Abstract

Film spaces can sometimes communicate narrative experiences to the viewers as strongly as those conveyed through characters. Audiences have grasped the feeling of Blade Runner’s (Scott 1982) despair in a dystopian futuristic city, Alice’s nonsensical endeavors in Wonderland (Geronimi et al. 1951), Dorothy’s eventful adventures on the yellow brick road of The Wizard of Oz (Fleming 1939), WALL-E’s (Stanton 2008) loneliness in the midst of the garbage piles planet, and the gladiators’ feeling of diminishment in front of the grand coliseum in Gladiator (Scott 2000). By watching these spaces onscreen, one could glimpse the experience of being there without actually visiting these places. These film images portray architectural forms filled with experiences that play on emotions we strongly identify with, as we follow the protagonists venturing into these spaces. To better understand the types of spaces constructed in film and the experiences they convey, a number of film scenes with strong depictions of spatial exploration and architectural components were selected for analysis. We have coded for spatial archetypes with concern to two aspects: form and experience. Accordingly, we have identified spatial archetypes such as: open space, landmark, path, arcade, tunnel, clearance, layered space, grid, labyrinth, shaft, rotunda and court. Such findings can help assist the communication of spatial experience through moving images manifested in both architectural films and animations.