Real Fictional Architecture

REAL FICTIONAL ARCHITECTURE

MAPPING REAL INSTANCES OF IMAGINARY WORLDS

Great Sept of Baelor, King’s Landing, Westeros // Game of Thrones (Rendering overlaid on Dubrovnik)

“Science fiction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities.”

- Miriam Allen de Ford

JULIA AMORY APPLETON TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP IN ARCHITECTURE Harvard University Graduate School of Design Travel Proposal Joanna Rodríguez-Noyola, M Arch I 2014

As an avid reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I have been interested in the influence that these creative genres can have on the design field. My M Arch I architecture thesis considers all architectural projection to be Science Fiction: speculation about an imaginary yet likely future based on scientific or technological advances and social or environmental changes. As such, the process of generating architectural designs should employ the same devices as any good piece of science fiction. I argue that to be a successful, engaging, and collectively imaginable projection, it should be based on a study of the past and present technological, economic, social, and political conditions. Most importantly, it should be structured around a narrative that explores the effects and implications such a future would have on its human (or animal, plant, artificial, etc.) inhabitants.

While the thesis looks at fiction as process and generator of future architecture, this research project proposes to catalog and study the impact that the production of fictional cities, architecture, and landscapes for film can have in the real world.

Scope of Research: FROM IMAGINATION TO REALITY

The research looks to understand the process of world-making in fiction. While works of Fantasy and Science have the ability to inspire and capture the imagination of viewers and readers; the production, and representation of fictional environments for film and TV has the ability to have a lasting effect on real communities.

The work will look at various instances of the imaginary in the real world to understand their trajectory from conception to reality.

CONCEPTION Architecture Envisioned by Author In the process of writing a fictional narrative, an author will conceive of a world which the characters inhabit. The architecture, landscape, and urbanism of that world could be described in great detail, or vaguely implied through the course of events.

TEXT Architecture Collectively Imagined The world described in the text takes on different form in each reader’s imagination. This is the stage of highest formal variation of a fictional environment. By sharing their numerous visions, readers generate a new discourse.

FILM Imaginary Architecture Given Form A larger audience is exposed to a single group’s vision of a fictional world. Viewer imagination is still captured yet inflected by the formal decisions of the film-makers.

REALITY Materialized Fictional Architecture Filming locations, with or without sets become a destination for those who have read and/or seen the film depicting the fictional world. The result is a real and lasting impact on the social, cultural, economic, and even political spheres of a community.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

- J. R. R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again. 1937.

Locations and Mode of Research: TYPOLOGIES OF IMAGINARY REALITIES

The research will be organized and compiled as a catalog of fictional typologies that have had a strong impact on real communities and the built environment. Texts, films, and locations will be studied and documented in order to understand their trajectories from imagination to reality. Modes of research while on location will include set and studio visits, as well as conversations with the local community, policy makers, architects, and film production agencies. The work will be documented and analyzed through mapping, formal studies, diagrams, and socio-economic impact studies.

SEMI-PERMANENT FICTION

As remants of film production, sets become an attraction in their own right. Film studios can have a strong impact on the local economy and culture through tourism and job creation.

1. Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate , Morocco 2. Various Film Studios in LA 3, Belfast Studios in Ireland

PERMANENT FICTION

Sets created for films and shows that have been constructed for permanence and repeated use in the film industry.They are inhabited and sustain a local tourist economy.

1. Pioneer Town, LA 2. Hobbiton, New Zealand 3. Popeye’s Village, Malta (budget permitting)

ALTERNATE HISTORY

A real city or building whose architecture is appropriated to represent a fictional environment.

An alternate history is created that can have a presence as strong as the existing identity.

1. Dubrovnik in Game of Thrones 2. Various castles in Scotland and Ireland 3. Berber architecture in Star Wars

LANDSCAPES OF FICTION

Dramatic landscapes appropriated for the recreation of fictional worlds. These often have strong repercussion on tourism and film subsidies.

1. New Zealand in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit 2. Iceland in Prometheus, Thor, Game of Thrones 3. Vasquez Rocks, CA in Star Trek 4. Northern Ireland in Game of Thrones

BUDGET AND ITINERARY

Cambridge - Prep

Iceland Home Base - Cambridge $1,000 $3,000 $8,000

3 Months - Europe Iceland, Northern Ireland, UK, Croatia, Tunisia, Morocco 2 weeks each Flights Lodging and Meals Other Transportation Tours and Studio Visits

$4,000 $10,000 $1,000 $1,000

1.5 Month - LA & New Zealand 3 weeks each Flights Lodging and Meals Other Transportation Tours and Studio Visits

$1,500 $4,000 $300 $200

TOTAL

$34,000

Total Duration = 9 Months = 1 Academic Year

Preparations & Equipment Reproduction & Documentation Rent for Year

Northern Ireland United Kingdom Croatia Tunisia Morocco Cambridge - Interim

New Zealand Los Angeles Cambridge Final Production & Book

Impact and Results FILM, POPULAR CULTURE, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The result of this research will be compiled in a book that accompanies the text I created for my thesis preparation: Likely Futures. This first is a catalog and study of the Utopic and Dystopic visions of the future presented in various relevant Science Fiction works. Whereas that book looks at future architecture and cities that are speculated about in Science Fiction, Real Fictional Architecture will explore the existing conditions and impacts imaginary speculation in literature and film can have on society.

Furthermore, with my thesis and Appleton Fellowship work, I intend to start a discussion within the greater Architectural discourse on the value of Fantasy and Science Fiction as they relate to the built environment and Popular Culture. It is my belief that this is an understudied topic within the discipline: often discarded as kitch, superficial, or just plain dorky. It is my intent to turn this into a critical exploration and dissemination of the worlds of fiction that will inflect my future work as an architect. Finally, it is my ambition and desire to remain involved in the world of academia after graduation; this experience will allow me to grow as an academic and provide me with opportunities to expand my body of inquisitive work.

Comparative Study of Urbanism in King’s Landing and Dubrovnik: