (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
Figure 7.8: Site Proposal – Noise Disturbances (Source: Author) 
 
 
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Building Proposal 
As we I have stated before, the building design intentions come from the cinematic 
qualities. The layers of the buildings are related to cinematic qualities which are about 
the experiences of the people coming to and working in the film institute. The film 
institute itself is made up of program that relates to the education and innovation of 
film-making. This is the program that the public can experience when they come to 
this place. The program breaks down into the film school, innovation center, 
production studio, sound stages, and lastly the public theater spaces (Figure 7.9). The 
film school includes classrooms, computer rooms, student studio spaces, and faculty 
offices. This allows the film institute to have an educational program to introduce 
film-making to younger film enthusiasts. The innovation center include four research 
studios and offices that will allow film institute to have a competitive edge toward 
newer technologies emerging within the film industry. The production studio and 
soundstages are leasable spaces that would be used for production companies to 
design and produce films. Centrally located within the film institute is the theater 
program, where there are 4 types of theaters. There are traditional theaters closer to 
the water, an IMAX Theater in the film school, an innovative Tech-box Theater near 
the innovation center, and various types of outdoor cinemas, under the canopy and in 
the open plaza at the entrance of the Hearn Generating Station. The film institute is 
two separate buildings that have their own interior circulation (Figure 7.10). This 
allows each wing to have its own interior connections between the dynamic and static 
spaces within the film institute (Figure 7.11).  
 
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Figure 7.9: Building Proposal – Program Use (Source: Author) 
 
 
Figure 7.10: Building Proposal – Interior Circulation (Source: Author) 
 
 
Figure 7.11: Building Proposal – Dynamic vs. Static Spaces (Source: Author) 
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Detail Proposal 
Part of this thesis is intended to focus on the practicality of the architecture. It is 
important to be able to understand the architectural tectonics building into the 
proposal. Along with the building functions, the building systems were design with 
the cinematic qualities of place-making and site considerations.  
Building Systems 
The first building system of the film institute is the structure (Figure 7.12). This 
system is separate from the canopy structural system. However, the structural system 
of the buildings themselves is built into the structural grid of the canopy system. Most 
of the structure is a steel column and beam system with steel joist and decking for the 
floors and roofs. The sound stages have a column and roof system with a 45-foot 
average clearance for sets and equipment. The buildings along the water have 2 
intermediate floors to get 3 floors of programmable space. The theaters have a 
column and truss system to get bigger spans with active space on the roof tops.  
 
Figure 7.12: Building Systems – Structural Layout (Source: Author) 
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The second building system is the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system 
(Figure 7.13). It is important to understand that this system would have to serve all 
the spaces within the film institute. There are two different mechanical systems for 
each wing of the building. Both mechanical rooms are underneath the sound stage 
workshops, since that is the noisier space. The mechanical equipment is a variable 
air-water system that allows for each major space of the wing to tap into for cooling 
and heating. This allows for individuality for each of the sound stages. This helps 
with the control of ambient noises that may occur during the filming process. 
Depending on the size or configuration of the spaces within the film institute will 
designate the size and the ability of the blowers for that spaces. The design of the 
mechanical layout follows the circulation systems that loops around each of the 
backlots in each wing. All the air and water returns and circulates from the main 
mechanical rooms which have exhausts and intakes along the street in between the 
Hearn Generating Station and the workshops.  
 
Figure 7.13: Building System – Mechanical Layout (Source: Author) 
 
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Canopy System 
As stated previously, the canopy system is a separate system from the building 
structure. It serves many different purposes, beyond the cinematic qualities (Figure 
7.14). The structural frames from the optical quality hold of the canopy from the 
temporal quality. The frames and cross bracing surround most of the buildings within 
the film institute, which creates unique spaces in-between and above the buildings. 
The frames also hold up various areas of the catwalk so that the people of the public 
are immersed into the experience of the architecture. The canopy itself acts as the 
temporal quality the controls and the sunlight (Figure 7.15). The saw tooth canopy is 
made up of structural steel, roofing material, water channels, and glazing. The 
southern side of the saw tooth’s have decking and solar panels to block direct sunlight 
from getting into the backlot, as well as to generate some of power on-site which ties 
back to the site historical significance. The northern glazing allows for diffused light 
to come into the backlots, which is more manageable for film-making. The diffused 
light also changes the feeling of the environment throughout the course of the day, 
depending of the season and climate. This canopy is meant to combine the optical and 
temporal qualities to create spaces that evoke the emotions of the people working and 
visiting this place.  
 
 
 
 
 
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Figure 7.14: Canopy System – Partial Exploded Isometric (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
130 
 
 
 
Figure 7.15: Canopy System – Canopy Bay Section (Source: Author) 
 
 
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Catwalk System 
The other system of interest is the catwalk, which is what the public has access to, 
along with the workers and students within the film institute. There is a duality 
between the spaces created by the canopy structure and the spaces created by catwalk 
structure. This is due to the immense and intimate spaces created by both systems. 
This is directly related to the some of the initial research into the sizes of the spaces 
and how can evoke emotions. The catwalk is made up of similar structural frames and 
cross-bracing to that of the canopy (Figure 7.16). The system uses the moment frames 
and cross-bracing for its lateral stability. At various moments along the catwalk, there 
will be stairs that get you up or down. There are also protrusions that extend out into 
the landscape to frame parts of the city.  
Figure 7.16: Catwalk System – Catwalk Exploded Isometric (Source: Author) 
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8. Conclusion 
This thesis is about of the cinematic techniques in film-making can be used in the 
process of place-making. It is a thesis that proposes a place for the film-enthusiasts 
and film-makers to exist together, while being separate. All the initial research led 
this thesis to the creation of a place that captures cinematic qualities in regional, site, 
building, and tectonic scale. As stated before, the cinematic qualities are meant to be 
timeless and placeless, which means they can be applied to various types of spatial 
scenarios. Fortunately, the Port Lands of Toronto is the perfect place for these ideas 
to be tested. Its potential exists in the post-industrial redevelopment plans, as well as 
its existing conditions of being in the studio district. The film institute, as well as the 
Hearn Generating Station, will create a new waterfront hub for the city. As the Port 
Lands new beacon, the Hearn Generating Station will allow more flexible program to 
be brought into the site that changes over time, just like the film spaces within the 
film institute. This film institute that embodies the cinematic qualities and in return 
creates a place of education, innovation, production, and most importantly 
participation. The participatory experience of the spectators who come here is what 
makes this a unique place for people to peel back the curtains to see the film-making 
process. This is a thesis that intended to question how the industry of film can inform 
the creation of spaces and places.  
 
 
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Presentation Thoughts 
The presentation part of this thesis happened on December 11th, 2018. It consisted of 
an hour-long session with a 25-minute presentation and 35-minute discussion of my 
thesis. This discussion consisted of University of Maryland School of Architecture, 
Planning, and Preservation students and faculty, as well as a board of 8 reviewers, 
made up of architects around the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area. The thesis 
presentation consisted of slides related to the development of my thesis proposal, 
physical models that were made throughout the semester, 6 presentation boards that 
were 4’ x 8’ each, and finally a film that was created to give a cinematic 
representation of the film institute.  
After the presentation was conducted, it was realized that it was a successful approach 
to a thesis topic. There is a lot of potential in the design proposal, which led to a lot of 
potential to further the design ideas. The first point that was brought up was the film 
institute’s relationship to the grade Hearn Generating Station and why the building 
itself was not used for this program. I believed that the Hearn Generating Station has 
much more potential for program beyond the scope of the thesis. Tackling the Hearn 
Generating Station itself would have been a thesis in itself. I believe that the proposed 
film institute helps improve the site by allowing the Hearn Generating Station being 
what it needs to be and creating a connection to the water’s edge. This will enliven 
the Port Lands area as it continues to grow in the next 50 years. It was also brought 
up that the open-air canopy system could be an issue for the climate in Toronto. My 
response to this was to allow the catwalk system to be part of the public realm. Being 
on the catwalk is like being on the street, which creates an awareness of seasons and 
134 
 
 
 
climate that tie back to the robust experiences that can occur here. I was also stated 
that some of the reviewers wanted to see more climax moments related the narrative 
quality of film. For instance, film always has an end, so the question is what is the 
end of their journey? I would like to consider that the outdoor cinema space could act 
as that end spaces that brings you into the Hearn Generating Station. It was also 
mentioned that the retail and public program could be utilized better. Especially on 
the street by the Hearn Generating Station, where there seems to be a lack of 
program. It is possible the more retail spaces could activate that street, the waterfront, 
and the central plaza. It was stated that the central plaza was underdeveloped and 
needed to be built into the narrative and designed for more purpose. This can be 
achieved by adding more program, like retail, to enliven the space and make it a place 
people want to go. Most people seem to enjoy the catwalk system that acts as the 
spectator quality that weaves in between the various spaces. They were also intrigued 
by the magic of film-making is expressed through the tectonics of the architecture. 
And finally, they believed that this thesis tackled the urban and architectural designs 
well, and that it could be built.  
 
 
 
  
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9. Appendices 
A- Proposal Drawings 
 
Figure A.1: Second Floor Plan (Source: Author) 
 
 
Figure A.2: First Floor Plan (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
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Figure A.3: Ground Floor Plan (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
137 
 
 
 
 
Figure A.4: North West Elevation (Source: Author) 
 
 
138 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure A.5: North East Elevation (Source: Author) 
 
 
139 
 
 
 
 
Figure A.6: Longitudinal Section (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
140 
 
 
 
 
Figure A.7: Transverse Section (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
141 
 
 
 
 
Figure A.8: Section Perspective Through Film School (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
142 
 
 
 
 
 
B- Spatial Sequence 
 
 
Figure B.1: Film School Entrance (Source: Author) 
143 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.2: Film School Public Catwalk Entrance (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
Figure B.3: Catwalk in Film School (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
144 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.4: Catwalk near Backlot 3 and Sound Stage 7 (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.5: Catwalk and Frames by Roof Terrace (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
145 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.6: Outdoor Cinema Entrance near Ferry Dock (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.7: Catwalk and Frames near Innovation Center and Ship Channel (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Figure B.8: Catwalk in-between Backlot 1 and 2 (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.9: Catwalk and Frames near Backlot 1 (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
147 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.10: Spectate Room viewing into a Sound Stage (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.11: Street in-between the Film Institute and the Hearn Generating Station (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
148 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure B.12: Production Studio Entrance (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
149 
 
 
 
C- Dynamic Spaces  
 
 
Figure C.1: Dynamic Sound Stage (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure C.2: Dynamic Backlot 1 and 2 (Source: Author) 
 
 
 
150 
 
 
 
D- Physical Models 
 
 
Figure D.1: Physical Models at Various Scale (Source: Author) 
  
151 
 
 
 
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