Architecture in ''Star Wars'' includes the cities, buildings, ships, and other structures of the fictional '' Star Wars''

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. ...

as described and depicted in books, movies, comics, and cartoons. ''

Architects Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was k ...

'' ranked the top 10, including the

Death Star The Death Star is a fictional space station and superweapon featured in the '' Star Wars'' space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire, the Death Star is capable of annihilating entire planets into rubble, and serves t ...

and the

Jedi Temple Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are the main heroic protagonists of many works of the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Galactic Republic, Old Galactic Republic, and later supporting the Rebel All ...

.James Palliste
Top 10: The Architecture of Star Wars (pt II)
15 June 2009 Architects Journal (UK) Comparing the urban and natural environments pictured in ''Star Wars'', Mark Lamster wrote that the cities are places of danger and corruption, while the forces of good find sanctuary in the natural world.Mark Lamster "Evil foes build ever-more-elaborate urban monstrosities- machines not for living but killing, and killing on a grand scale
Architecture and film
Star Wars and the City page 6 He also describes the "retro-

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

" 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 creator George Lucas' own feelings about cities and urban environments. The settings of the movie have generally been praised, but one author took exception to the "anachronistic period architecture and statuary" of '' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'', saying it improperly associated

third world The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

buildings with conceptions of innocence and the primitive in a way that was discriminatory and demeaning.

Planet settings

Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The E ...

is first seen in '' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' living with his adoptive parents in a "complex of caves and domed structures" on

Tatooine Tatooine () is a fictional desert planet that appears in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It is a beige-colored, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars, and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life forms. The planet was first ...

, filmed in the

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n desert town of Matmata.Mark Lamste
Architecture and film
Wretched Hives: George Lucas and the Ambivalent Architecture of Star Wars page 234 The end of the first movie was shot in the Guatemalan

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where a celebration with rebel allies takes place in a caved area (a scene said to be borrowed from

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

's 1935

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

Triumph of the Will ''Triumph of the Will'' (german: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his n ...

''). 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.

Urban planning

In 1999, architecture and planning students noted that ''(The Phantom Menace)'' offered "a variety of urban development options". The "urban future" has also been depicted in ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...

'' where "the setting is a grimy, crime-ridden

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in the 21st century". The architecture of ''Star Wars'' may also have been influenced by Stanley Kubrick's '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. The designs continued Lucas' work from his first feature film, ''

THX 1138 ''THX 1138'' is a 1971 American social science fiction film co-written and directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Walter Murch, the film stars Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence, wi ...

'', which featured a

claustrophobic Claustrophobia is the fear of confined spaces. It can be triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators, especially when crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows. Even bedrooms with ...

Orwellian "Orwellian" is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and a brutal policy of draconian control by pro ...

"subterranean world of black-and-white spaces" where the population is subdued with drugs and kept under constant surveillance.

Jedi Temple

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was ...

'' rated the Jedi Temple (located in the capital planet of

Coruscant Coruscant () is an ecumenopolis planet in the fictional '' Star Wars'' universe. Its first appearance was onscreen in the 1997 Special Edition of ''Return of the Jedi'', but was first depicted and mentioned by name in Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel ' ...

) third on its top-ten architecture of ''Star Wars'' list behind the second

and

Jabba the Hutt’s palace Tatooine () is a fictional desert planet that appears in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It is a beige-colored, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars, and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life forms. The planet was firs ...

, and ahead of Coruscant, capital city of the Old Republic. 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 a

ziggurat A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...

that "is built above a Force-nexus and has ample room for training facilities, accommodation and the Jedi Archive." The temple has five towers—the tallest is Tranquillity Spire—that are stylistically similar to the minarets surrounding the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

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. ''

Star Wars Insider ''Star Wars Insider'' is the official ''Star Wars'' magazine. It began in 1987 as the official magazine of ''The Lucasfilm Fan Club'', and was renamed in 1994 to coincide with the release of '' Star Wars: TIE Fighter''. Its contents include st ...

'' listed it as the 100th greatest thing about ''Star Wars'' in its 100th-issue special.

Ships

The

battle cruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...

s featured in ''Star Wars'' have been described as examples of "

Suprematist Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...

architecture".

Real world buildings that mirror ''Star Wars''

The

San Francisco Federal Building The San Francisco Federal Building, formally the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, is an 18-story, building at 90 7th Street on the corner of Mission and 7th streets in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The fed ...

Thom Mayne Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities po ...

has been compared to the Jawa

Sandcrawler The sandcrawler is a fictional transport vehicle in the '' Star Wars'' universe that is found on the desert planet Tatooine. The vehicle, as it appears in its major appearances in '' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'', is 37 meters long and 18 me ...

featured in '' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope''. The ING headquarters building (in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

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) has been described as looking like something out of ''Star Wars'' that could "move forward on its legs". Conversely, the Trinity College, Dublin, Long Room Library is thought to be the basis for the

Jedi Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are the main heroic protagonists of many works of the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Old Galactic Republic, and later supporting the Rebel Alliance, the Jedi ...

Academy Library in '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones''.

Planet settings

Urban planning

Jedi Temple

Ships

Real world buildings that mirror ''Star Wars''

See also

References

Further reading