The Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF) is the nation’s largest focused on this subject matter. Held annually in New York since its founding in 2008, ADFF has recently established satellite events in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., among other cities, with plans to expand to New Orleans, Athens, Greece, and beyond.
ADFF celebrates the creative spirit driving architecture and design by presenting a curated selection of films, panel discussions, and other interactive experiences. Founder and director Kyle Bergman is a New York–based architect with a background in publishing and production. Each year, the ADFF team reviews approximately 300 films submitted from around the world.
“We focus on films that are interesting enough from a design perspective but also have a human story that anyone can enjoy,” said Bergman, while noting that ADFF tends to avoid jargon-laced films targeted at purely architectural audiences. When he initially conceived the festival, Bergman’s aim was to “take what we love and know and ask, ‘How do we expand into a wider audience but also do something that is good for us?’ ” And so far, he’s been successful: The festival has drawn a diverse mix of industry professionals, consumers, and design enthusiasts.
Following its inaugural Los Angeles event in 2014, ADFF returned for its second West Coast edition, which took place between March 10–14, 2018. ADFF: LA featured screenings of more than 30 short and feature-length films exploring a range of subjects—from the power of design to instill positive change at an intimate, interior scale, to ways that buildings can shape urban form and potentially provide solutions to broader cultural and economic challenges. These topics are presented through the lenses of the lives and work of notable architects and designers who practiced in various time periods and specialized in many different project typologies.
Welcoming Angelenos from the Eastside to the Westside, ADFF: LA events were held at two historic venues: the downtown Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC), which was built in 1916 and had housed banking and financial institutions before its conversion to its current use, and Helms Bakery District in Culver City, which comprises several buildings that once functioned as a bakery and have since been converted to a mixed-use development including many interior design showrooms.
ADFF: LA kicked off with a Short Films Walk at Helms Bakery District. Six showrooms—Arcana Books, Harbour Outdoor, H.D. Buttercup, Scandinavian Designs, Room & Board, and Vitra—offered screenings of 24 documentaries. The event concluded with a public viewing of “Building Hope: The Maggie’s Centres,” a film by director Sarah Howitt that tells the story of an innovative model for cancer treatment that leverages design as a tool for healing. Afterward, Frances Anderton, host of “Design and Architecture (DnA),” a regular series on KCRW, a National Public Radio member station, led a related discussion.
Presented by Pacific Sales Kitchen & Home, the festival’s official opening night took place at LATC and included a VIP reception followed by a screening of “BIG TIME.” This documentary by Kaspar Astrup Schröder provides an intimate view into the creative process and compromises made by Bjarke Ingels during the several years he worked on two of his largest projects to date—VIA 57 WEST and Two World Trade Center—skyscrapers with the potential to alter Manhattan’s skyline.
Throughout the festival, ADFF transformed the LATC lobby into an immersive lounge that played VR films, including one by Gary Hustwit and Sam Green on the work of Buckminster Fuller; an exhibition titled “The Original Comes from Vitra,” which focused on authenticity in design and manufacturing processes; and short films displayed on the Sony Ultra-Short Throw 4K HDR Home Theater Projector. The lounge also featured furniture supplied by Vitra and Poliform as well as a pop-up bookstore.
Many films presented as part of ADFF: LA addressed issues faced by commercial interior designers, particularly “Workplace,” a documentary about the past, present, and future of the office. It considers how designers can improve these environments to promote productivity and collaboration, and it anticipates the next wave of digital tools to connect workplaces on a global level. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit (“Helvetica,” “Objectified,” and “Urbanized”) relates these issues through the completion of the project for the New York headquarters of R/GA, which was designed by Foster + Partners.
Following the “Workplace” screening, which was co-presented by Interior Design magazine and Vitra, Interior Design Deputy Editor Edie Cohen moderated a discussion between Primo Orpilla, co-founder and principal at Studio O+A in San Francisco, and Barbara Dunn, a studio director and principal with Gensler in Los Angeles. The panelists pondered the confluence of physical and digital space.
“While technology is a big part of making the office feel connected and facilitates interactions across great distances, it can also become a distraction,” Orpilla observed. “Technology needs to be seen and not heard; it should be available when we need it, but without interrupting human interaction. There is something that’s inherent in the need to talk to people in your office: You need to be able to tap them on the shoulder. With increasing reliance on technology, the loss of tactility and the ability to perceive inflections in voices and engage in eye contact can result in office experiences that are polarizing.”
Several other films screened at ADFF: LA are relevant to commercial interior designers. “Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect,” explores work by the Pritzker Prize winner who is 95 years old and has no intentions to retire. His portfolio includes projects for the Ford Foundation, Oakland Museum of California, and new galleries for The Metropolitan Museum in New York.
“Getting Frank Gehry” charts the evolution of the architect’s 40-year career and work that has been both celebrated and critically eviscerated. Projects highlighted in the film include Gehry’s first building in Australia, a new business school at Sydney’s University of Technology that has become known as the ‘treehouse.” It also features some of his other iconic works such as the Gehry House, the Vitra Museum, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the MIT Stata Center.
In the future, ADFF plans to host annual film festivals in Los Angeles. However, Bergman laments that when it comes to attracting attendees, “One of the hardest things is getting the word out.” Architects and designers should not only tell colleagues and peers about the upcoming festival, but also invite people from other backgrounds—particularly current and potential clients. For more information about ADFF, visit www.adfilmfest.com.
ADFF: LA 2018 sponsors included: Pacific Sales Kitchen & Home, Helms Bakery District, LASVIT, Poliform, Sony, and Vitra. Media sponsors included Interior Design and Architectural Record. Industry sponsors included the American Institute of Architects/AIA | Los Angeles, and the West Edge Design Fair.
