In his latest film, Architecton, director Victor Kossakovsky invites viewers on a journey through the materials that make up our homes: stone and concrete. The film is like a poetic discovery of the most powerful materials on the archaeological site of Baalbek in Lebanon, or the most fragile in the ruins in Ukraine or after the earthquake in Turkey in 2023. It also raises a fundamental question: how do we inhabit the world of tomorrow?

This film is an intimate, poetic mediation--with an epic dimension--about materials and building construction. Based on a landscaping project by Michele de Lucchi, a circle of stones in his garden, Kossakovsky reflects on nothing less than the rise and fall of civilisations, and asks the question of how to build better and sustainably, without neglecting the search for a new understanding of beauty. It questions the future of construction in the face of the ecological crisis, and the major role that architecture plays in our cities and our lives, through a call for change.

It also raises the question of land use. Kossakovsky explains that the connection with Michele de Lucchi came about through a question about the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin. Before making the film, Kossakovsky asked around a hundred international architects one question: “If you could, what would you build here that would be significant for the city?” Michele de Lucchi replied: “If we live in a multicultural society, we just have to remember as often as possible that we have nature right in front of us. It has to be a place we don’t touch. It has to be a symbolic place that we can’t set foot in. And it shouldn’t be outside the city, but right in the centre. So that we walk past it every day and remember: ‘Oh, we’re not alone.’”

Paperjam Architecture + Real Estate invites you to discover Architecton at Ciné Utopia on 12 March at 8.15pm. To take part in the screening offered by Paperjam and Luxfilmfest,  Subject to availability.

The runs 6-16 March 2025.

This article in French.