London, 1972 – the city is growing, and with it the need to house working populations. Post-war values of social welfare make experimenting with new forms of housing possible, ushering in an era of modernist, utopian projects. Among the most daring and innovative, Peter and Alison Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens estate.
The echoes of experts and decision-makers are heard as we explore the corridors of Robin Hood – their voices, like dissonant radio waves, take turns in expounding the values of the estate, while also arguing about its reputation, significance, and future. Meanwhile, intimate portraits of residents express the emotional, humorous, and complex story of the project. Mixing documentary and fiction storytelling, we piece the history of the Robin Hood Gardens estate gradually, from its initial transformation of industrial land into an idyllic, leafy neighbourhood, to its eventual re-configuration of street life into a vertical context, before turning to the contemporary reality.
Less than 50 years later, London is a very different place. The incessantly growing city, powered by financial capital, dissolves the previous generation’s social housing projects, re-development by re-development. An emerging steel-and-glass skyline defines the new norms of housing, rendering notions of social welfare more akin to history rather than to embodied policy. The question arises: where has Robin Hood gone?

The Disappearance of Robin Hood

Films

Produced by Urban-Think Tank in 2016, this film represents, through the words of some of the people closest to it, the state of the Historical Museum after twenty years of disinvestment. Deconstructed songs of resistance from the Yugoslav partizan era link the museum’s architecture to the time of the institution’s birth, as the voices of Sarajevans suggest a new future for the building.

The People’s Museum

Venezuela/Switzerland, 2013
24 min, Spanish
Torre David, a 45-story office tower in Caracas, was almost complete when it was abandoned following the death of its developer and a national banking crisis that crippled the Venezuelan economy in 1994. Neglected for over a decade, in 2007 it became the improvised home for a community of over 800 families living in an extra-legal and tenuous occupation that many called a vertical slum.
This short documentary reveals what life was like for residents several years prior to the government’s eviction in 2014. Filmed as part of larger project by the interdisciplinary design team, Urban-Think Tank, the movie was part of a larger research and design project that resulted in a book and numerous exhibitions, including the Golden-Lion-winning exhibition at the 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
Festival and Theatrical Screenings
2015
Dok.Arts Film Festival, Berlin, DE
Metropolis Kino, Hamburg, DE
Swissnex Sanfransisco, San Fransisco, USA
reSITE Festival, Prague, CZ
Focus Filmtheater, Arnhem, NL
2014
Barbican Summer Film Series, London, EN
DOXA, Toronto, CA
New Orleans Film Festival, New Orleans, USA
Belgradescapes, Belgrade SR
Social Justice Film Festival, Seattle, USA
Boka Architecture Film Festival, Kotor, ME
Sustainable Living Film Festival, Istanbul, TR
Grenchen Wohntage, Grenchen, CH
Prishtina Architecture Festival, Prishtina, KV
Milano Design Film Festival, Milan, IT
2013
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, NL (Int’l Premiere)
Urban Eye Film Festival, Bucharest RO
Budapest Architecture Film Festival, Budapest, HU
Arquitectura Film Festival Santiago
Lichter Film Fest, Frankfurt, DE
Gallery and Museum Screenings:
Venice Biennale of Architecture, IT, 2012
Museum of Art and Design, NYC, 2014
Fotomuseum of Winterthur, CH, 2013
Aedes Gallery, Berlin, DE, 2013
Coalmine Gallery, CH, 2013
Torre Hofpoort, Rotterdam, NL, 2015
Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, DE, 2013
Baden Baden Kunsthalle, DE, 2013
Trienal de Lisboa, PT, 2013
Academic Collections:
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Maastricht University
Lehigh University

Torre David

India/Switzerland, 2014
15 min, English
Made in partnership with The Holcim Foundation and ETH Zürich, this short film places Mumbai as the backdrop for a new way of viewing and engaging informal settlements. Featuring interviews with experts and practitioners like Alejandro Araveña, David Chipperfield, Moshen Mostafavi, Aaron Sorkin, and Geeta Mehta among others, the documentary provides insights into a city that is struggling with rapid growth. Ultimately, cities like Mumbai provoke urgent questions about the role of architects and planners in humane urban development.

Directed By	Markus Kneer
Concept By	Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner
Cinematography By	Daniel Schwartz and Markus Kneer
Editing By	Markus Kneer
Sound	Daniel Schwartz
Assistant Direction and Production By	Daniel Schwartz
Production Support By	Sneha Paul, Ankur Suryavanshi
With the Support of	The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, ETH Zürich

Mumbai: Maximum City Under Pressure