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mysterypoint-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Original or plagiarism? - The buildings in Blade Runner 2049

March 5th, 2018, Blade runner 2049 wins the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. And after 13 times losing, Roger Deakins finally get his first Oscar by winning the best cinematography Academy award for Blade Runner 2049. Congratulations!

But I am not going to talk about how good this movie is. No one will doubt that Blade Runner 2049 is a great and wonderful movie, honestly, I am a big fan of Blade Runner 2049.

Even though I love this movie so much, there are still many opinions that I must speak out. So, let’s talk about the stylish and beautiful buildings in this film because I really think they look familiar.

Back to the year 1982, Ridley Scott set the highest standard of movie architecture art with his marvelous work Blade Runner. And in its sequel- Blade Runner 2049, the futuristic architecture art brought by the new director Denis Villeneuve maintain the continuity and even go to a new level.

The story of Blade Runner (1982) happened in Los Angeles and no doubt that LA is the greatest futuristic film city. In this movie, the director copied the scenes of Metropolis (1927) directed by Fritz Lang.

And of Blade Runner 2049, the director Denis Villeneuve not only brings Harrison Ford back to the movie but also the screenwriter Hampton Fancher. And the most important one, the concept artist – Syd Mead. In the new sequel, the city itself is a character, it has a rich and stratified background. The change of the city is very obvious, you can notice it from dilapidated giant stone apartment and pyramid enterprise, neon light and huge animation billboard.

Although most of this movie was shot in Warner Bros Studio, it can be seen that many buildings in LA have evolved to what they should look like in 2049, including Union Station, Bradbury building, and Ennis House designed by master Frank Lloyd Wright. All of these connect the past and future of real LA.

And there is no scene more suitable for a utopian movie than an uncompleted utopia.

Like any other science fiction movies, villain company must have a super cool futuristic building. Strong sense of order, thick materials, and watermark light continuous flowing in its space. In Blade Runner 2049, the design of the Wallace clone company building is incomparably matching this type of movie.

My first impression of it is that the buildings of this movie must be greatly influenced by Tadao Ando, many scenes are really Ando style.

https://www.archdaily.com/427695/happy-birthday-tadao-ando

I’m not just guessing. In an interview with Dennis Gassner the designer of Blade Runner 2049, he mentioned that he had a trip to Japan before this movie. Despite he said that Wallace’s office is inspired by traditional Japanese castle, we do notice that this movie is impacted more by modern architectures.

ChiChu Museum, designed by Tadao Ando.

The lateral vertical strip lighting is the symbol of Ando's design. Benesse House Park Hotel, Tadao Ando.

The reception of Wallace company is almost as same as the ticket office of Lee Ufan Art Museum. I think it is the combination of ChiChu Museum and Lee Ufan Art Museum.

Bar-type window hallway in Blade Runner 2049.

Koshino House, Tadao Ando.

The place where clones born.

Ryusenji House, Tomoaki Uno.

And Dennis Gassner also mentioned a very interesting architecture detail named Nightingale Hallway(鶯張りの廊下) - The hallway floor planking was specially sprung to emit creaking noises when trodden on.

Nightingale Hallway in Yamanashi-ken, Japan.

Wallace’s Office.

Actually, I did not see much of this in the movie, I mean the Nightingale Hallway, in my opinion, the picture above is just a little bit like it. But the idea that using water surround the platform is often used in modern architecture. This kind of space quality will always give you a sense of Minimalism and peace, which is an effective but expensive design method.

The texture of water is even more obvious at movie set.

Bamboo House in China design by Kengo Kuma.

The director’s initial idea of this movie is “Brutalism”. “Brutalism”, such a perfect term for Utopian movie style.

But still, many scenes are so familiar. Like this dramatic hallway, it reminded me of Bodegas Bell designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Spanish architecture studio RCR.

Bodegas Bell

And there is an officially confirmed space that is copied from a Spanish architecture studio named Estudio Barozzi Veiga. This is an unbuilt project of a Spanish museum.

According to the claim of the DOP Roger Deakins, this film is inspired by the dust storm that happened in Australia 2009. I have to say, this is really a good idea. It feels so right in this movie.

City in Blade Runner 2049.

And beside those buildings, there are also some statues and artworks that you can find prototype in reality. For example, those broken giant stone heads show in film look really similar to Igor Mitoraj’s statues in Pompeii.

Igor Mitoraj’s statues in Pompeii.

Statue in Blade Runner 2049.

And this may be my illusion, but those huge statues in the movie really feel like France female sculptor Valérie Hadida’s artwork.

Statues designed by Valérie Hadida.

Statues in Blade Runner 2049.

You may remember the beginning of Blade Runner 2049, it shows an aerial picture of solar-power station.

This may be inspired by the Gemasolar Plant in Seville, Spain.

Gemasolar Plant in Seville.

If you are familiar with the history of Mesopotamia, you may notice that many buildings in Blade Runner 2049 even in Blade Runner have the same shape with ancient pyramid temples.

pyramid temples.

Building in Blade Runner.

And this may also be a tribute to Metropolis (1927).

So it looks like that most of the buildings in Blade Runner 2049 are from reality. All of those made this movie a magnificent and beautiful art. No doubt that Blade Runner 2049 is a great movie and a perfect work of art.

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