Since 2021, architecture students at Taking Place have produced films that map the urban condition through the lens of cinematic cartography. Each film emerges from a semester of fieldwork — following inhabitants, documenting atmospheres, and constructing narratives that reveal the layered realities of contemporary European cities.
A sensory map of Kiruna exploring its atmospheric conditions. The title refers to a water drop caught between liquid and frozen states — a metaphor for the town's liminal existence as it awaits relocation.
vimeo.com/873786228A reflection on the intimacy of displacement in Kiruna — the tension between leaving a home and staying connected to a place that is literally being moved.
vimeo.com/873345805Following a former schoolteacher turned autonomous garbage collector through the streets of Cluj-Napoca. His route reveals a city in transition — from communist scarcity to capitalist overflow.
vimeo.com/874036942A tragicomedy about bedbugs in Airbnb apartments, exploring the consequences of tourism in Athens. The students turn the camera on themselves, reflecting on their own position as tourists.
vimeo.com/1042736991An exploration of the Athenian street market as a site of everyday urban life — a counterpoint to the monumental narratives of the Acropolis.
vimeo.com/1034536948The following films are key references in our teaching and research — works that demonstrate how cinema can capture, question, and construct our understanding of place.
The paradigmatic film for our method. Its opening sequence — descending from an airplane above Berlin into an apartment — frames the shift from aerial overview to intimate, embodied experience. The angel Damiel's desire to be grounded, to draw "a good line," mirrors our pedagogical ambition.
Landscape as protagonist. The Ravenna petrochemical plant is not a backdrop but an active presence influencing the psychological state of characters. Demonstrates how environment can be narrated through color, sound, and composition.
Filmed entirely from inside a moving car, using the windscreen and dashboard as framing devices. The car becomes a mobile studio — suggesting that mapping can take the form of guided travel rather than static overview.
The filmmaker shifts between who is telling the story and who is being spoken to, turning the lens on herself. A model for reflexive, ethical filmmaking — speaking nearby rather than speaking about or on behalf of others.
A performance work where Acconci mapped the city by trailing strangers through New York. This act of following — letting unplanned routes determine structure — is a direct antecedent to the cinematic cartography method.