BEING A STARCHITECT

A close-knit insight into the innovative minds of two geniuses and their struggle to preserve their individuality. Rem Koolhaas’s oeuvre, can be traced through the camera of the Dutch starchitect’s son, quite a privileged perspective. For Koolhaas what is essential is not to create individual masterpieces, but to provoke and excite through the wide range of his activities. It is commonly known that Bjarke Ingels has spent his internship under the hands of the master. When Mr. Ingels was selected by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, his former employer, Koolhaas, compared the spirit of his contemporary to the one of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur: who can concentrate on making the world a better place, without being bound by the “existentialist hand-wringing” like the previous generation. “He is the embodiment of a fully fledged new typology, which responds perfectly to the current zeitgeist.”

 

REM (2016, 75’, Tomas Koolhaas)
BIG Time (2017, 90’, Kaspar Astrup Schröder)

CITY FOR SALE

Built environment is one of the strongest measures of economic change. While some territories lose their economic and political significance, becoming degraded into tourist attractions, others change into targets of investments and real estate speculations in no time. These processes contribute to the growth of social differences: the more powerful are the beneficiaries, and the most vulnerable are the sufferers of these transformations. The stories from Berlin, Chongqing, Venice, Addis Ababa might seem far-fetched from each other, but after watching this selection, you will recognise their similar patterns.

 

City for Sale (2015, 82’, Andreas Wilcke)
Dream Empire (2016, 73’, David Borenstein)
Addis Ababa – Chinese New Flower (2016, 30’, Silvan Hagenbrock)
The Venice Syndrome (2012, 80’, Andreas Pichler)
Matache – Berzei-Buzești (2016, 83’, Dragoș Lumpan)

RESIDENTS FOR PRESIDENTS

For some people, a housing crisis means not getting planning permission for a loft conversion. For others it means, quite simply, losing their home. The problem of big city accommodation and housing attracted more attention in recent years. Though rising housing prices force out middle and low income residents from central areas, local communities respond in different ways to this process. Some organize self-defense communities, while others occupy or buy empty spaces, transforming them into modern residential collectives. Our protagonists have many obstacles on their way: being defenseless against authorities and real estate speculation, fear of neighbors, common hardship of decision-making and living in communities. There are also some success stories, such as the fascinating story of Ada Colau, the anti-eviction activist turned politician, the first female Mayor of Barcelona.

 

Ada for Mayor (2016, 82’, Pau Faus)
Dispossession – The Great Social Housing Swindle (2017, 82’, Paul Sng)
Whose City? (2017, 54’, Hans Christian Post)
Pride and Concrete (2013, 13’, Petruț Călinescu)
Citizen Jane – Battle for the City (2017, 92’, Matt Tyrnauer)
Larry and Janet Move Out (2014, 32’, Patrick Steel, David Reeve)

WORKERS ABOVE!

These two filmic essays let us a glimpse into the world of the most under-represented participants in architecture, the construction workers. From rookies to hardened old hands, from the strong silent type to those that simply can’t shut up spend long, spend long laborious days out in all weather among the scaffolding, cranes, concrete mixers, often with unfair labour conditions, lack of respect and site accidents. The beautiful, black-and-white film, What We Have Made captures the choreography of a large building site, casting constructions workers for the main role. The other one, an excruciating filmic essay, where the construction site in Beirut plays the backdrop for depicting the struggle of Syrian construction workers, and what it means to live in exile in a war-torn world with no possibilities to return home.

 

What We Have Made (2016, 72’, Fanny Tondre)
Taste of Cement (2017, 85’, Ziad Kalthoum)

COLD WAR CONFRONTATIONS

Exciting, funny and dangerously fun stories straight from the Cold War years. The nostalgia for the gigantic residential blocks, the city-scale vacant modernist hotels, factory town in the middle of nowhere and unique monuments of modernist architecture that are still here with us. Strange, crazy, funny, lovable, and very familiar, self-reflective stories about our neighbors.

 

Megastructures (2016, 50’, Saša Ban)
The Novgorod Spaceship (2016, 45’, Andrei Rozen)
Togliatti(grad) (2014, 93’, Federico Schiavi, Gian Piero Palombini)
Bloki (2016, 57’, Konrad Królikowski)

DO MORE WITH LESS

Our choice of films introduces initiatives, emphasizing the re-evaluation of spaces, the collectively created situations, the process of actual building, creating and the expertise behind it.

 

Do More with Less (2017, 87’, Katerina Kliwadenko, Mario Novas)
Flying Monks Temple (2017, 56’, Žanete Skarule)
Cycologic (2016, 15’, Emilia Stålhammar, Veronica Pålsson, Elsa Löwdin)
Design is a Verb (2017, 60’, Leftloft)

SHORT FILMS

Short films on uninhabited buildings, the relationship between man and his built environment, the sensitivity of architecture and special building portraits.

 

If You Won’t, Nobody Will – Short Films
—— Street Art? (2016, 12’, Valentina Gordeeva)
—— Entering to Bildarchitektur (2017, 1’, Paradigma Ariadné, Vizit)
—— Open Watchtower (2016, 8′, Stefan Radošević, Luka Višnjić, Đorđe Milosavljević Gera, Mihajlo Vitezović)
—— Sidewalk and Fireplace in Perbál (2016, 6’, Máté Albert, Potyondi Gergő)
—— Szabihíd – A Bridge of Liberty (2018, 15’, VaLyo)
Urban Audio Spectrum (2016, 4’, Marina Schnider)
Public Swimming Pool (2017, 6’, Pablo Casals Aguirre, Transfer Architecture Platform)
Selection of Shorts from the Archives of Lechner Knowledge Centre (60’)

 

8th MARCH | THURSDAY

TOLDI Room 1
19:00 Opening film
Citizen Jane – Battle for the City

TOLDI Foyer
21:00 Reception + Party

9th MARCH | FRIDAY

TOLDI Room 1
18:15
City for Sale
20:00
BIG Time
screening and discussion with Júlia Boromissza, Domonkos Csirmaz, and Zoltán Kalászi who were guests at BIG studios

TOLDI Room 2
16:00
Selection of Shorts from the Archives of Lechner Knowledge Centre
17:45
Flying Monks Temple
Design is a Verb
screening and discussion with creative director Francesco Cavalli from Leftloft
20:15
Public Swimming Pool
Megastructures
The Novgorod Spaceship

TOLDI Foyer
22:00 Party + Toldi Club

10th MARCH | SATURDAY

Downtown Budapest
13:00
Jane’s Walk
guided tour by János Klaniczay (in Hungarian)

TOLDI Room 1
11:45
BIG Time
13:30
Taste of Cement
15:30
Addis Ababa – Chinese New Flower
Dream Empire
18:00
Do More with Less
screening and discussion with director Mario Novas
20:30
REM 

TOLDI Room 2
15:15
If You Won’t, Nobody Will – Short Films
introduction by director Valentina Gordeeva
screening and discussion in Hungarian on public space use with Rita Szerencsés (Budapest100, MoME), Miklós Tömör (VaLyo) and Antal Lakner (Space Detournement)

17:45
Togliatti(grad)
screening and discussion with director Federico Schiavi
20:15
Dispossession – The Great Social Housing Swindle

TOLDI Foyer
22:00 Party + Toldi Club

11th MARCH | SUNDAY

Contemporary Architecture Centre
11:00
Film Days Brunch
meet the makers!

TOLDI Room 1
15:00
What We Have Made 
17:00
Urban Audio Spectrum
Whose City?
introduction by director Marina Schnider
screening and discussion with director Hans Christian Post and editor Karoline Schulz
19:00
REM 
20:30
Ada for Mayor

TOLDI Room 2
15:15
Bloki
Larry and Janet Move Out
17:30
Pride and Concrete
Matache – Berzei-Buzești
screening and discussion with director Dragoș Lumpan and festival director Monica Sebestyen (UrbanEye)
20:15
The Venice Syndrome