Film conveys a range of emotions to its audience through many elements — music, lighting, direction, and more. Sometimes a fleeting feeling lingers long after, becoming something to turn over in your mind. Designing space is much the same. We believe designing a space is not about creating form, but about composing the emotions and the time that will be experienced within it. In this piece, we introduce three films that have inspired how the SPACEBASE team looks at space. See how the spaces within these films carry their stories and emotions.

The Film <Youth>

Beauty Captured by an Aesthete

Image source: the film <Youth>

A symphony swelling across a meadow in time with the sound of cowbells; a catwalk unfolding in a submerged St. Mark's Square. <Youth> is a film that, from beginning to end, makes you repeat the exclamation, 'How beautiful.' Director Paolo Sorrentino's visual sensibility calls to mind a painter at work on an enormous canvas. Here too, every scene is composed like a single painting, leaving the impression of viewing a work of art.

Image source: the film <Youth>

Set against a luxury Swiss hotel surrounded by the Alps, <Youth> tells the story of two men in their eighties. The protagonists are 'Fred Ballinger,' a world-renowned conductor who has declared he will make music no more, and 'Mick,' a veteran director who has made dozens of films. Amid the nature and ease of Switzerland, the film portrays them rekindling a passion they had lost, and at times rediscovering their desire.

The resort that serves as the film's backdrop is a space created by renovating nineteenth-century architecture, carrying a style in which history and the present coexist in harmony. This mirrors the inner worlds of the characters, deepening the solemn atmosphere of life and death alongside them.

Image source: the film <Youth>

Symbolic elements are placed with precision throughout the film. The warm, vivid pastel palette blends with the pastoral landscape of the Alps, symbolizing nostalgia for life and the spirit of youth. Within the flowing imagery, youth and old age are set against each other, creating a melancholic mood.

The contrast of light and shadow is especially pronounced in the scenes where Miss Universe appears alongside the aging protagonists. The aged body comes to look almost like a sculpture. The film emphasizes the finitude of the body within the passage of time, while leaving the impression of capturing the beauty held within it.

Image source: the film <Youth>

<Youth> is a work closer to a moving painting. Scenes that question the cycle of life, the anguish of the artist, and the complexity of human existence follow one after another. Through its visual language, it reveals the contrast between beauty and the grotesque, depicting both 'beauty' and 'the beauty of the ugly' at once.

[The SPACEBASE Team's Drawer of Thoughts]

"<Youth> is a film that, from beginning to end, made me murmur 'How beautiful' over and over. To me, beauty is closer to a force that draws out a positive change in thought. For instance, I find beauty even when I look at 'an elderly person at work.' It is likely because diligence and an unbreakable will come through in that sight.

As someone who, like the film, often uses the word 'beautiful' — an aesthete myself — I recommend this film. You can feel the meaning and expressive power of both 'beauty' and 'ugliness.'"

The Film <Carol>

Film and Space: The Craft of Holding Emotion

Image source: the film <Carol>

The film unfolds against the backdrop of 1950s New York. It portrays the powerful attraction and emotion between 'Therese,' a clerk at a Manhattan department store, and 'Carol,' who comes in to buy a gift for her daughter. The two fall for each other and, faced with a love uncommon for the time, experience emotional turmoil. Director Todd Haynes captures this charged subject in a restrained and refined manner, set upon the period backdrop and the emotional arcs of the characters.

Image source: the film <Carol>

The palette used in <Carol> reflects the film's period setting. Low in saturation, a yellowed, faded tone covers the screen throughout. As the poster and title suggest, the seasonal mood of winter naturally seeps in as well. Red, green, and yellow serve as the principal colors.

Spaces such as restaurants, hotel rooms, and living rooms appear often in the film. Depending on the position and color temperature of the lighting, and the scale and density of the furniture, different emotions and atmospheres take shape. Even the same living room feels heavy and stifling in scenes where conflict within the family deepens. By contrast, in romantic scenes where time flows for the two alone, soft lighting and angles add a sense of intimacy.

A variety of spaces appear in the film <Carol>. Depending on the position of the lighting, the warmth of the color temperature, the scale of the furniture, and more, different emotions take shape. (Image source: the film <Carol>)

Much like directing a film, space design carries a similar nature. Depending on the client's disposition and the purpose of the space, the very same space can take on an entirely different atmosphere. For example, a startup with a free-spirited, youthful culture is often designed around a bright, lively lounge and a meeting zone suited to quick discussions. A company with a more weighty, established image, on the other hand, chooses calm finishes in heavier tones to emphasize a sense of trust.

A design that does not feel dated as time passes, the use of accent colors within a restrained palette, and design that embraces a range of generations and genders. Through the spaces and directorial approach of film, we are led to reconsider the essential values we hold as space designers. Like the delicate direction of <Carol>, the design philosophy the SPACEBASE team aspires to is also completed through the harmony of emotion and space.

Image source: the film <Carol>

[The SPACEBASE Team's Drawer of Thoughts]

*"<Carol> was a film I saw before I began working in earnest as a space designer. At the time, I was struck by its spatial composition and by the colors that reflected the period setting. The way the film's limited palette draws you emotionally into a particular moment or character resembles how accent colors are handled in actual space design.*

Beyond the film itself, the poster too was an element that inspired me as a space designer. Even though the work was released a decade ago, it still feels refined and never awkward. Like a design that does not look dated as time passes, it reminds me of the importance of design that embraces a range of eras and users."

The Film <Her>

How Space Draws Out Emotion

Image source: the film <Her>

The film <Her> tells a love story, but what leaves a deeper impression is the way it handles space. The future it depicts is far from the dazzling, technological imagery we often expect. Familiar, warm colors and the texture of materials capture the future world in an organic way. Rather than placing the technological backdrop — a key subject of the film — front and center, the characters' emotions emerge naturally within the space.

Throughout the film, low-saturation pastel tones fill the screen. Glass and solid-wood furniture, along with simple spatial arrangements, appear again and again. The colors, never cold, and the soft textures show a life in which emotion remains central even within a digital environment. The focus is on 'human emotion' rather than the advance of technology.

Image source: the film <Her>

The home of the protagonist, Theodore, in particular reveals the film's philosophy of space most clearly. In the living room of Theodore's apartment, three chairs sit alone in place of a dining table. The home, seemingly empty without any large furniture, becomes a medium that mirrors Theodore's emotional state. It shows, through spatial direction, the feelings of a character emptied of emotion and connection.

What is striking about the future depicted in the film is how closely it resembles the present, in which artificial intelligence has advanced so rapidly. It does not present an exaggerated future, but shows an everyday life in which technology and emotion coexist. It unravels this delicately through space, materials, and color. In this sense, the film is a love story and, at the same time, leaves us something to ponder about space design.

Image source: the film <Her>

Just as a good film leaves an emotion that lingers, a good space too leaves the memory of emotion for a long time. Like the three films we have looked at here, space can become an important device that completes emotion and meaning. To convey emotion through detail, and to create a space you can turn over in your mind even as time passes. This is exactly what SPACEBASE holds important when designing a space.

Where else might the ceaseless inspiration of SPACEBASE's designers come from? Look forward to the next article in the SPACEBASE team's reference drawer, which we'll introduce through more content!

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