This ones for the nerds, and it’s a good one. Say what you will about Peter Jackson, the books were better, blah blah blah. Let’s just appreciate the vision and the set designers, and CGI artists who worked hard to make the vision a reality. Besides, this is really damn interesting!
Exploring the architecture of The Lord of the Rings films: pic.twitter.com/dpqs4Gpkny
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
Vernacular is somehow always more homely and familiar than the architecture of professionals and engineers.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
Its imperfections and slight shoddiness create a cosy charm, hence its ubiquity in cinema when film-makers want to create a safe, comfortable atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/gpj0l3yGyQ
Bree is far more urbanised than the incredibly rural Hobbiton.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
Its jettied houses with infilled timber frames have that classic Late Medieval town look. Their size and the street layout make it seem like a larger and busier place, which of course it is. pic.twitter.com/6DakIrx3Pk
Art Deco was nowhere better expressed than in the "Cathedrals of Commerce" in New York and the great picture houses across America.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
They were awe-inspiring and emanated power, evidently built on great wealth – just like Moria.
And yet it can feel distant, almost too decadent. pic.twitter.com/ILNkF1dzui
Art Nouveau, with its dynamism and floral motifs, its lightness of form and refined shapes, is the embodiment of elegance and grace.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
An appropriate style, then, for the Elves. pic.twitter.com/CjjZt9Qc97
And while Lothlorien adopts some of that same Art Nouveau fluidity, it's really something else altogether.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
Indeed, this strikes us more like the ecologically-inspired bio-architecture of the 21st century and, perhaps, of the future.
Mysterious and almost alien. pic.twitter.com/SXBPDFRXrW
But, alongside that, is a deeply industrial appearance.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
It looks as though it were made from metal, and the structure as a whole seems like a chimneystack as much as anything else.
A land of pollution. pic.twitter.com/fVbG9NPi5H
And the Golden Hall has a touch of the great wooden stave churches of Scandinavia.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
One fine building – even then a relatively humble one – amid so many simple cottages, and all made from wood in vernacular style; it speaks to a certain toughness and lack of frivolity. pic.twitter.com/75EsPj5Mga
The Hornburg, with its rudimentary masonry and relatively small scale, seems like an appropraitely early Medieval fortification; functional above all.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
It looks similar to Belogradchik Fortress in Bulgaria, a real life Hornburg, which also takes advantage of the terrain. pic.twitter.com/TnThnp2PIQ
The throne room is reminiscent of late Roman, Byzantine-era basilicas (the whole city has a Byzantine twist, with its many domes).
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
It has an apse at the far end and two arcades of rounded arches separating the aisles from the nave.
Far from the humble Golden Hall of Rohan. pic.twitter.com/V0rfaMiqIk
Barad Dur, like Orthanc, has that same fusion between Gothic architecture and industrial form, only this time with the stepped shape of some modern skyscrapers.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
It's as if you combined the Burj Khalifa and Cologne Cathedral.
Nightmarish. pic.twitter.com/pRwBqY6lnT
But that's the story of architecture in real life, too.
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) December 16, 2022
The buildings of our towns and cities affect us – shaping our emotions and conveying information – no less than those in cinema. More so, even, because we actually live and work in and use them every day.
