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Last edited 13 Jun 2025

Films featuring architects and contractors

1 Specific Architects and builders in film
2 Characterised Architects and builders in film
3 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Specific Architects and builders in film

[edit] Architect groups

Away From All Suns! (2013) Director Isabella Willinger. - Trailer here - A powerful documentary journey through the fading legacy of Moscow’s 1920s Constructivist architecture, following an activist, an artist, and an architect as they struggle to preserve, inhabit, or reinterpret revolutionary structures, while archival footage and manifestos echo a lost utopian modernity.

Bauhaus Spirit: 100 years of Bauhaus (2019) - Trailer. Through its history, Bauhaus tackled the question of how architecture can ensure that people live better together and participate in everyday life.

City Dreamers (2018). Director Joseph Hillel. A Canadian documentary film which focusses on four women innovators in contemporary architecture; Phyllis Lambert, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Oberlander and Denise Scott Brown.

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio (2010). In rural Alabama, architecture students crossthe threshold of poverty to build communities, not just structures, and leave a bit to make a better world.

Deconstructivist Architects (1990). Director Michael Blackwood. Documentary that captures the bold, fragmented forms of these buildings across cities like Vienna and Los Angeles, featuring on-site interviews with leading architects and coverage of MoMA’s landmark De-constructivist Architecture exhibition curated by Philip Johnson.

Garbage Warrior (2007) Director Oliver Hodge. Follows architect Michael Reynolds and his unconventional builders as they battle to promote sustainable, off-grid living through innovative, eco-friendly architecture.

[edit] Architect by name A-F

Aalto (2021) - Trailer. Documentary exploring the life and work of Alvar Aalto, a pioneer of Scandinavian (Finnish) design, through the lens of his inspiring creative and personal partnership with his wife, Aino.

The World of Buckminster Fuller (1974) - full movie here. Directed by Robert Snyder. Architect, engineer, geometer, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor (geodesic dome, dymaxion car) and perspectives on the world's problems.

Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City (2010). Director Judith McBrien. Daniel Hudson Burnham the visionary architect and planner whose groundbreaking work in the late 19th century shaped the modern American city, blending practicality with idealism and laying the foundation for urban planning.

Le Corbusier - Das Jahrhundert Le Corbusiers (2014) - full movie here German - The Century of Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier (1968) Director Roy Oppenheim. The film explores the visionary career and philosophy of a pioneering architect whose human centred principles emphasised societal balance, integrating light, space, and greenery into expansive futuristic cities to inspire outward-looking perspectives rather than inward intrusions.Correa

Volume Zero: Documentary on Charles Correa (2015) - Full Movie here - A tribute to great Indian Architect Charles Correa on his demise. The most comprehensive documentary on Charles Correa ever made. Director: Arun Khopkar

Eames: The Architect & The Painter (2011). The relationship between Charles Eames and his wife Ray ignited a burst of design ingenuity whose impact on the world can still be felt over half a century later.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster? (2010). Directors Norberto López Amado and Carlos Carcas.
Film traces the rise of one of the world's premier architects, Norman Foster, and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design.

[edit] Architect by name G-L

Antonio Gaudí (1984). Director Hiroshi Teshigahara. The work of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí, as seen by Japanese New Wave director Hiroshi Teshigahara.

Antonio Gaudí, una visión inacabada (1974) - full movie here - A portrayal of the architect walking through his major works (the Sagrada Familia, Park Güell) accompanied by young disciples, giving advice and explaining his profession.

Frank Gehry: An Architecture of Joy (2002) Director Michael Blackwood. Delves into work of the 1990s, including the Guggenheim Bilbao and the Weisman Museum, highlighting his roots in the art world and how his rebellious, sculptural approach has redefined architecture by blending contemporary art with a personal, rule-breaking design language.

Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005) Directed by Sydney Pollack

E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea (2024). A cinematic journey into the mind of Eileen Gray. A story about the power of female expression, and men's desire to control it.

A Day with Zaha Hadid (2004). Acclaimed architect reflects on her career, influences, and design approach, guiding viewers through her Vienna decades retrospective, including the centrepiece sculpture Ice Storm.

Big Time (2017). Director Kaspar Astrup Schröder. A documentary that follows architect Bjarke Ingels over seven years as he navigates the creative challenges and compromises involved in completing his most ambitious project to date.

Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect (1997) - trailer here - Featuring the architect and Frank Stella.

My Architect (2003) - Trailer here - Director Nathaniel Kahn searches to understand his father, noted architect Louis Kahn, who died bankrupt and alone in 1974.

Rem (2016) Directed by Rem Koolhaas

Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2008) - Trailer here - Visually inventive, thought-provoking portrait of the architect and theorist, exploring buildings, provocative ideas, and impact on architecture and urban society.

Citizen Lambert: Joan of Architecture (2007). Director Teri Wehn-Damisch. A look at the life and career of Canadian woman architect Phyllis Bronfman Lambert.

Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner (2008) Architectural film-maker Murray Grigor captures the bold, dramatic spaces of John Lautner through choreographed camera work, while archival recordings of Lautner’s own insightful and witty commentary bring his visionary architecture to life.

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994). Director Freida Lee Mock. A film about the work of the artist most famous for her monuments such as the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Civil Rights Fountain Memorial.

[edit] Architect by name M-R

Oscar Niemeyer, an Architect Committed to His Century / Oscar Niemeyer, un architecte engagé dans le siècle (2000)Director Marc-Henry Wajnberg. Portrait of an artist architect, who loved women and believed in the socialist ideal.

First Person Singular: I.M. Pei (1997) 90-minute special on the architect, by Director Peter Rosen. Filmed throughout the world over a two-year period.

Renzo Piano The architect of light / An Architect for Santander (2018) - Trailer here - Documentary about the architect by film-maker Carlos Saura.

The Roberto Brothers (2012) - Trailer. About Marcelo, Milton and Maurício Robert. Contemporaries of Brazilian modernist icons like Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, the Roberto Brothers—Marcelo, Milton, and Maurício—were key figures in shaping Brazil’s architectural identity, designing major landmarks such as Rio de Janeiro's Press Association building and the Santos Dumont airport.

Richard Rogers Inside Out (2008) - Full Film - Director James Nutt. Art documentary presented by Alan Yentob, tracing his Italian roots and creative influences, groundbreaking designs, as the architect revisits iconic works like the Pompidou Centre and Lloyd’s of London, along with the more intimate projects that helped shape his distinct architectural vision.

Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe (2004) - Trailer here - Directors Patrick Demers and Joseph Hillel. Documentary offering a compelling introduction to the work of the architect,, showcasing his lasting influence on 20th-century architecture and highlighting the profound social and artistic impact on urban life.

Mies van der Rohe: Less Is More (2003). Director Philip Smith. Art critic Robert Hughes analyses the work of Mies van der Rohe, the master of light and space who had an enormous influence on modern architecture.

The Mies van der Rohes – A Female Family Saga (2023) - Trailer. Follows the women around architect as they navigate the promises of a new era while confronting the limitations of traditional roles.

[edit] Architect by name S-Z

Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future (2016). Director Peter Rosen. Exploration of the visionary life and enduring legacy of a pioneering architect whose influential work continues to inspire, despite his untimely death at 51.

Visual Acoustics (2008). Director Eric Bricker. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, celebrating the life and career of the architectural photographer Julius Shulman, whose brought modern architecture to mainstream America.

Alvaro Siza: Transforming Reality (2004) - Excerpt here - Director Michael Blackwood. Renowned Portuguese architectvisits 15 key projects with Kenneth Frampton, offering insights into his design philosophy, critical regionalism and the Oporto School.

Louis Sullivan: the Struggle for American Architecture (2010) - full movie here - Documentary about the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan his rapid rise to fame, tragic decline, and triumph of his creative spirit.

Bernard Tschumi: Architect and Theorist (2003). Director Michael Blackwood captures Tschumi's final lecture as Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, offering a dynamic exploration of space, time, and movement, while reflecting on his influential theoretical contributions and architectural projects developed in both New York and Paris.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1998) Directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary about the Architect.

[edit] Characterised Architects and builders in film

Columbus (2017). Director Kogonada. Coming of age drama about an unexpected connection between the son of an architecture scholar (John Cho) and a young local architecture enthusiast (Haley Lu Richardson), set against the striking modernist landscape of Columbus, Indiana, and praised for its quiet beauty and emotional depth.

In which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989). Writer Arundathi Roy, Director Pradip Kreshen. Indian English-language television film centred on a rebellious architecture student at the National Institute of Architecture in 1970s New Delhi.

Inception (2010) Directed by Christopher Nolan. A young architect who designs complex dreamscapes the film delves into the architecture of the human mind through dreams and the subconscious, exploring folding cities, paradoxes, and the transformative power of spatial design within imagined realities.

Life as a House (2001). Director Irwin Winkler. A drama film about George, a renowned architect, who embarks on building his dream house while navigating a tense relationship with his architecture student son, Sam.

Locke (2013). Director Steven Knight. The film follows a contractor whose life unravels after a pivotal phone call, forcing him to navigate personal and professional upheaval to attend the birth of his child born out of wedlock, while revealing the high-stakes challenges of managing a complex concrete pour and his determination to do right amid mounting obstacles.

Lotte am Bauhaus (2019) Director Gregor Schnitzler. The story of a young female student at the famous Bauhaus DesignAcademy in the early 1920's, inspired by the real life of designer Alma Siedhoff-Buscher in German..

Moonlighting (1982). Director Jerzy Skolimowski. A Polish contractor leading a team of workers renovating a London townhouse, offering a nuanced look at construction work, cultural displacement, and power dynamics, while exploring how architecture is shaped not just by design but by labour, language, and the emotional weight of political upheaval.

Multiplicity (1996). Director Harold Ramis. Comedy about an overworked construction worker who turns to cloning to balance his job and family life, only to face chaos as his increasingly flawed duplicates multiply, leading to a hilarious struggle to keep his personal and professional worlds from unravelling.

Para que no me olvides (2005). Director Patricia Ferreira. - Full movie here - Centred on a young architecture student grappling with memory, loss, and family ties, it explores how personal and collective memory shape design decisions, revealing emotional and psychological layers of architecture, and the resilience needed to navigate the profession.

The Architect (2006). Director Matt Tauber. A drama about the tension between an architect and a community activist living in his flawed housing project, highlighting the social impact of architectural design and featuring stand out performances and striking visuals.

The Architect (2016) Director Jonathan Parker. A couple’s dream to build their perfect home turns into a comedic drama when their stubborn modernist architect insists on constructing his own vision instead of theirs.

The Belly of an Architect (1987) Director Peter Greenaway. Follows an American architect as his obsession with Roman history and the 18th-century visionary Étienne-Louis Boullée spirals into personal and professional collapse amid betrayal, illness, and paranoia, culminating in a tragic end set against the grandeur of classical Rome.

The Brutalist (2024). A visionary architect flees post-war Europe in 1947 for a brighter future in the United States and finds his life forever changed by a wealthy client.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). British POWs, led by a Colonel construct a railway bridge for their Japanese captors, an act of engineering and discipline that collides with an Allied mission to destroy it, explores the tension between duty, human ingenuity, the power of design, built environment, and the paradox of building amid the destruction of war.

The Draughtsman's Contract (1982). Director Peter Greenaway, A visually stylized British period mystery in which a draughtsman hired to sketch a wealthy estate becomes entangled in a web of intrigue, seduction, and possible murder, accompanied by a distinctive score from Michael Nyman.

The Fountainhead (1949) Director King Vidor - Trailer - An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.