It was only after watching this movie, I realized that each and every one of us have the capability to bend the realm of architecture in our dreams.
The movie INCEPTION is till date one of the best works of director Christopher Nolan where he explores the ‘Dream within a Dream’ theory with architecture as its core concept.
This movie is a heist or ‘reverse-heist’, where the protagonist Dominic Cobb played by Leonardo Di Caprio and his team has been hired to plant an idea (Inception) within someone’s subconscious mind.
Every team member has a job to complete to accomplish the mission successfully with the Architect Ariadne, played by Ellen Page (now Elliot Page) - perhaps being the most important one.
To achieve the inception of an idea deep within the victim’s mind, the team plans many levels of dream within a dream. The architect designs a dreamscape for every level of the heist where the architectural environment changes with each level denoting that a different level has been reached and a different plan needs to be followed.
These built environments are like complicated mazes where the team can hide from the hostility of the “projections” or the human figures of the subconscious mind. The higher the complexity of the built-environment, the longer can they hide from the projections.
This complexity is achieved by creating paradoxes or endless loops as the movie tried to convey that there are no limitations to the human mind and therefore the world that we create in our head is the genesis of ‘pure creations’ without any adulterations of the physical world.
This masterpiece of a movie has given a different outlook towards architecture. First of all, a very few movies and TV shows have given our profession the recognition that it needs, whereas Nolan has taken the concept of architecture, paradoxical architecture and the creation by the subconscious mind to a new level.
Nolan made us look cool, athletic and the master of our trade (jack of many other trades too). What a good movie!
He added the ‘badass’ character to the architects who not only designs the dreamscapes but also plans the whole heist, makes spontaneous decisions which saves the failing mission and fights the ‘projections’ with guns.
But that's not it. It was only after watching this movie that I realized that each and every one of us has the capability to bend the realm of architecture in our dreams. Whether a designer or not, all of us, even the most ‘left-brained person’ can create the most magnificent architectural environment with utmost details in their dreams.
Our brain cells subconsciously make and break ‘Fictional Realities’ by creating whole new environments and it is not until we wake up that we realize that something was not right about the dream. The reason might be because our brain does not have any limitations and it is not held by the laws of physics or the by-laws of the municipality :)
Like the movie talks about ‘Paradoxical Architecture’, our mind indulges into pure creations of infinite labyrinths, without any restraints and restrictions which feels right to us when we are dreaming but as soon as we wake up, we realize the absurdity of the paradoxes. This was beautifully explained to the viewers by the use of ‘Penrose Staircase’.
A Penrose staircase or an ‘Impossible staircase’ like it is popularly called, is a concept by Oscar Reutersvard which was later popularized by Lionel Penrose and his son Roger Penrose. The Penrose staircase never ends; it is an infinite loop of four 90 degrees turn of the staircase.
From each landing starts the ascend to a higher landing and this continues forever. In reality, such a structure cannot exist but in our dreams, the world looks something like a Penrose staircase. It was the perfect metaphor to explain the paradoxes of our creations in our dreams.
Until this movie, I had never given a thought about the backdrop of our dream even though we often wake up and try to recollect our dream thinking - ‘I was in this place of that city’. We never realized that supporting the absurd story line of our dream is the architectural landscape and it is as important in our dream as it is in a movie or in a video-game.
Cobb in the movie says that (Architecture in the dreams is) “the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities; things that never existed, things that could not exist in real life.”
Architecture is a tool to shape one’s environment, whether it be in a dream or in reality, we cannot picture ourselves anywhere without a built environment or any kind of landscape filling the space.
But in this case it is a chance to create wonders; things that could never be supported by the physics of real life and for any architect who is passionate about creating and exploring the heights and corners of their creative mind - this is an opportunity no one will pass on.
Therefore Ariadne comes back to the team in spite of knowing the dangers and the legal consequences associated with it saying “there is nothing like it as it is just pure creation”.
Ariadne’s first task was to design a maze in two minutes that takes one minute to solve. Cobb set the exercise for her, giving her square grid papers and in her first two trials she fails to make a maze complicated enough for Cobb.
In her third attempt, she chose the plain side of the paper for herself and designed the maze successfully. The square grids were setting limitations for her and she had to go beyond the defined restrictions to design as per she wanted. In reality, it is the same restrictions of gravity, of building materials, of by-laws etc. that limits our creativity. But can we really complain about it?
Cobb said, “Imagine you are designing a building, you are consciously creating each aspect, but sometimes it feels like it’s almost creating itself, genuine inspiration”. This genuine inspiration is very hard to achieve.
I’m sure many architects, artists or designers can relate to this that sometimes it takes too much time and effort to get a simple layout right. It becomes really hard to find the ‘genuine inspiration’ that Cobb talks about with the creative block created by the conscious mind.
But sometimes when we fall back to sleep or in a state of lucid dreaming, the mind just figures out how to solve the problem. We come up with some of the best design solutions, while our eyes remain closed and mind being in a state of rest.
Is our subconscious mind so powerful in the middle of a dream that it becomes the most creative version of itself?
Cobb also said that “we use only a fraction of our brain’s true potential when we are awake. When we are asleep our minds can do almost anything!”
It is indeed amazing that humans have created so many wonders, advanced so much in science, technology and medicine, understood the complexities of the human mind to a certain level and all while using just a fraction of our brain.
Imagine what we could have achieved if we worked while in our subconscious state of mind using much more than a fraction of our brain’s potential. Cobb goes on to say that “In our dreams, our mind continuously does this; we create and perceive our world simultaneously. Our mind does it so well that we don’t even know it’s happening”.
Our mind has the capability to bend, mould and fold the architecture or the landscape continuously. We often see riding a car and the architectural landscape changing as we move. Sometimes we create a city or a place from memory and sometimes it’s a new creation altogether.
We see ourselves in a new environment within nano-second but the landscape in the dream is never compromised. Our eyes and mind capture so much details of a place and recreates it almost perfectly.
Nolan cleverly used the two concepts - architecture and dreams together, because such flexibility of creation can only be achieved in a state where all the rules and laws can be defied. The mind constructs impossible shapes and spaces and experiences it simultaneously. The mind functions so quickly in a dream that we live it while we create it.
All of Christopher Nolan’s movies are un-conventional and breaks the 3-dimensional spaces, compelling us to think beyond what we can see. In this movie, he explained to us the power of our subconscious mind and our ability to create in our dreams with the help of architecture.
There is so much more to learn and ponder upon in this movie and I’m sure everyone who has watched it has taken some time out to discuss their takeaways with their friends - not just in terms of architecture but about the concept of ‘dream sharing’ or ‘dream within a dream’. The possibility of extracting or planting information in someone’s mind through dream sharing. And to anyone who has not watched it, do give it a try and you will not regret it!
Jayasmita is an Architect-Planner who is in love with the idea of different facades of urbanism. She wants to create a niche for herself in the field of research and writing.
She believes the best way to learn is by meeting new people and hearing about their experiences. Other than urbanism, she enjoys theology, debates and food.
You can write to her at jayasmita.244@gmail.com for further info.