The first biopic to be screen at the Kumu Art Museum's architecture program is "Under Tomorrow's Sky" (2021), which follows the renowned Dutch architect Winy Maas, whose vision of the city consists of "high rises on a human scale," essentially, stacked structural volumes with open spaces and greenery around them that feel like "vertical villages."

The director Jan Louter travels with the architect to Korea and China, among other places, and visits the construction sites of the geologically inspired Valley block of flats in Amsterdam, and the first publicly accessible art depot in the world, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam: both buildings made headlines around the world long before they opened.

"Maas aspires to create buildings that are welcoming to future generations.
He invented the concept of the "vertical village," which is now only an idea, because it is rather expensive to build, but in the future, we could live in a city that is open in every sense and where everything is mixed, different styles and architecture, etc," the director, Jan Louter, said.

The other two films in the museum's program are from Denmark and provide insight into the souls of both city creators and city dwellers.

Arne Jacobsen's "Modern Denmark" (2021) is a biopic that follows Jacobsen's career from his playful 1929 design for a House for the Future to his once-derided design for Copenhagen's iconic SAS hotel. The film reveals the range and depth of his practice. Despite the fact that the documentary focuses mostly on Jacobsen's work, it also provides insight into his personality.

Hans Christian Post's documentary "The Best in the World" (2022) delves deeper than the photogenic image of Copenhagen. The Danish capital is commonly considered as one of the world's best and most livable cities.
However, this was not always the case. Copenhagen was an industrial city on the verge of bankruptcy thirty years ago. The city has undergone a complete transformation as a result of political and architectural engineering, but at what cost? Copenhagen, once a shining example of a humane and open city that was affordable to all, has devolved into a bubble only accessible to the wealthy, Mare Pedanik, the film program's curator, explained.

"On the one hand, gentrification is a two-way street; we are improving the environment, but it is only available to a select few," Pedanik said.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!