- Hi, I'm Sam Williams, and I'm an architectural researcher.
Today we're gonna look at architecture
from a long, long time ago and a galaxy far, far away.
And see what these buildings can tell us
about the larger story of Star Wars.
First up, the royal palace of Naboo
in the capitol city of Theed.
Something that's really evident
in the royal palace of Naboo are the classical Greek motifs
where you see the columns,
you have the pediments and in entablatures,
and it really alludes to the fact that Naboo is a democracy
and is referencing one of the earliest known democracies
that we have here on earth.
So when taking a look at this, what's glaringly obvious
is the resemblance to the Hagia Sophia in Turkey.
What's notable about this structure
is use of the pendentive domes.
And what a pendentive dome is,
is essentially a series of half circle domes
that are enclosing and supporting a larger dome.
And what's really useful with this strategy
is that typically we see the triangle
as the strongest structural form
and the dome is also usually ranking high up there.
This strategy just combines both of those together.
Also of note as this grand processional walkway
that leads up to the palace,
which alludes to the democracy that exists in this place
where everyone is able to participate
right on the steps of this palace.
The royal palace has a building of a similar height
that's just on the other side of this procession.
This is very similar to what you see in Washington, DC
with the White House
and a procession that leads to Congress,
which is called the People's House.
And you have this direct access between the two structures.
So what's important about the use of Theed
in the Star Wars universe
is that it represents an example of a thriving democracy
in contrast to what we see with the Empire.
- The day we stop believing democracy can work
is the day we lose it.
- Let's pray that day never comes.
- Next, let's jump to Coruscant
which is the capital of both the Republic and the Empire.
So Coruscant plays a very out-sized role
in the Star Wars universe.
Where it serves as the Imperial capital
and also the capital of Republic.
So here's what jumps out at me.
There is an overwhelmingly large number
of very tall buildings
that are present throughout this society.
We also have this civic building
which is where the Senate meets.
And it's a bit lower to the ground,
but it's also fairly large in scale.
So Coruscant is an example of and ecumenopolis.
And what this means is that this is a city-covered planet.
And it's very evident here
that there is no green, no life,
it's just the sky and this urban fabric.
And this idea was first popularized by Isaac Asimov.
Now, I'm a big fan of cities
and I think what's vital to a healthy city
is ample public space and public parks
which this city really has none of.
And also everyone is sort of in their own atomized existence
in their private vehicles flying around
and with not much interaction with each other.
- What took you so long?
- Oh, you know master,
I couldn't find a speeder that I really liked.
- What I'm reminded of when looking at this
is this idea of retrofuturism.
This was an idea that was popularized in the 1920s
where we were making a lot of advancements
in structural technology.
There is a lot of industrialization that was happening
and advancements in general in society.
And there's a lot of optimism at the time.
So it's fairly natural to envision a future
in which the entire planet
looks like this ideal version of the future.
These buildings very much remind me of the Art Deco style,
which was also popular in the 1920s.
What's noticeable here is that the buildings
seem to step back as they move higher from the ground.
A really fun illusion that I noticed is that
the civic building where the Senate meets
is much lower, it's a dome shape,
it's closer to the ground and thusly closer to the people.
While it's surrounded by these very large
unhumanly-scaled scaled structures
that are pointing to the economic interests
that are competing for power within this universe.
So this is in contrast to Naboo
where we see a more equal balance of power.
Whereas here we see the the economic influence
exert a greater influence than a governmental body.
- [Count Dooku] We must persuade the Commerce Guild
and Corporate Alliance sign the treaty.
- [Nute Gunray] What about the senator from Naboo?
Is she dead yet?
- Next up is the desert planet of Tatooine.
So right away I notice
that there are domes being used again here.
They are similar to what we see on Naboo.
And also we noticed that the materials here
are clearly made from the local earth, like adobe.
We also have lots of buttresses
that are alluding to more simple construction techniques
than what we saw in Coruscant.
Also of note is that the buildings are generally similar
in uniform and appearance and scale and height.
With the exception of some of these buildings back here.
Which indicates some creep of the Empire.
So Tatooine is usually just seen
as sort of the edge of the galaxy,
a bit rougher, more provincial.
- Well, if there's a bright center to the universe
you're on the planet that it's farthest from.
- [C-3P0] I see.
- It is somewhat surprising
that this does appear to be somewhat planned and organized
despite being a fringe outpost in a galaxy.
So one building we see here that doesn't have a dome
reminds me a lot of some military installation.
Clearly has crenellations,
and it has a modularity that's very different
than a rest of what we see on this image.
And it reminds me of a lot of a guard tower
just standing high above the city
being able to watch over everything that happens down below.
And this is somewhat indicative
of the creep of the Empire into this more provincial area
where the people are a bit more down to earth
and not as involved in the goings on of the Empire.
- These aren't the droids you're looking for.
- [Storm Trooper] These aren't the droids we're looking for.
- So many of the interior scenes set in Tatooine
were actually filmed in North Africa.
One of my favorite factoids is that the home
that in which Luke is raised by his adoptive family,
the interior courtyard
is filmed inside of an actual example of a ghorfa.
So what's cool about ghorfas
is that these are multi-story structures
with an archway that are made of wood
and some of them mud from the area.
And this is where you would store
grains, and food, and things like that.
But oftentimes people would also take up residence
inside of each of these caverns.
Choosing North Africa as a film location
may have been intentional decision
reference the history of colonialism
and imperialism that has existed
throughout that part of of the world.
Allowing some natural contrast to show
between the sort of more provincial buildings
and local buildings,
and then some of the structures that would exist
as being imposed upon this society by the Empire.
Next, let's visit
Princess Amidala's home Planet of Alderaan.
This is also Princess Leia's adoptive home.
What I like about Alderaan
is that it seems to look more towards the future.
And the buildings are a lot more futuristic-looking
in contrast to Coruscant
where it sort of references a bygone era.
In Alderaan you see the buildings are generally
of the same height and demeanor and design.
Whereas in Coruscant you see
that there's these huge, extreme disparities
in the size of the structures
and this competing sort of power dynamic
that exists between the economic interest
and the government.
In Alderaan this is a society where Princess Leia
is literally raised in the ivory tower,
but so is everyone else.
And this also manifests itself in how her mother, Padme,
is also a princess and later queen.
But the decide to abdicate
and become a member of the Senate
representing the will of the people.
What this reminds me of is Towers In The Park.
Which is a concept that was popularized by Le Corbusier.
During the heyday of modernism
it was seen as sort of inevitable
that cities will continue to grow indefinitely.
And, of course, it's very unacceptable
to have people continue to live
in the sort of conditions that we're seeing at the time.
So this idea, this Towers In The Park idea,
was really meant as an anecdote to an overcrowded setting
but while still maintaining a high density.
And this idea is that
instead of people living in overcrowded slums.
which was becoming fairly common at the time,
you could sort of organize where people would live
and put them in these large buildings
surrounded by park space.
And the buildings are adequately spaced
apart from each other so that
you're not breathing down each other's back.
So this was another way
of thinking about the future of cities
in contrast to what we saw on Coruscant and retrofuturism
which sort of imagined that the city would continually creep
and take over the entire planet.
And so this version of that idea
just gives everyone a lot of breathing room.
There's a lot more green space.
And the prominent features here,
rather than being 100% cover with buildings,
it's really majority covered with green space.
Another feature of this Towers In The Park design
is that there's no street frontage,
or little to no street frontage.
Instead you're walking through a park
to get to your destination.
So this sounds fairly idyllic
at the time where slums are becoming overcrowded.
But today we're starting to see this
as sort of anti-urban and very suburban in nature
where people aren't having to interface with each other.
It really encouraged single-use spaces
where you'll have entire neighborhoods
that are only just residential tower blocks
and there's lack of retail and other uses
that would enable an active public life.
This may be in contrast to what we see in Alderaan.
Because in this society all the needs have been met.
I would imagine that this is a post-scarcity society
where we're no longer having to worry about
food resource issues,
water, and other ecological concerns.
So while Coruscant is meant to be a dystopia,
Alderaan is seen as this sort of utopian contrast.
And unfortunately, all good things must come to an end
because this planet
does eventually get destroyed by the Death Star.
Ending it's peaceful existence.
- No, Alderaan is peaceful.
We have no weapons, you can't.
[laser firing]
[planet exploding]
- Now let's take a look
at another society surrounded by nature.
And that's the Ewok villages of Endor.
When you first look at this,
it's actually sometimes hard to see
the villages and the homes here.
It sort of blends very seamlessly
with the trees as they stick out
and are made of a similar material, similar color scheme,
and sort of camouflaged in the background.
I do find it kind of sketchy
that there's an extensive use of fire in this environment
knowing what happens in forests like this,
but it seems to work for them.
So what makes the village on Endor
very different than even places like Alderaan,
instead of being built on the planet or among the planet,
this is made of the planet.
Where you see that
there's not much industrialization involved
and it's really meant to symbolize a simple existence
that the people here enjoy.
Unfortunately, this very bucolic place
also happens to have the exact resources
that the Empire needs to construct their second Death Star.
So after Luke destroys the first one
they need to build another one.
And they find this planet
that has this peaceful sort of existence
and they set up a military installation there.
And from that they begin to exploit and extract
the resources from this planet
in a way that's very different
than the values that are apparent.
So whereas we've already seen the Death Star
destroy the planet of Alderaan,
we see that the Death Star is being used
to destroy the planet in a very different way.
A theme that's pretty persistent
throughout the Star Wars universe
is that when we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.
This has manifested in the overall plot line
of Anakin Skywalker becoming corrupted by the Dark Side
to become Darth Vader.
And notice as he becomes Darth Vader
he slowly replaces his natural organic self
with more mechanical machine parts.
- He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil.
- And this is in contrast to Luke Skywalker
who goes into nature, finds himself,
begins training as a Jedi
and eventually proceeds to defeat the Dark Side.
- For my ally is the force and a powerful ally it is.
Life creates it.
- And on that note, let's take a look
at the weapon known as the Death Star.
The Death Star is both a planet and a weapon.
Unlike Coruscant which is a city that covers a planet,
the Death Star is itself entirely manmade.
- That's no moon, it's a space station.
- It's too big to be a space station.
- Prominent feature of the Death Star
is this equatorial trench
which circumnavigates the entire planet.
And that is where you have your hanger bays,
a lot of the defensive pieces,
the ports, and other ways to access
in and out of the entire Death Star.
Of course, one of the other really obvious features
of the Death Star is this sort of concave bowl.
And this is where the Death Star's super laser shoots out.
- I think it is time we demonstrated
the full power of this station.
- Now, if you recall,
in Naboo we had two dome structures
which represented the co-equal branches
and division of power in that society.
Whereas here we have two domes that are forming a sphere
with one dome forming the main part of the weapon
where the beam shoots out and destroys planets.
And the other side supports it
in a way that represents the military industrial complex.
You also have these other secondary trenches
which are sort of along these longitudinal lines.
And they indicate different sector uses.
There are civic uses, there are military personnel,
civilians, and also an entire industry
to support the construction and development of this weapon
that is housed completely within this Death Star.
- It's an older code, sir, but it checks out.
- I would like to add
that inside one of the secondary trenches
is where a lot of the aerial battles are played out
but is also where the main vulnerability
of the Death Star existed.
And thusly was used to destroy it.
[Death Star exploding]
So those are the architectural details that I noticed
from the various corners of the galaxy in Star Wars.
Let me know which series you'd like to see broken down next.
[upbeat music]