Architecture is a fascinating topic that many people simply do not know enough about. The documentary genre is the perfect way to capture the essence and the overall spirit of architecture and to truly show the process on film. While there are hundreds of home architecture documentaries, there are a few that stand out among the crowd as exceptionally insightful and captivating. Here are five of the best home architecture documentaries for those seeking more knowledge on the topic.
Documentaries Help Illustrate Custom Home Building
We all know what custom home building is to a certain extent, but seeing it on the screen is the best way to truly see what custom home building is and how truly customized the home building process can be. You might imagine that you can add custom finishes like art and mantles, but you can also customize nearly every single aspect of your home if you have the right builder on your side.
Home architecture documentaries are a great way to see just how customized these homes can be and how much you can customize if you do decide to build your own custom home. Home customization is not something new, from the very start of architecture as a profession and of homes being built, there has been the desire of people to customize the spaces where they live and where they keep their homes. Home architecture documentaries are a great way to clearly and accurately illustrate the concept of custom homes and how truly stunning and interesting they can be.
Here are 5 home architecture documentaries that are truly stunning and that will help you better understand the overall concept of home customization:
Koolhaas Houselife (2013 by Ila Beka and Louise Lemoine)
This is a fantastic option when it comes to home architecture documentaries as it follows custom home builders as they create contemporary masterpieces. It is part of a series called Living Architectures and it takes the viewer into the work of renowned architect, Rem Koolhaas, and his stunning work. The story follows the daily life of the housekeeper for the home that the architect designed and the people that take care of it.
The home that is featured is the Maison a Bordeaux, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas in 1998 and is located in Bordeaux, France. The building is a private residence that features glass work, simple and clean lines, and unique views, and that is truly mind boggling when it comes to customization. It appears that the home is held up by nothing more than a single post and it is truly a feat of architectural genius. Since it is such a unique home, it does need special care and the film follows the daily work of those that keep the home.
Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011 by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey)
This documentary follows the life and marriage of Charles and Ray Eames. The movie follows their lives and how the art of one influences the art of the other and how their marriage resulted in some truly stunning work and design history.
This documentary follows Charles Eames and his wife Ray and it talks about how her art helped to influence his own design and work. It also follows how their work helped to shape the mid-century modern movement that so many people tend to lean heavily on when they do start to add customization to their homes. Charles and Ray Eames helped to impact architecture and the world as we see it today despite their deaths in the late 70s and early 80s.
Diary of an Eccentric Architect (1997 by Barbara Wolf)
We have all heard of commissioned metal art, custom iron door options, and even custom fireplace mantel options when it comes to home architecture. This documentary has a little bit of everything. The documentary follows the life of Philip Johnson and is a guided tour of sorts of work by this outstanding architect. He is the designer of the famous Glass House that we have all seen in movies and television and that many architects have worked to try to copy in some way or another. The house is a testament to architecture and to the power of the imagination. The architect started the house in 1945 and lived there until his death in 2005.
The Glass House is a true testament to customization in a home and is what many people think of when they picture modern architecture. His work on the glass house and other architectural feats is what sets Philip Johnson apart from other architects and is what many people tend to look back on and try to emulate when they create these stunning modern homes that are truly custom.
Microtopia (2013 by Jesper Wachtmeister)
This documentary is one that follows the story of several architects all over the world that are working to challenge the concepts of what we see as new custom homes. They are some of the top home builders and they are working to provide new solutions for tiny living spaces that we may never have imagined on our own.
This is a truly eye-opening documentary and it does help to shed a bit of light on the phenomenon of tiny homes that are so popular these days. The documentary follows a few different architects and what they consider to be innovative micro homes. This is a fun documentary if you like seeing what people are willing to do to challenge themselves.
Lego House – Home of the Brick
This is another fantastic documentary that will truly challenge what we see as custom construction. This series follows builders as they use the classic Lego design as inspiration for their custom home build. The show is on Netflix and it does follow the process from the very start with the conceptualization of the home all the way to the production and eventual build. This is a fun documentary that shows us just what the process of extreme custom home building and what the process looks like.
While most people are never going to live in a home made of Legos, it is still something fun to watch and something even more fun to imagine. This is a great documentary if you want to get your kids involved in architecture and you want something that is going to keep their interest.
Why Is Custom Home Building So Popular?
We live in a day and age where custom is king and where everyone wants to be able to customize their home and living space to fit their needs, their overall design aesthetic, and more. It can be hard to find a home that has already been built that does fit the needs that you have and that also fits what you want it to look like. With custom home builds and with top home builders you can get custom homes that are going to have those special elements that you love and want.
You can add just about anything with custom home building from a custom Amish gazebo to hidden rooms and passageways in your home. You can hire custom door companies for your finishes and more. We love customization and feeling like something was made just for us, and that is just what customizing a home does for us. Aside from just longer home architecture documentaries, there are also some great home architecture documentaries that are in episode or series form.
Extreme Engineering (2003-2011)
This is a fun documentary series that follows engineering feats that are seemingly impossible. The series chooses a different feat of engineering with each episode from the sky city in Tokyo to the pyramid city all the way to temples under the alps. This is a fantastic show if you want to learn more about how engineers and architects work together to complete some truly outstanding and mesmerizing masterpieces. This is a great documentary if you have ever wondered how they make some of those stunning structures.
Treehouse Masters (2013- Present)
This is another fun show that shows us how these masters make tree houses into something that you could actually live comfortably in. This show is great to watch with the whole family and as far as home architecture documentaries go, this is a pretty fun show to watch. They have some truly amazing customization that is going to be fun and interesting and that is also going to be so cool if you want to learn about architecture as a whole. This is great if you want something that is fun and that will entertain the family and truly show you want customization can do.
Megastructures (2004-Present)
If you want to see some truly spectacular things this is a great show to do just that. This show follows some of the largest megastructures that are in the world and lets us see how they are made. This is a super fun way to get an introduction to architecture and to really see how things can be customized to fit the needs and specifications of the people that are designing them. This is a particularly great series if you like to know how things work and you are interested in some of the largest structures that man has created.
Custom Architecture Is Growing in Popularity and Accessibility
Though we all know that custom architecture is popular, it is growing even more and has become even more prevalent over the past few years. With more technology available than ever before, customization is more accessible than it ever was before. For those that have always wanted to have a custom home, it is now possible to get in touch with great custom home builders to be able to make a home that you are going to love for years to come.
There are now more custom home builders that do work with individuals and that work to help you get the best outcome for your custom project. What was once something that you could not get for your own home is now something that anyone that is working to have their home designed or built can access. Home customization is a great thing, it can help you make your home the home of your dreams.
What Do Home Architecture Documentaries Teach Us?
Home architecture documentaries do so much to help us better understand the process of designing a home, customizing it, and of course building it and bringing the idea to life. These documentaries are interesting, they are eye-opening, and they are fun to watch.
Architecture is a process that is truly amazing when you think of it. Architects can take a drawing or an idea that they have in their head and can make it into something that you can actually see and actually touch. Home architecture documentaries are fun to watch, they can help you get ideas about what you might want to do to your own home, and they can help you better understand and appreciate the work the architects do.
The documentaries that we have listed out are going to help you learn more about home customization today, about the history of architecture, and also more about what it means to truly customize a home to the point that there is nothing else in the world like it. Home architecture documentaries are a great way to learn more about something that you might not know a lot about and that you may really enjoy learning.
Finding the right home architecture documentaries can help you learn more about architecture and can also appeal to your own interests. Architecture can be an incredibly fun and interesting thing to study and these documentaries can help you do just that.