It is one thing for a film to present an apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic environment but to present societal concepts through the use of physical space and architecture can be a challenge. Films like Cube, High-Rise, Us and Parasite have tried to create certain architectural spaces that touch on these dystopian ideas. The film, The Platform, achieves this masterfully and tries to create a new discussion on Dystopian Cinematic Spaces.
In an exclusive interview with Interiors, we spoke with Azegiñe Urigoitia, who is the Production Designer for The Platform. The Images are property of Azegiñe Urigoitia and her team.
INT: First off, we were curious how the opportunity to do the film, The Platform (El Hoyo), came about? What was it about it that made you want to work on it?
AU: Over the past few years, I have been working with Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia as a production designer in different advertising spots, so we had developed great aesthetic complicity. When I read the script for The Platform, I was captivated by the story and its visual potential, so I did not hesitate to accept the project! One of the things that attracted me most was that I had to create a place, The Platform, that did not really exist and where history would take place. So I knew that I would have the creative freedom to generate that place. On the other hand, working with a director as detailed as Galder gave me the opportunity to be part of a really interesting project that would be carried out in the right way.
INT: The film focuses on a single location, a tower-style facility with hundreds of levels and a floating platform that travels through the entire building with food. What was the process like designing this facility and the different levels? How developed was this space when it was first described to you? Did it evolve and change over time? Was there a particular mood you were trying to reference?
AU: In the script, there were certain guidelines for what The Platform would be like, but there was still much to develop. The budget was very limited, so we had to segment the process. On the one hand, a company that specializes in the construction of wooden houses took care of the central structure. On the other hand, we hired different artisans to build the furniture and recreate the concrete textures. When Galder and I started working on the idea and the design of what “The Platform” would look like, we tried to do it from the point of view of the supposed society that created or will create it. We really didn't have much of a clue as to where or when this structure was built. The architecture had to be efficient, durable, impregnable, aseptic, indestructible and, above all else, cheap. It was not difficult to reach the conclusion that we had to build it with modular concrete plates. At first, we thought of square shapes, but we finally decided that rectangular measurements responded better to the aesthetic objectives. In addition, the levels having rectangular plans allowed us to enhance the duel and the confrontation between the characters.
To define the appropriate dimensions, in a very traditional way, we carried out several tests in an empty space. The plan of each level is rectangular. 9 meters long by 6 meters wide. That is a ratio of 1/1.5. This proportion is repeated over and over again, achieving very graphic and repetitive shapes. Following this premise to the extreme, we designed the furniture set with the same material and integrated it organically into the main structure, maintaining the same geometric ideals or mathematical variations. We built two levels with a space at the bottom to place the scissor crane with which we would move the platform. The height of each level had to be high enough so that two people, one on top of the other, could not access the upper level. In this way, even if someone had a rope, they would always depend on the help of those from the top to climb. Conclusion: 4.3 meters. A problem arose when we found that the largest space available to build the structure was 12.5 meters high. The solution was to build the second level 77% lower. This was not noticed from the point of view from the first level so all the elements of the second level, including the hole, were built 77% smaller.
INT: There are many metaphors and thematic elements within the architectural space of the film. In terms of Production Design, how did you and your team try to emphasize these metaphors? Were there any references (Architecture/Literature/Cinema) that you took from as you were planning?
I suppose that due to my artistic training, from the first moment and almost unconsciously, I interpreted The Platform, as a kind of sculpture, a habitable sculpture. But that construction in turn had to somehow transcend the human, to impose itself on life. Concrete seduced us as a resounding material devoid of decorations. The psychological objective of the hole required a construction based on simple and repetitive geometric lines, which generate infinite shapes. The goal was to create a "no place" devoid of all kinds of human emotions. An unknown space made for people but erasing or canceling their personality. An imposing space, cold and devoid of any hint of humanity.
From here, it was inevitable to establish a connection with certain artistic and conceptual concepts derived from Constructivism, Rationalism and Brutalism. I have always been fascinated by the architecture of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Eero Saarinen. To get to the aesthetic of The Platform, I was also inspired by the minimalist art and installations by Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. Within this extremely cold universe, it is worth highlighting the platform with the food was conceived almost as one more character in the plot, almost as an antagonist to the concepts of creation proposed to build the hole. The food must be of the highest order, of artifice and desire, and almost carnal. It is soft, susceptible to being devoured and destructible - porous, liquid, changing, rounded shapes, soft. Its ocher and warm colors. Its irregular and organic shapes. A meal and crockery, with a mannerist, whimsical, Versailles style with a decadent halo.
In the first levels, it is an object of excessive, almost erotic, opulent desire. Perfect to be desecrated, destroyed, to end in the abject, in aberration. Georges Bataille stated “Beauty is desired in order that it may befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaining it”. For this reason, we decided to give an aesthetic to the presentation of the food and to the food itself, inspired by still lifes, the color, textures and shapes, from the 16th to 18th centuries. The “still live” by Jan Davidsz De Heem, Pieter Claesz or Anne Vallayer-Coster were a source of inspiration. This, in turn inspired us to reverse the aesthetics of the kitchen. The total opposite of the hole. The kitchen is a space full of color, detail and movement.
Azegiñe Urigoitia is a Production Designer, Art Director and Costume Designer and has worked on various Films and Commercials.