AIA UK Film Night:

'The Price of Desire'

When: Tuesday 25, October 2016 at 7:00pm

Where: BFI Screening Room, 21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN

Tickets - AIA Members: £3, Non-Members: £5

1.5 CES credits available 

REGISTER HERE

The Price Of Desire is the controversial story of how the bisexual Irish artist’s Eileen Gray’s influential contribution to 20th century architecture and design was almost wiped from history by the egotistical ‘Father of Modernism’, Le Corbusier. The film unfolds how her relationship with philanderer Jean Badovici, editor of influential L’Architecture Vivante, and the man who made Le Corbusier famous, further fuelled the rift between the two architects, and consigned her legacy to a century of neglect and long-overdue recognition.

Set substantially on the Côte d’Azur in and around her most abiding work, the villa e1027, The Price of Desire explores the events surrounding Le Corbusier’s eventual erasure of both Gray’s physical ownership of the property as well as her intellectual property right to be recognised as the architect of her work.

A triangular tale of insidious chauvinism, The Price of Desire resonates as a universal female experience while cinematically evoking the essential aesthetic of Eileen Gray. 

VILLA e1027: Eileen Gray designed and built this first-ever modernist house in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France in 1926 for her lover, the architectural journalist Jean Badovici. Le Corbusier, the architect he promoted, so effaced and defaced Gray’s moral right to be recognised as the author of her work that her legacy as one of the most influential inspirations of a century of modern architecture and design was consigned to oblivion for almost a century.

After the Second World War, Jean Badovici made some feeble efforts to request that Le Corbusier remove the vandalistic murals he had painted on its plain white walls, and even promised Eileen Gray that he would put the house back into her name. Le Corbusier was having none of it however, and sadly Jean Badovici died intestate, leaving the fate the ownership of the house to the whims of Le Corbusier, who in turn drowned on his daily swim in the Mediterranean below it. Eileen Gray survived them all and was finally made a fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland in recognition of this work in 1995. 

Olympia: Festival of Nations

A Film by Leni Reifenstahl

With the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympics, please join us for this historical documentary about the controversial 1936 Olympics. It was the first documentary feature film of the Olympic Games ever made. 

Many advanced motion picture techniques, which later became industry standards but which were groundbreaking at the time, were employed. The techniques employed are almost universally admired, but the film is controversial due to its political context.

Please note: This film is being shown for historical purposes only because of it's Olympic theme (this being an Olympic year). As with all films shown, the AIA UK does not endorse any views expressed.

Admission for AIA Members: £3

General Admission/Non-members: £5

1.5 CES Credits

Seating is limited. RSVP required.

Register Here

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

A Film by William H. Whyte

This film is about city spaces --why some work and some do not, and what the practical lessons may be. In 1980, William H. Whyte published the findings from his revolutionary Street Life Project in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. 

Both the book and the accompanying film were instantly labeled classics, and launched a mini-revolution in the planning and study of public spaces. They have since become standard texts, and appear on syllabi and reading lists in urban planning, sociology, environmental design, and architecture departments around the world.

Admission for AIA Members: £3

General Admission/Non-members: £5

1.5 CES Credits

Seating is limited. RSVP required.

Register Here

AIA Film Night: The Socialist, The Architect and The Twisted Tower

The film will be preceded by a short introduction. 

This is a dramatic, behind-the-scene-story about the building of Santiago Calatrava’s ‘Turning Torso’ in Malmö, a 190 meter high, twisted residential building which was appointed “worlds best residential building project” at

Mipim in Cannes, 2005.

Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten documents the construction of the visionary Turning Torso public housing structure. In 1999 Johnny Örbäck saw celebrated architect Santiago Calatrava’s “Teisting Torso” sculpture and immediately knew what he wanted for the construction of a proposed residential building. Determined to

construct a skyscraper based on the same concept, Örbäck contacted Calatrava and convinced him to design the building. This documentary highlights the difficulty in seeing such an ambitious project through to completion.

Admission: AIA UK Members - £3. Non Members - £5

1.5 CES Credits

Places are limited.  Please register here.

AIA UK Film Night:

How Much Does Your Building Weight Mr. Foster

This film, from Art Commissioners, traces the rise of one of London's and indeed the world’s premier architects, Norman Foster, and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design.

The title is taken from a question put to him by his hero, American architect Buckminster Fuller, referring to the Sainsbury Centre next to UEA, a quirky question designed to get him and us thinking about the concept of mass in architecture. Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of projects such as the largest building in the world Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst Building in New York and works such as the tallest bridge ever, in Millau France. 

Admission: AIA UK Members - £3. Non Members - £5

1.5 CES Credits

Places are limited.  Please register here.