Serving as a detailed portrait of the acclaimed Japanese architect, this film engages with Kisho Kurokawa, who employs Buddhist ideas in a symbiosis of traditional forms and western modernism to achieve an intercultural architecture. In a merging of philosophy, culture, space and narrative, Kurokawa has created a body of work that he defines as symbiotic, which he specifies as "the simultaneous expression of conflicting things in a symbiotic manner" (Kisho Kurokawa). Kisho Kurokawa: From Metabolism to Symbiosis follows him to many of his major accomplishments in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka, Berlin, Paris, Chicago and New York.

Kisho Kurokawa: From Metabolism to Symbiosis

"The New Modernists: Folds, Blobs and Boxes, Architecture in the Digital Era" approaches the topic of artistic technological advances, and the modern architects who were educated with this new influx of electronic techniques. In this detailed portrait we visit the exhibition entitled Folds, Blobs + Boxes at the Carnegie Museum of Art where ten architect/designers discuss their approaches to digital architecture with curator of the exhibition, Joseph Rosa. By abandoning the traditional notions of aesthetic beauty, scale and proportion, a new freedom has formed amongst these contemporary creators.

The New Modernists: Folds Blobs + Boxes, Architecture in the Digital Era

In "Álvaro Siza Transforming Reality", Portugal's renowned architect discusses his work and tours 15 projects with architectural historian Kenneth Frampton, who has referred to Siza as "one of the most important architects working today". In 1974 the end of the dictatorship in Portugal opened up this previously isolated part of the world to current ideas about design, architecture and urban planning. 'Critical regionalism', or the melding of indigenous architectural forms with international ideas defined the architectural revolution in and around Oporto, Portugal. This movement became know as 'the Oporto School' of which Siza is the leading figure. Siza's approach to architecture is centered around the idea that the setting of a building is integral to its design, and that a structure's design should reinforce its surroundings by both enhancing and highlighting its potential. Frampton discusses with Siza his most significant architectural innovations at the actual sites in Portugal, including his large-scale housing project in Evora, the architecture school of the University in Porto, the Teachers' College in Setúbal and the recent Serralves Museum in Porto .

Alvaro Siza: Transforming Reality

Accentuating the effects of space, light and structure, glass has become an architectural staple that encourages transparency and visibility throughout a variety of landscapes. After its role in the last century's call to a radical new architecture and urban life, glass architecture is today more ubiquitous than ever. Touching on the social and cultural aspects of its popularization, architect Elizabeth Diller states, "It's not so much about looking out, feeling the mastery of outside, it's much more about revealing ourselves to the outside in a very willful way." (Elizabeth Diller). Its latest incarnation reveals a virtually new product that is replacing the glass used even twenty years ago, offering new modes of visual depth and spatial experience to building occupants. Glass has also been the beneficiary of major advances in engineering that are decidedly less visible such as structural innovations, thermal properties, and expanded fabrication limits. Filmed at an international conference of prominent architects and engineers at Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture in September 2007, "Engineered Transparency" explores the timeline of glass as a material and its consistent significance within the architectural community.

Engineered Transparency: Glass in Architecture and Structural Engineering

Filmed in October 2008 at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture's second international conference on the changing state of materials in architecture, "Solid States: Concrete in Architecture and Structural Engineering" offers examples and insights into the ever-adapting possibilities of concrete. With the participation of prominent architects and engineers such as Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori and Bernard Tschumi, the lectures consist of footage and theories pertaining to the developments of concrete as a material within the architectural world. Looking towards the past, present and future of concrete, the conference notes its innovations and abilities while considering the material's economic, environmental and geographical impacts.

Solid States: Concrete in Architecture and Structural Engineering

Critic Kenneth Frampton is a masterful commentator on the architecture of our time. At the start of his long-spanning career Frampton worked as an architect in London before settling into his writing and teaching, which mainly took place at Columbia University. Over the past fifty years Frampton has certified himself as a prolific and influential contributor towards a progressive interpretation of the role of architecture in modern society. In "Kenneth Frampton: A Critical Voice", architect Stan Allen interviews the renowned critic and questions him about his architectural contemporaries, notable past projects, and published writings.

Kenneth Frampton: A Critical Voice

Architect Peter Zumthor lives and works in the remote village of Haldenstein in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden where he can keep the politics of architecture at a comfortable distance as he enjoys status and praise for his unique modernist buildings. In "The Practice of Architecture", critic Kenneth Frampton visits Zumthor at his studio where the two are surrounded by models, designs and plans for current and future projects throughout Europe and the United States. Frampton questions the renowned architecture on the motives and methods behind some of his most famous works, including his Zinc-Mine-Museum in Norway and the highly acclaimed Therme Vals, a stunning hotel and spa built over the thermal springs in Graubünden. While walking us through his career, Zumthor discusses his penchant for minimalism, the importance of landscape, light and material, and the architectural theory behind his stunningly precise style.

The Practice of Architecture: Visiting Peter Zumthor

An intimate look back at The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York, a not for profit organization with the intent of changing the dialog and conception of architecture around the world. Founded in 1967 at a time of revolution and questioning, the Institute became the most important American and International center for architectural debate and the development of new critical ideas. The main participants at the Institute were; Peter Eisenman; Richard Meier; Charles Gwathmey; Kenneth Frampton; Diana Agrest; Rem Koolhaas; Mario Gandelsonas; Rafael Moneo; Frank Gehry; Aldo Rossi and others. The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies became the most significant and energetic crossroad in the path of rethinking architecture and the city and it's influence is still felt today.