Building happiness

From August 31st to September 2nd, 2023, the Venice Architecture Film Festival, organized by the cultural association ArchiTuned, is ready to start with its the fourth edition of outdoor architecture cinema. During the festival free screening evenings at the island of San Servolo - an evocative location between St. Mark’s Square and the Venice Lido - short films, documentaries, docu-films,  animations, experimental films on the theme of architecture and urban space will be presented.

In its fourth edition, Venice Architecture Film Festival takes the title Building Happiness and continues to investigate features of places where people live, aggregative dynamics, communities and habits  while exploring the social implications and the political possibilities of living in built urban environments.

Architecture helps develop different cultures and ways of how communities feel represented. Cities and built environments can affect our mood and wellbeing, what if we ask communities - enlivened by different wishes, needs, expressions - to share with us a place where they feel comfortable, happy and relaxed, where in other words they wish to inhabit? Within the different geographical needs and connected changes, cultures, social contexts and inequities, what are (if any) the requirements to make it possible that humans feel content in their built environment? Do architects consider happiness in their creations as a fundamental or as a collateral? Can Architecture be the medium to build happiness? 

As Alain de Botton, a Swiss born British author and philosopher, says in his book “The Architecture of Happiness” (Pantheon Books - 2006): “Belief in the significance of architecture is premised on the notion that we are, for better or for worse, different people in different places – and on the conviction that it is architecture’s task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be.” [...] 

This edition will outline the theme of celebration, collective strength and resistance, embracing a more hopeful outlook of living together. ArchiTuned has launched a short film competition as well as a long film competition, the five shortlisted finalists of the short film category and a selection of the long film will be featured in the program. A qualified jury of experts and professionals from the world of  architecture and cinema will select the winning film among the entries.

At the end of the programming days, on September 2nd, an official award will be presented for the winning short film and winning long film of the 2023 edition “Building Happiness”.