- The fictional planet "Dune" is so incredibly hot
that it can reach 160 degrees during the day,
and where water is so scarce
that it can be measured in human lives.
- Each one of these drinks every day the equivalent
of five men, 20 palm trees, 100 lives.
- Hi, I'm Michael Wyetzner, and I've been an architect
for over 35 years.
Today we're going to explore how the architecture
of "Dune" teaches us the difference between adapting
to an environment and just surviving it.
[playful music]
"Dune" mostly takes place on the desert planet of Arrakis,
and on this planet, there is a little mouse who has adapted
to the extreme conditions of the desert.
In the world of "Dune," that mouse is called Muad'Dib,
and there are a few interesting notes about that name.
It actually comes from the Arabic word
for a tutor or teacher.
It's also the chosen common name of Paul Atreides,
which shows us that he intends to learn from the desert
and not impose his ways upon it.
So first, let's take a look at Arrakeen,
and it is clear from the scale of this building
that it is not here to make friends;
it is here to dominate.
In the book, it is described
as the largest structure ever built by man,
which is obviously inspired by the pyramids of Giza,
which was like the largest building in the world
for like 3,800 years.
Let's get a closer look at the palace.
Okay, so here's everything that jumps out at me.
You could see how everything is sloped
to deflect the wind from all the sandstorms.
And the entire complex appears to be made out
of poured-in-place concrete.
There's a definite lack of windows, which is done
to control the solar heat gain inside the building.
So they obviously wanna let some natural light
inside the building, but the heat is so intense
that they have to control it,
and they use these massive concrete planes that are pivoted
to close off the heat from getting inside.
- My Lord, the sun's getting too high.
We need to seal the doors.
- They use other strategies to control the heat,
like light wells and screens.
And these screens are known as jali,
which were used historically
throughout Middle Eastern architecture to allow the light in
and yet mitigate the heat.
According to the production designers, they were inspired
by Egyptian pyramids and also Aztec pyramids,
and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia
and the main palace, on closer inspection, is inspired
by the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico.
In addition to the Pyramid of the Sun,
there was also the Pyramid of the Moon,
but more on the moon later.
You can clearly see these influences,
but at the same time, this takes place 8,000 years
in the future
and it reminds me of some more modern architectural
and artistic influences also.
One artist's work this reminds me of is Michael Heizer
who created this amazing piece
of land art in the middle of the desert in Nevada,
which he called just plainly "City."
And what's interesting is Heizer was the son
of an anthropologist who actually worked in Mexico.
And these pieces
that he constructed in the desert in Nevada
are clearly influenced by the pyramids there.
And it's really interesting that it's called "City"
because if you look at it from above in some
of these wide-angled shots, it looks very similar
to what they did for the sets on "Dune."
So to give you an idea of the scale
of what Michael Heizer built in the desert,
it took over 200 acres in the middle of the desert,
and it took him 50 years to build it.
But in addition to Michael Heizer,
I also wanna talk about Carlos Scarpa,
the great Italian architect who also built in concrete,
and he used board-formed concrete,
and it reminded me a lot of what we saw in the palace.
So to build out a concrete,
you essentially have to build twice.
First, you have to build the forms
or the mold that you're going
to pour the liquid concrete into.
They used to build concrete forms out of wooden boards
before plywood came along,
and each board would leave an impression in the concrete,
which you could clearly see in these images from Arrakeen,
and you could also clearly see from these images
of the buildings that Carlos Scarpa built.
So it's curious that 8,000 years in the future,
there's still building out of board-formed concrete.
So Scarpa was known to be a very, very sensitive architect,
and he had a great sense of materiality,
and he would put a very fine material next
to a very rough material, which was also done
by some other architects like Louis Kahn and Rem Koolhaas.
But Scarpa had this very poetic way of combining materials.
He also had a great sense of natural light
and how to manipulate that light.
And the other thing he did,
which you could clearly see in some
of the details in Arrakeen is he would sort
of do these concentric forms.
He would step things back, almost like the tympanum
at the entrance to a gothic church.
In a more basic sense,
because everything here is built out of concrete,
it's very reminiscent of Brutalism,
the architecture style from the '60s and '70s.
And while concrete at first seems to be a perfect material
for withstanding the desert environment,
to build it, you actually need water and a lot of it.
So the idea that the largest building ever was built out
of concrete, which requires water, a massive amount
of water, while people are dying of thirst,
seems like the height of arrogance.
Of course, the desert of "Dune" is wildly different
from the wet and lush world that Paul has arrived from.
And what really drives home this point
is when Paul tells Zendaya's character about swimming
because she can't imagine that much water in one place.
- When you see sand here, imagine water.
If you dive in, it's called swimming.
- I don't believe you.
- So let's take a look at Paul's home world, Caladan.
So here's everything that jumps out at me.
The big difference here is that this environment
and this climate is very different.
They're trying to bring light into the space,
and they're doing so through the use
of these circular openings.
And these circular openings in Chinese architecture
are known as moon gates.
So moon gates traditionally were used
in Chinese architecture to enter into a garden,
and they were very symbolic of the idea
of passing from one world into another world, the transition
between one space into another space.
And so I think there's an implied symbolism here
of the transition that Paul is about to undertake.
The first time we see Paul Atreides in the film
is through one of these moon gates.
And also the first time Paul learns about Arrakis,
we see him through a moon gate again.
And the first time he meets the Bene Gesserit for his test,
he passes through one of these moon gates,
and he even receives a warning from his family physician
in Mandarin Chinese.
[physician speaking in Chinese]
Which is maybe a subtle nod
to the architectural symbolism of this scene.
Circles continue to appear as a motif throughout the film,
including the spaceships that fold space and time,
and even the mouth of the sandworm Shai-Hulud.
Interestingly, the name of the sandworms,
Shai-Hulud, is also inspired from the Arabic.
Shai comes from shayun, which means thing.
And Halud roughly means immortality
or eternity, which is also another symbolic meaning
of the circle.
And now let's talk about the architecture
of the native people, the Fremen.
Here's everything that jumps out at me.
What I love is that it appears to be just carved out
of the mountain, and it's at a massive scale.
You could see the size
of a figure standing right here in front of what appears
to be this huge entrance,
but in fact is sort of just symbolic of the entrance
with the real human-scaled entrance recess here
within this deep channel.
And then they also have this big slot
of a horizontal window here.
The idea is to control the light, which controls the heat.
And then what's also sort of curious are these series
of paired circular openings,
which obviously are either vents
or some sort of small window.
So what I really like about carving it out of the mountain
is you're not bringing in trees to make forms
and water to make concrete.
You're using what's already in the environment
and making something out of that.
You're adapting to the environment instead
of bringing something else to it,
which is the height of sustainability.
So what I really like is that it's very reminiscent
of the buildings that were carved out of the walls
of the canyon at the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.
So in the film, the name for these Fremen villagers
are called Sietches.
But according to the author, it's pronounced Sietch.
And in fact, the word Sietch or Sietch
is very similar to the word aAl-Siq in Arabic,
which is the name of the narrow canyon that leads
to the city of Petra.
So this spectacular sandstone city of Petra was built
by the Nabataeans in the third century BC
where they carved temples, tombs,
and stables into the soft stone cliffs.
And in an interesting parallel to the film,
would've said that Petro was created
by Moses when his staff struck the rock
that brought forth water to the Israelites.
And in the book, like Moses, Paul is considered
to be a liberator
who will bring the Fremen people to freedom.
So there are other examples of how the Fremen
and their architecture have adapted to the desert,
such as the fabric tents that we see later in the film.
So the various tent constructions in the film appear
to reference real-world desert culture,
such as the traditional tent of the nomadic Bedouin people
who call the deserts of the Middle East their home.
These tents are called bait Al Shaar,
which literally translates to house of hair.
So the thing about these traditional tents
is that they were very suited to their environment
because they were light and transportable.
They were made out of animal hair.
They allowed the breeze to flow through when it was dry,
and the fibers would swell up
and prevent the water from coming through,
and the oil would shed the water from the roof
when it was wet.
Although that's not really a concern for Arrakis.
By living and adapting to an extreme climate like this,
the people settling there are forced to come up with new
and innovative designs.
So that's just some of the architecture
from part one of "Dune."
If you wanna see a breakdown
of the architecture in part two,
let us know in the comments below.