Coming soon: The Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival

HOME is delighted to support the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival, which hits screens in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin in May and June with a lineup of the best architecture and design films you'll see anywhere. 

Here are the dates. Mark your calendars!

Rialto Cinemas, Auckland: May 9-22
The Embassy, Wellington: May 23-June 5
The Rialto, Dunedin: June 6-9

For those who can't wait to inspect the programme, you can visit the link here. (Wellingtonians: the festival will screen at The Embassy in your town, so the programme is at the Event Cinemas website here - they haven't loaded ticket booking capability on there yet, but we're assured they will soon). 

One of the films we're looking forward to in the festival is Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line. Charles Renfro was a member of our Home of the Year jury in 2010, and we adore him and the firm's work. In our current issue, we feature an interview with the documentary's directors, Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper, which we're also pleased to share with you here:

Image courtesy of Checkerboard Film Foundation, photos by Iwan Baan. 

HOME What made you choose DS+R as the focus of your documentary? 

MUFFIE DUNN, Director I’d wanted to do a film on Diller Scofidio + Renfro ever since 2002 when I first set foot in New York City’s Brasserie restaurant. At the time, though, they didn’t have enough built work around which to focus a film.
TOM PIPER, Director At Checkerboard [Film Foundation] we’d been doing a series of architecture films begun in 2006. Subjects were chosen in conjunction with Suzanne Stephens, deputy editor of Architectural Record. Once the High Line and Lincoln Center were underway, she rightly urged us to move forward with DS+R. 

Elizabeth Diller (left), Ricardo Scofidio (centre) and Charles Renfro. Photo by Peter Ash Lee.

HOME What did you learn about the principals of the firm by working with them so closely?

MUFFIE DUNN Having made 11 architecture films prior to DS+R, let’s just say we’d become accustomed to a certain personality profile. But Liz, Ric and Charles were incredibly open and willing to share ideas right from the start, which we think is apparent in their work as well.

HOME What effect has their work had on New York City, where they're based?

TOM PIPER One of the ending lines of the film is from critic Martin Filler, who says they’ve had a “euphoric effect” on New York. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find disagreement with that. 

MUFFIE DUNN I would add that their work is inviting. They’ve removed the fortress-like elements at Lincoln Center and implemented design that beckons people of all walks of life to mix and linger. The same can be said for the High Line.

The High Line in New York City. Photo by Checkerboard Film Foundation.

HOME What’s your favourite part of the film? 

MUFFIE DUNN We both love the Blur Building sequence. I find the ethereal nature of what they built breathtaking. 

TOM PIPER The combination of Jeremy Linzee’s music for that scene and the video footage we were able to locate from within the structure really creates a moving surrogate for having been there.

Charles Renfro, New Zealand bound

Now this really is exciting news (which you may have also seen in the magazine itself): with the help of the lovely folk at First Windows & Doors, we're bringing New York architect Charles Renfro of the firm Diller, Scofidio + Renfro to New Zealand, where he'll be giving lectures in Auckland and Wellington.

DS+R are best-known at the moment for their work designing the High Line, New York's triumphant sliver of parkland that runs along an abandoned elevated railway on Manhattan's lower West Side. These photographs of it are by Iwan Baan:

And this is Charles himself:

It'll be Charles' first visit to New Zealand. His Auckland lecture is being held on Tuesday April 13 at 6pm at the Fisher & Paykel Auditorium in the Owen G. Glenn building on the University of Auckland campus. His Wellington lecture is being held on Wednesday April 14 at 6pm in the Adam Auditorium in City Gallery in Civic Square.

Charles will have a lot to talk about, including DS+R's work on the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and the refurbishment of New York's Lincoln Center. The common thread in all these works is DS+R's determination to use these structures to add dynamism to the urban realm outside them - their designs are the opposite of self-contained.

Tickets are $15 for subscribers and students, and $20 for regular folk. You can purchase them at www.ticketek.co.nz (just type 'Charles Renfro' into the search box).

You can see more of DS+R's work at www.dillerscofidio.com. Please come to the lectures - we think Charles is going to be one of the most interesting speakers you'll see in the country this year. Thanks again, too, to First Windows & Doors for their generous support of his visit.