Patterned concrete walls by the firm Erwin Hauer. Top three photos show a loadbearing cast stone wall in a church in Erdberg, Vienna, Austria. Architect is Robert Kramreiter. Below are two Standard Hotel lobbies and other projects. Most of these walls look 60s or contemporary to me, rather than midcentury modern which is the era more associated with patterned concrete. The Hauer walls are more biomorphic and smooth – some of them perhaps a little smooth or fluid for my liking – but the screen wall at top is perfect. It has just enough angularity to make it interesting, maybe by virtue of its double thickness, with each hole creating a frame for the geometric shapes behind.

The Parker Hotel as photographed by Chimay Bleue, who has produced one of my favourite collections of photos of modernist architecture on Flickr. I’ll do a series of posts using his photos if he will let me. Look at the perforated screen wall outside – why don’t we see these screens around my part of the world? Because no one wants to pressure wash the moss off? Fantastic lobby, with an indoor version of a midcentury modern screen.

This closet/dressing room is part of a townhouse on NYC’s West Side. The house was decorated by interior designer Samuel Botero in a mad eclectic mix of all possible ornate styles, including Egyptian Revival and Biedermeier and art deco, at his clients’ request. The rest of the place is very dark velvet/chairs with paws/animal print/excess, but then suddenly in the middle of it all there’s this bright fantastical room which actually transcends the general madness of the house and achieves something mythic. I could do without the black cloverleaf casket thing with the ribbon-motif and weird silhouettes, which Botero designed himself, though I suppose it would come in handy for conducting seances while also storing hatboxes or maybe the skeletal remains of small children. But Botero gets credit for extreme daring and for the genius use of emerald green and cream, and all joking aside I sincerely admire the way he just let his imagination run wild, if not amok. This is the sort of room that demands that you re-decorate yourself to match. You’ll need an entirely new period wardrobe, an upgrade from monomania to megalomania, and whatever exotic pet affectation strikes your fancy – an emerald green parrot maybe, or a talking owl. Or an albino cheetah, why not. And a leprechaun. They love hats. Photo by Phillip H. Ennis, via the ever strange AD.

From the standpoint of 1970, this is apparently how “1980″ was going to look. Actually, this vision wasn’t that far off, not as far off as Kubrick’s 1968 vision of what the year  2001 would look like. Above, a “think shell” from the total modular interior design concept known as “Home 1980.” IKEA needs to steal this idea. The kitchen is below. Photos from the vintage decor book 1601 Decorating Ideas for Modern Living, 1973.

Original captions for both photos: “From time to time the great chemical companies initiate research into the possibilities of the “house of tomorrow,” in order to bring their new synthetics to the atention of architects and interior designers and to show their versatility. The resulting creations, commissioned from outstanding design teams, often provide powerful impetus for mass productions – though models like the one shown here for a cooking center in “Home 1980″ will probably not be produced in the foreseable future. It is designed to be built into a large, open room, and consists of basic components that can be completed by a number of additional units, thus suiting the needs of the individual owner. The round counter-like table at the right combines the stove, warming tray, and dining area; the hood over it, which contains ventilation, dehumidifying, and lighting equipment, demonstrates what technical perfection is already possible in today’s kitchen…. The “think shell” also belongs to “Home 1980,” and is supposed to provide the privacy needed for work. The screen can be lowered out of sight. Cabinets on casters, which are pushed against the wall when not in use, make the table a very personal workplace: each family member can roll his own equipment over to it with a twist of the wrist.”

Which is correct, above, or below?:

Or alternately:

All photos from the 1973 decor book 1601 Decorating Ideas for Modern Living.

Berlin’s modernist and contemporary architecture stands in for Aeon Flux’s fictional city of Bregna in the year 2415 with surprisingly little alteration. At what point will modernist and contemporary architecture no longer seem quite so futuristic? Not only is modern architecture clearly still space-age in the popular unconscious, on some level its aesthetics and utopian aspirations are also clearly under suspicion. I can never decide if this is either well-founded skepticism or some sort of Puritan conservatism, or both. (A friend of mine recently pointed out that in Hollywood it’s always the villains who have the best taste in architecture and decor, but that’s another topic.) Not unlike the biosphere society in Logan’s Run, the future city of Bregna was purportedly built as a utopian haven but quickly reveals itself as a dark dystopia, its superb architecture suddenly taking on a more chilling nightmare feel. Much of the information about architecture in Aeon Flux in this post came from a long thread on architecture in film on pushpullbar, as well as from exhaustive fan websites here and here. There’s also an entertaining discussion here which tries to pin down the film’s architectural style and historical references. The photos above show the interior and exterior of the Baumschulenweg Crematorium of Alex Schultes and Charlotte Frank, which served as the ruling regime’s HQ in the film (note the Pierre Paulin ribbon chairs, in fuschia). All photos are from Paramount via here.

Above, familiar from the film’s poster, is the now disused 1935 Berlin Windkanal or aerodynamic testing windtunnel for German aircraft, built in 1932 and now designated a technical landmark. After WWII the Soviets removed all the equipment, leaving only the tunnel behind. It stands in for the “maze” and government complex in the film.

The Benjamin Franklin Conference Center Kongresshalle, above, by Hugh Stubbins with Werner Düttmann and Franz Mocken, 1957. It’s been renamed House of World Culture, but Berliners call it the ‘pregnant oyster’. Its roof, which has been rebuilt after a collapse in 1980, is the setting for a nighttime battle between Aeon on guards. on the roof at night.

Numerous scenes in the film were shot in the Tierschutzheim Berlin (2000-2001) by Dietrich Bangert, above. The building is actually a large, privately funded animal shelter complex.

Berlin’s modern concrete and glass Mexican Embassy, above, was a public marketplace in the film. It was designed by Francisco Serrano in collaboration with Teodoro González de León and completed in 2000.

The Volkspark Potsdam, 2001, popularly known as the BUGA Park, also includes the biosphere used as a tropical greenhouse in the film. Its recreation area, with standing concrete planes, appeared during the assassination mission sequence.

The scene above was shot at the Radsporthalle (Velodrom) by Dominique Perrault at the Landsberger Allee in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. 1995-96.

Bauhaus Archiv, which served as the exterior of the building where Aeon and her sister Una live (the imaginary interior, probably just a studio set, is directly above). From the Bauhaus Archiv website: “The museum building is a late work of Walter Gropius [1883-1969], the founder of the Bauhaus. It was planned in 1964 for Darmstadt and was built 1976-79 in modified form in Berlin. Today, its characteristic silhouette is one of Berlin’s landmarks.” More information about the images below is forthcoming, once I figure out where they were shot. Anyone?

Complete list of locations below.

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