Viktor Kossakovsky takes us on a journey through the concrete and stone that makes up much of our modern world.
People tend to have a sixth sense when they’re standinginside a building that they know is not very robust. And it’s a sense that is leaned upon more and more regularly in a world where fast and cheap is the order of the day when it comes to urban planning and construction. Victor Kossakovsky’s new, sensually-inclined documentary, Architecton, takes aim at the modern age’s fetish for all things concrete and its embrace of the ephemeral, but in a way that prefers to show rather than tell. His camera glides across the mighty edifices of stone monuments from the days of antiquity, still standing after centuries of wear and tear. These images are juxtaposed with concrete monstrosities that tumble like matchstick sculptures at the lightest bruising from the wrecking ball (or, more pertinently, long range enemy missiles).
The Italian architect Michele De Lucchi is on hand to expound on theories for such widespread architectural degradation as he ignores the driving rain to build a stone folly in his back garden. The film’s thesis is often a little obvious, yearning for a return to a brand of architecture whose half-life isn’t so slim, but ignoring the arduous and exploitative construction methods that were used to produce those grandiose structures of yore. Yet there’s much ASMR pleasure to be gleaned from the ambient long shots of machinery layering up long, perfect lines of concrete for some upcoming blight on the landscape.
Published 9 Jan 2025
We had a good time with Kossakovsky’s 2020 piggy-themed doc, Gunda.
A little bit of screensaver energy to the visuals, but taps into the short-order nature of modern construction.
By the end of the film, its whole thesis feels a tad underwhelming.
By Matt Turner
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By Adam Scovell
Visiting the southeast London estate featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film makes for a dystopian experience.
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