Kanopy: Online Streaming Design Documentaries

Philip Johnson’s Glass House interior – New Canaan, Connecticut

Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform that offers viewers a large collection of award-winning films and documentaries. Kanopy is a project of public libraries and is accessed with a public library card. Viewers can watch up to five movies a month for free.

Most appealing to design aficionados is Kanopy’s impressive collection of documentaries covering modern architecture and design, many of which we’ve never seen on other streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Kanopy offers insightful films on many of the 20th century’s design giants, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Kahn, and Richard Meier. Other titles include:

Mies
No understanding of the modern movement in architecture is possible without knowledge of its master builder, Mies van der Rohe. Together with documentation of his life, this film shows all his major buildings, as well as rare film footage of Mies explaining his philosophy. Phyllis Lambert relates her choice of Mies as the architect for the Seagram building. Mies's achievements and continuing influence are debated by architects Robert A.M. Stern, Robert Venturi, and Philip Johnson, by former students and by architectural historians. Mies is seen in rare documentary footage.

Gray Matters

This film explores the long, fascinating life and complicated career of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture. Making a reputation with her traditional lacquer work in the first decade of the 20th century, she later became a critically acclaimed and sought after designer and decorator before reinventing herself as an architect, a field in which she labored largely in obscurity.

Apart from the accolades that greeted her first building (persistently and perversely credited to her mentor) her pioneering work was done quietly, privately and to her own specifications. But she lived long enough to be re-discovered and acclaimed. Today, with her work commanding extraordinary prices and attention, her legacy, like the artist herself, remains elusive, contested and compelling.

John Portman: A Life of Building

Once considered a maverick for challenging industry standards--and shunned by the American Institute of Architects--John Portman is now recognized as one of the most innovative and imitated architects of his time.

With the Atlanta Hyatt Regency in 1967, Portman defied expectations and won international acclaim for his daring 22-story atrium. Portman's iconic urban statements and eye-popping interiors have since graced 60 cities across four continents, redefining cityscapes such as Times Square in New York, Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, and skylines in Shanghai and Beijing. Best known for his urban mixed-use complexes, Portman's designs reveal a deep understanding of people and our response to space.

Mid-Century Modern: The Homes That Define Palm Springs

When Father and Son team George and Bob Alexander started building affordable architect designed homes in Palm Springs in 1955, they had no idea they would be the catalyst of what is today a city filled with modern design. This documentary film goes beyond the walls and hedges of Mid-Century homes that were built in neighborhoods like Twin Palms, Vista Las Palmas and Racquet Club Estates.

The film features interviews with noted architects James Harlan, author of The Alexanders: A Desert Legacy and Hugh M. Kaptur, a contemporary of Palmer and Krisel, as they articulate their knowledge of the innovations made in construction these mid-century marvels of design. Also well-know preservationists including Gary Johns, Vice President of the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation and Robert Imber, owner and operator of Palm Springs Modern Tours and Chairman of the PS ModCom Education Committee, discuss the impact of the Alexander Construction Company on California Living and the "built environment".

If you have a public library card, you can start watching today. Find out more at Kanopy’s website.