The creators of this science fiction movie Oblivion have imagined a future where humans have left Earth for lunar colonies, along with some left behind hover over it in Skytower, a home, command center and heliport 3,000 ft up.
“Skytower is sleek and futuristic, a gorgeous and clean surroundings up in the planet’s atmosphere … it needed to function as a strong contrast to the postapocalyptic polluted world below,” clarifies Oblivion production designer Darren Gilford. He looked into the modern past in designing such a contemporary place.
The result is a sublime minimalist area from the clouds. The collections reference classic modern structure but also tantalize us with their superclean contemporary style. Here is a peek at how Gilford along with his production team constructed a future way of life for a style with no true house, and only for fun, how the architecture compares with real-life architecture on Earth now.
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The colour inspiration for Skytower comes from the sky and clouds; whites, light grays and blues make up the main colour palette indoors and out.
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Tom Cruise stars as Jack Harper, a blue-collar guy later on, part of a mop-up team that still makes regular visits to the uninhabitable Earth to fix drones that find alien scavengers.
On his visits down to Earth, Jack becomes fascinated with items from the past, such as LPs and Sports Illustrated magazines. He uses them to make a homey campsite oasis with a pond on Earth, where he dreams of living out the rest of his times. It is a change from his digs at Skytower.
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Harper’s main ride, the Bubbleship, is a hybrid inspired by the iconic Bell 47 helicopter (see it hanging from the Museum of Modern Art) and a jet fighter airplane. Here it is seen by us on its pad at Skytower.
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In Skytower reflective surfaces paired with big windows also make the most of the surrounding clouds and sky.
“Powerful juxtapositions and contrast were very significant; postapocalyptic occasions have polluted the world; up over from the atmosphere, everything needed to be magnificent,” Gilford states.
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Gilford also took notice of this overhangs commonly seen in midcentury modern structure. Long horizontal cantilevers are an interesting counterbalance to the 3,000-foot-long vertical line connecting Skytower into Earth. These strong traces, common in midcentury modern structure, also play off the endless horizontal lines of the clouds.
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The production designers were tasked with creating the futuristic growth of architecture, imagining what would be constructed 60 years from now. Several strong, curved lines become involved, grounded by each one of the strong horizontal planes.
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The lines of the futuristic look are clean yet curvaceous; curved corners, circles and spheres join the appearance of lots of the components, from a spiral staircase into a counter, from your detailing on the windows into the bottoms of this Bubbleship.
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The imagined live-work interiors of this future are amazingly effective, functional, uncluttered and sterile. “The living quarters are clean, simple, comfortable and utilitarian,” Gilford states.
The strong form of the spiral staircase joins the levels through circles from the floor and creates a strong focal point from the open plan.
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“The sets are easy rather than complex; they are based in simple geometric forms with easy, amazing details,” Gilford states. “You see center shapes and intricacies in the particulars.”
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Sharp visual contrast tells a massive portion of the story; Harper travels between Skytower and this particular colony of survivors at Raven Rock, filmed in an abandoned power plant in Louisiana. The dark, rusty and decaying collections of Raven Rock possess the opposite appearance of the fresh, light-filled house in the oceans.
Julius Shulman Film
Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman – $26.99
Director Joseph Kosinski is also an architect, and he implied that the production team seem to Julius Shulman’s iconic pictures for inspiration. “Shulman’s job is indeed anamorphic; all of the vertical lines remain really vertical,” Gilford states. “We also looked to the Case Study Homes of the 1950s and researched how the vertical vertical lines run throughout the compositions.”
When looking at Skytower, one can not help but consider the way Mies van der Rohe’s Edith Farnsworth House floats over the ground and has strong horizontal lines with vertical, vertical ones running through them.
Jeff Green Photography
The thought of apparent opinions out to the sky also makes one think of the job of John Lautner, whose Southern California structure is often a go-to for location scouts. Incidentally, Julius Shulman captured photos of Lautner’s work for decades.
Mark Dziewulski Architect
This modern home by Mark Dziewulski dramatically hovers over the water the exact same manner Skytower hovers across the clouds.
Charline Lancel
Futuristic as it was initially designed in 1963 and now, the strong spheres used in the movie recall Eero Aarnio’s iconic Bubble Chair.
Large curves from the bath can soften the appearance of a minimalist bathroom.
Elad Gonen
Architects have been utilizing spiral staircases as sculptural focal points during modern times, but they were originally constructed in towers during the Middle Ages and employed defensively, which makes them an apt choice for the movie too.
Bauhaus 2 Your House
Gerrit Rietveld Zig Zag Chair – $593
Skytower’s gravity-defying dining set is reminiscent of Gerrit Rietveld’s 1943 Zigzag Chair.
Jensen Architects
Of course, some favor a more industrial look to glistening white and futuristic. If I had to select a company to build me a postapocalyptic house out of whatever materials were left on Earth, I’d hope that Jenson Architects was still around. Jensen created the Scraphouse demonstration home out of recycled items such as phonebooks and traffic signs.
TruexCullins Architecture + Interior Design
As for if not imagining this slick vision of this future affected the production designer’s design in your home, Gilford states, “I’m very aware of my spouse!” For himself, Gilford is a big fan of midcentury modern style, particularly early Herman Miller furniture layouts.