ARCHICINE: Famous Movie Architecture As Modernist Illustrations.




Artist and illustrator Federico Babina, best known for his Archipix, a series of well-known architects and their buildings rendered as pixellated 8 bit graphics, has now turned architectural icons of cinema into ARCHICINE, a series of modernist posters.

Personally, I prefer these to any of his other work because they combine two of my favorite things, Architecture and Film, into aesthetically appealing artworks. And he did not disappoint, choosing several of my personal favorites to execute - from John Lautner's Chemosphere House in Body Double to the fictional home in Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

Most of the homes in these movies (and depicted on Babina's posters) are actual architectural structures while others are sets and a few are computer generated. Where possible I have attributed the architect or the history of the building.

A Single Man. Directed by Tom Ford. (1949 Glendale residence by architect John Lautner):


North by Northwest. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (a fictional home created for the movie)


L.A. Confidential. Directed by Curtis Hanson.(Lovell Heath House in Los Feliz by architect Richard Neutra)


Zabriskie Point. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (House designed by architect Paolo Soleri)


The Big Lebowski. Directed by Joel Coen (Sheats-Goldstein House by architect John Lautner)


Rear Window. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock (a giant set built at Paramount Studios)


Le Mépris. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (modernist home in Casa Malaparte, Capri, Italy by architect Adalberto Libera and has since fallen into disrepair)


The Million Dollar Hotel. Directed by Wim Wenders (The Rosslyn Hotel at 100 West Fifth St. in downtown Los Angeles was designed by John Parkinson and now serves as low-income housing)


Body Double. Directed by Brian De Palma (John Lautner's Chemosphere House)


The Fountainhead. Directed by King Vidor (image depicts the fictional Wyland Residence designed by the main character in the film, architect Howard Roark, played by Gary Cooper)


Star Wars. Directed by George Lucas  (set design and computer generated imagery)


The Incredibles. Directed by Brad Bird (the computer animated home was an inspired mash up of popular mid-century modern architecture by architects Eichler and Wexler)


Moonrise Kingdom. Directed by Wes Anderson (The Conanicut Island Light, also known as Conanicut Island Lighthouse, was built in 1886 in Rhode Island was used as the Bishop family home exterior in the movie)


Dogville. Directed by Lars von Trier. (filmed in three locations in Sweden, house unknown)


The Party. Directed by Blake Edwards (the 1968 movie was filmed at an unknown apartment building somewhere in Los Angeles and on the United Artists lot)


Mon Oncle. Directed Jacques Tati. (The home in the film, Villa Arpel, was a set entirely built from scratch by painter Jacques Lagrange.)


The Man Without a Past. Directed by Aki Kaurismäki. (the container house was constructed in Helsinki for the 2002 movie)


images courtesy of Federico Babina via Archdaily  Some location information courtesy of IMDB and movie-locations.com

A video of Babina's Archipix, if you are not familiar with these and wish to see them:


Babina's Archipix are available to purchase as posters here at Society 6