Lessons in Architecture and Development Found in This Year's Oscar-Nominated Films

Carolina Miranda writes for the Los Angeles Times and Jenny Schuetz for Brookings, both riffing on the subject of the built environment in films nominated this year for Academy Awards.

Miranda tackles the entire crop of Best Picture nominations, starting with the "Minimalist manse inhabited by the well-to-do Park family in Bong Joon Ho’s [eventual winner] 'Parasite.'" Written before that film swept its way to a resounding and record-breaking evening, Miranda finds a common theme in each film's use of architecture to tell its story: "Taken collectively, however, the best-picture nominees deploy architecture in ways that tell compelling stories about the ways in which the poor and the wealthy divide." 

Schuetz's article hones in on "Little Women" for lessons in housing development, from Schuetz's well documented pro-development perspective. So, in Schuetz's view, the lessons of the houses in the film read as follows: 1) Middle-Class Homes Do Not Drag Down Property Values of Nearby Mansions, 2) Waiving Quality Standard Allows Low-Income Families to Live in Expensive Communities, and 3) Bring Back the Urban Boarding House!