"Director: Jesper Wachtmeister"

• Kochuu, Japanese Architecture | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Winding its way through visions of the future and traditional concepts nature and concrete gardens and high-tech spaces the film explains how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions. Kochuu which translates as in the jar refers to the Japanese tradition of constructing small enclosed physical spaces which create the impression of a separate universe. The film illustrates key components of traditional Japanese architecture such as reducing the distinction between outdoors and indoors disrupting the symmetrical building with wooden posts and beams rather than with walls modular construction techniques and its symbiotic relationship with water light and nature. The film illustrates these concepts through remarkable views of the Imperial Katsura Palace the Todai-Ji Temple the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum the Sony Tower numerous teahouses and gardens as well as examples of the cross-fertilization evidenced in buildings throughout Scandinavia and shows how 'invisible' Japanese traditions are evident even in modern high-tech buildings. Kochuu is a compelling illustration of how the aesthetics of Japanese architecture and design are expressed through simple means and also shows that the best Japanese architecture wherever it appears expresses spiritual qualities that enrich human life.

• Great Expectations, A Journey through the History of Visionary Architecture | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Including concrete illusions of grandeur and Lego-like modular apartments to an Instant City Airship and round grass-covered subterranean dwellings-from the beginning of the 20th century to today. Since the end of the 19th century due to industrialization and rapid technological progress mankind has been confronted with new problems and possibilities. Visionary architects and artists motivated by contemporary problems including housing shortages urban decay and pollution set about to create changes in our ways of living that challenged conventional concepts of the good the true and the beautiful. Great Expectations introduces us to the most significant architectural movements and personalities of the 20th century including among many others Le Corbusier's functionalist cities Buckminster Fuller's lightweight geodesic domes Moshe Safdie's Habitat '67 prefab apartments Rudolf Steiner's Goetheanum and other anthroposophy buildings in Switzerland Oscar Niemeyer's sleek urban designs for Brasilia Paolo Soleri's archology of crystal-like desert cities Antti Lovag's curved surfaces of Palais Bulles in France Jacque Fresco's utopian Venus Project in Florida and Peter Cook and Colin Fournier's biomorphic Kunsthaus Graz in Austria. Using archival and contemporary footage animation and interviews Great Expectations tells the fascinating story of these grand architectural visions both realized and unrealized as explained by great thinkers with revolutionary if not always successful ideas.