Architecture inStar Wars includes the cities, buildings, ships, and other structures of the fictionalStar Warsuniverse as described and depicted in books, movies, comics, and cartoons.Architects' Journal ranked the top 10, including theDeath Star and theJedi Temple.[1]
Comparing the urban and natural environments pictured inStar Wars, Mark Lamster wrote that the cities are places of danger and corruption, while the forces of good find sanctuary in the natural world.[2] He also describes the "retro-futurist" cities in the series as being in between those extremes and places of "great beauty but dubious moral character." He attributes the ambivalence towards urbanity to series creatorGeorge Lucas' own feelings about cities and urban environments.[2]
Luke Skywalker is first seen inStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope living with his adoptive parents in a "complex of caves and domed structures" onTatooine, filmed in theTunisian desert town ofMatmata. The end of the first movie was shot in theGuatemalanrain forest where a celebration with rebel allies takes place in a caved area (a scene said to be borrowed fromLeni Riefenstahl's 1935Nazipropaganda filmTriumph of the Will). The exotic locales provide scenery that is unfamiliar to "all but a few experts in non-western architecture", providing the films with fantastic settings that could still be believable.[3]
In 1999, architecture and planning students noted thatThe Phantom Menace offered "a variety of urban development options".[4]
The "urban future" has also been depicted inBlade Runner where "the setting is a grimy, crime-riddenLos Angeles in the 21st century".[4] The architecture ofStar Wars may also have been influenced byStanley Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey.[3] The designs continued Lucas' work from his first feature film,THX 1138, which featured aclaustrophobic,Orwellian "subterranean world of black-and-white spaces" where the population is subdued with drugs and kept under constant surveillance.[3]
Architects' Journal rated the Jedi Temple (located in the capital planet ofCoruscant) third on its top-ten architecture ofStar Wars list behind the secondDeath Star andJabba the Hutt's palace onTatooine, and ahead of Coruscant, capital city of the Old Republic.[1] The temple is described in the article as adapting "the robust typology of Mayan temples, with durasteel cladding specified for the external stone walls for improved defensive strength" and said to be aziggurat that "is built above a Force-nexus and has ample room for training facilities, accommodation and the Jedi Archive."[1] The temple has five towers—the tallest is Tranquillity Spire—that are stylistically similar to theminarets surrounding theHagia Sophia inIstanbul.[1]Star Wars Insider listed it as the 100th greatest thing aboutStar Wars in its 100th-issue special.
Thebattle cruisers featured inStar Wars have been described as examples of "Suprematist architecture".[5] Ship designs inStar Wars often make heavy use ofgreebles to create an illusion of mechanical function and scale.[6]
TheSan Francisco Federal Building designed byThom Mayne has been compared to theJawaSandcrawler featured inStar Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.[7] TheING headquarters building (inAmsterdam,Netherlands) has been described as looking like something out ofStar Wars that could "move forward on its legs".[8]Conversely, theTrinity College, Dublin,Long Room Library is thought to be the basis for theJedi Academy Library inStar Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.[9][10]
Roger M. Showley "The latest "Star Wars" movie offers a variety of urban development options according to three architecture and planning students who previewed the film; from left, [Tim Belzman], San Diego State University; Bruce Fallown, Newschool of Architecture; and [David Sin], Woodbury University School of Architecture."
