Today, Michael Wyetzner of Michielli + Wyetzner Architects returns to AD for an in-depth look at the architectural design in Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Dune. Surviving on the desert planet Arrakis is no mean feat–see how the movies took design inspiration from brutalism and Earth’s ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians and Aztecs, to bring the Dune universe to life.
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00:00 The fictional planet Dune is so incredibly hot that it can reach 160 degrees during the day,
00:06 and where water is so scarce that it can be measured in human lives.
00:10 Each one of these drinks every day the equivalent of five men, 20 palm trees, 100 lives.
00:16 Hi, I'm Michael Weitzner and I've been an architect for over 35 years.
00:20 Today we're going to explore how the architecture of Dune teaches us
00:23 the difference between adapting to an environment and just surviving it.
00:29 Dune mostly takes place on the desert planet of Arrakis.
00:33 And on this planet there is a little mouse who is adapted to the extreme conditions of the desert.
00:38 In the world of Dune, that mouse is called Muad'Dib,
00:42 and there are a few interesting notes about that name.
00:44 It actually comes from the Arabic word for a tutor or teacher.
00:47 It's also the chosen common name of Paul Atreides,
00:50 which shows us that he intends to learn from the desert and not impose his ways upon it.
00:55 So first let's take a look at Arakeen.
00:57 And it is clear from the scale of this building that it is not here to make friends.
01:01 It is here to dominate.
01:03 In the book it is described as the largest structure ever built by man,
01:07 which is obviously inspired by the pyramids of Giza,
01:10 which was like the largest building in the world for like 3,800 years.
01:14 Let's get a closer look at the palace.
01:17 Okay, so here's everything that jumps out at me.
01:18 You could see how everything is sloped to deflect the wind from all the sandstorms.
01:23 And the entire complex appears to be made out of poured in place concrete.
01:28 There's a definite lack of windows,
01:30 which is done to control the solar heat gain inside the building.
01:33 So they obviously want to let some natural light inside the building,
01:36 but the heat is so intense that they have to control it.
01:39 And they use these massive concrete planes
01:42 that are pivoted to close off the heat from getting inside.
01:46 "My lord, the sun's getting too high. We need to seal the doors."
01:49 They use other strategies to control the heat like light wells and screens.
01:53 And these screens are known as Jali,
01:55 which were used historically throughout Middle Eastern architecture
01:59 to allow the light in and yet mitigate the heat.
02:02 According to the production designers,
02:04 they were inspired by Egyptian pyramids and also Aztec pyramids
02:08 and the ziggurats of Mesopotamia.
02:10 And the main palace on closer inspection
02:12 is inspired by the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico.
02:15 In addition to the Pyramid of the Sun,
02:17 there was also the Pyramid of the Moon,
02:20 but more on the moon later.
02:21 You can clearly see these influences,
02:23 but at the same time, this takes place 8,000 years in the future.
02:26 And it reminds me of some more modern architectural
02:29 and artistic influences also.
02:32 One artist's work this reminds me of is Michael Heizer,
02:34 who created this amazing piece of land art
02:37 in the middle of the desert in Nevada,
02:39 which he called just plainly "City."
02:42 And what's interesting is Heizer was the son of an anthropologist
02:46 who actually worked in Mexico.
02:48 And these pieces that he constructed in the desert in Nevada
02:51 are clearly influenced by the pyramids there.
02:54 And it's really interesting that it's called "City"
02:55 because if you look at it from above
02:57 in some of these wide angle shots,
02:59 it looks very similar to what they did for the sets on Dune.
03:04 So to give you an idea of the scale
03:06 of what Michael Heizer built in the desert,
03:08 it's over 200 acres in the middle of the desert,
03:10 and it took him 50 years to build it.
03:12 But in addition to Michael Heizer,
03:14 I also want to talk about Carlo Scarpa,
03:16 the great Italian architect, who also built in concrete.
03:19 And he used board-formed concrete,
03:21 and it reminded me a lot of what we saw in the palace.
03:25 So to build out a concrete,
03:26 you essentially have to build twice.
03:28 First, you have to build the forms or the mold
03:31 that you're going to pour the liquid concrete into.
03:34 They used to build concrete forms out of wooden boards
03:36 before plywood came along.
03:38 And each board would leave an impression in the concrete,
03:41 which you can clearly see in these images
03:43 from Arakin, and you can also clearly see
03:46 from these images of the buildings
03:48 that Carlo Scarpa built.
03:50 So it's curious that 8,000 years in the future,
03:52 they're still building out of board-formed concrete.
03:55 So Scarpa was known to be a very, very sensitive architect,
03:59 and he had a great sense of materiality,
04:01 and he would put a very fine material
04:03 next to a very rough material,
04:05 which was also done by some other architects
04:06 like Louis Kahn and Rem Goulas.
04:08 But Scarpa had this very poetic way of combining materials.
04:13 He also had a great sense of natural light
04:15 and how to manipulate that light.
04:17 And the other thing he did, which you could clearly see
04:20 in some of the details in Arakin,
04:22 is he would sort of do these concentric forms.
04:24 He would step things back, almost like the tympanum
04:27 at the entrance to a Gothic church.
04:29 In a more basic sense, because everything here
04:30 is built out of concrete, it's very reminiscent
04:33 of brutalism, the architecture style
04:35 from the '60s and '70s.
04:36 And while concrete at first seems to be a perfect material
04:39 for withstanding the desert environment,
04:42 to build it, you actually need water and a lot of it.
04:46 So the idea that the largest building ever
04:48 was built out of concrete, which requires water,
04:53 a massive amount of water, while people are dying of thirst,
04:56 seems like the height of arrogance.
04:58 Of course, the desert of Dune is wildly different
05:01 from the wet and lush world that Paul has arrived from.
05:04 And what really drives home this point
05:05 is when Paul tells Zendaya's character about swimming,
05:09 because she can't imagine that much water in one place.
05:12 - When you see sand here, imagine water.
05:14 If you dive in, it's called swimming.
05:16 - I don't believe you.
05:17 - So let's take a look at Paul's home world, Caladan.
05:21 So here's everything that jumps out at me.
05:22 The big difference here is that this environment
05:25 and this climate is very different.
05:26 They're trying to bring light into the space
05:29 and they're doing so through the use
05:31 of these circular openings.
05:32 And these circular openings in Chinese architecture
05:35 are known as moon gates.
05:38 So moon gates traditionally were used
05:40 in Chinese architecture to enter into a garden.
05:43 And they were very symbolic of the idea of passing
05:46 from one world into another world,
05:48 the transition between one space into another space.
05:52 And so I think there's an implied symbolism here
05:54 of the transition that Paul is about to undertake.
05:57 The first time we see Paul Atreides in the film
06:00 is through one of these moon gates.
06:02 And also the first time Paul learns about Arrakis,
06:04 we see him through a moon gate again.
06:06 And the first time he meets the Bene Gesserit for his test,
06:10 he passes through one of these moon gates.
06:12 And he even receives a warning from his family physician
06:16 in Mandarin Chinese.
06:17 Which is maybe a subtle nod
06:20 to the architectural symbolism of this scene.
06:22 Circles continue to appear as a motif throughout the film,
06:26 including the spaceships that fold space and time.
06:29 And even the mouth of the sandworm, Shai Halud.
06:32 Interestingly, the name of the sandworms,
06:34 Shai Halud, is also inspired from the Arabic.
06:37 Shai comes from Shayun, which means thing.
06:40 And Halud roughly means immortality or eternity.
06:43 Which is also another symbolic meaning of the circle.
06:45 And now let's talk about the architecture
06:48 of the native people, the Fremen.
06:49 Here's everything that jumps out at me.
06:51 What I love is that it appears to be
06:53 just carved out of the mountain.
06:56 And it's at a massive scale.
06:57 You could see the size of a figure standing right here
07:00 in front of what appears to be this huge entrance,
07:04 but in fact is sort of just symbolic of the entrance
07:07 with the real human-scaled entrance recessed here
07:10 within this deep channel.
07:11 And then they also have this big slot
07:13 of a horizontal window here.
07:16 The idea is to control the light, which controls the heat.
07:19 And then what's also sort of curious
07:21 are these series of paired circular openings,
07:25 which obviously are either vents
07:27 or some sort of small window.
07:29 So what I really like about carving it out of the mountain
07:31 is you're not bringing in trees to make forms
07:34 and water to make concrete.
07:35 You're using what's already in the environment
07:38 and making something out of that.
07:40 You're adapting to the environment
07:41 instead of bringing something else to it,
07:43 which is the height of sustainability.
07:45 So what I really like is that it's very reminiscent
07:47 of the buildings that were carved out of the walls
07:49 of the canyon at the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.
07:52 So in the film, the name for these Fremen villagers
07:56 are called Sietches, but according to the author,
07:59 it's pronounced C-H.
08:00 And in fact, the word Sietch or C-H
08:03 is very similar to the word Al-Sikh in Arabic,
08:07 which is the name of the narrow canyon
08:09 that leads to the city of Petra.
08:11 So this spectacular sandstone city of Petra
08:14 was built by the Nabataeans in the third century BC,
08:18 where they carved temples, tombs,
08:21 and stables into the soft stone cliffs.
08:24 And in an interesting parallel to the film,
08:27 it would have said that Petra was created by Moses
08:30 when his staff struck the rock
08:32 that brought forth water to the Israelites.
08:34 And in the book, like Moses,
08:36 Paul is considered to be a liberator
08:38 who will bring the Fremen people to freedom.
08:41 So there are other examples of how the Fremen
08:43 and their architecture have adapted to the desert,
08:45 such as the fabric tents that we see later in the film.
08:47 So the various tent constructions in the film
08:51 appear to reference real world desert culture,
08:54 such as the traditional tent of the nomadic Bedouin people
08:57 who call the deserts of the Middle East their home.
09:00 These tents are called Bayt al-Shahr,
09:02 which literally translates to house of hair.
09:06 So the thing about these traditional tents
09:07 is that they were very suited to their environment
09:09 because they were light and transportable.
09:11 They were made out of animal hair.
09:13 They allowed the breeze to flow through when it was dry,
09:16 and the fibers would swell up
09:17 and prevent the water from coming through,
09:19 and the oil would shed the water from the roof
09:21 when it was wet,
09:22 although that's not really a concern for Arrakis.
09:25 By living and adapting to an extreme climate like this,
09:28 the people settling there are forced to come up
09:30 with new and innovative designs.
09:33 So that's just some of the architecture
09:34 from part one of "Dune."
09:35 If you want to see a breakdown of the architecture
09:37 in part two, let us know in the comments below.
09:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]