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Bardi’s architecture as a setting for human togetherness. I found it fascinating to fol-
low her path since she had focused on much more than architecture. I had never
been to Brazil before and only knew little about Bo Bardi’s work. Before I arrived in
São Paulo, my main worry was that I might perhaps not find a personal connection
to her world. However, in the end my time there was successful and the challenges I
faced also had a positive influence on the work.

r You work as a filmmaker on documentations of individual buildings and mega
cities. Like an architect, you thus work on completely different scales. Where
does the respective appeal lie for you?
The appeal lies exactly in the constant change between the wide variety of commissi-
ons, so that one is time and again challenged and never lapses into repetitive routine.
Commissioned by the city administration of Seoul, for instance, I made a film about the
second largest metropolis in the world today and, almost simultaneously, a film about
a small private house in an open landscape, Flint House designed by Skene Catling de
la Peña in Buckinghamshire. I am fascinated by the connection between micro and
macro, I am fascinated by small-scale structures which generate something immense.

r Your work spectrum as a filmmaker is highly diversified. It includes completely
different genres. Would you please tell us about it?
A few years ago and commissioned by the Boysen company in Manila, I designed a
mural with a length of 600 metres, the “Project Edsa: Cubao Incision”. Although this
project radically deviated from filmmaking, I was thus able to focus on the city in a
completely new way. This was also the case when I was asked to create video instal-
lations in Kolkata as part of Sasha Waltz’s site-specific “Dialoge 2013” dance perfor-
mance which in part temporary influenced the cityscape. The processuality in theatre,
when several components – text, actors, costumes, sets, lighting, sound, projection –
produce a live overall experience, is socially wonderful for someone like me who
works alone much of the time. So far, I have designed projections and virtual stage
sets for six plays and operas.

r For the British magazine The Architectural Review you documented Fayland
House designed by David Chipperfield. How much do you focus on a building
before you start to film?
In the case of film commissions, I often quite deliberately do not prepare myself.
Ideally, I am surprised by the architecture and inspired and am able to let myself be
guided by my camera, my intuition and my experience. I find it particularly difficult
if the architect or the client insists on taking me through his building. And I don’t like
it when camera positions are predetermined.

r Is London as a European metropolis of art, culture and architecture a good place
for filmmakers?
Until recently, London with its enormous creative art scene was considered to be a
uniquely open and globally networked location from which one was almost automa-
tically connected with clients, colleagues and business partners worldwide, as it
were. Now the impending Brexit unfortunately counteracts these qualities which I
have valued and loved about London and Great Britain in the course of two decades.
Most Londoners feel exactly the same way. Time will tell whether London as an auto-
nomous cosmopolitan city will be able to withstand these self-destructive political
forces and whether I and creative minds will stay on here.

r Which works by you can we look forward to?
I always have a long list of projects. Many are self-initiated and therefore one day
become reality thanks to my own perseverance. Right now, I am looking forward to a
series of short films about houses designed by Pezo von Ellrichshausen in Chile,
where the scenery will play just as important a role as the architecture per se. I am
also preparing a film- and performance project with the Indian fashion designer
Gaurav Gupta in which we will put the focus on air pollution in major cities.

r Is there also a specific dream project?
I have a passion for reviving and re-using vacant buildings and abandoned cities. At
some stage, it would be great to travel the world and document such places on film
to show an alternative to the reigning global mania of more and more constructions
which our environment cannot endure and to further the conversion of already exi-
sting buildings in this way.