Animate(d) Architecture: A Spatial Investigation of the Moving Image

At their peak, architectural marvels such as the Sagrada Família, the Tower of London, the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, and the Eiffel tower, had a combined annual visit of almost 16.4 million people. The animated icebound castle in Disney’s (2019) Frozen had 116.4 million views, from one single YouTube trailer, in less than 24 hours. The spaces of such massively consumed animation have for generations informed the architectural imagination of people across the globe and from very early in their lives. Yet, not only have the architectural disciplines remained rather absent in the design of these massively consumed spaces, architectural theory has likewise failed to articulate a framework to approach the architecture of animation. To address this void, this book offers an interdisciplinary approach to survey the role of space in animation, including in creating humorous moments in early cartoon shorts, generating action and suspense in Japanese anime, and even stimulating erotic pleasure in pornographic Hentai. Exploring the imagined architecture of animation, from early motion picture to digital animation and from computer graphics to game engines, offers an analytical frame to reconceptualize space.

Vahid Vahdat is an assistant professor of architecture and interior design at Washington State University’s School of Design and Construction. His primary field of research is spatial mediation, with an emphasis on virtual reality and film.