A minor lore correction. The events in Dune doesn’t take place ten thousand years into the future, it takes place ten thousand years after the Butlarian Jihad, when humanity revolted against thinking machines, which it self happens at least ten thousand years in the future from us. Therefore, the events in Dune takes place at least twenty thousand years in to the future.
@@LuisPerez-5 Not generally, no. But I should be surprised to discover that nobody does. Hint: that's why I chose to employ square parentheses. Keep up!
Great video! I'm actually the artist who made that thumbnail image that you use for this video and also worked on the layout concept of Arrakeen city and some key building designs for the film. In the film, the Arrakeen city is mostly covered by buildings exteriors to block the sun exposure and sand so majority of activity is happening inside of those exterior structures and all connected via tunnels (You can see it in the scene where Idaho escape scene).
I am always fascinated by architecture, and I think we should appreciate those writers , animators, and artists who come up with these amazing architectural concepts.
Dune really was such a unique experience, it felt like a whole different universe in the most authentic way. The architecture is fascinating, love this part of Architecture RU-vid
Diff great story . Also feel like it’s one of those story they can actually do right with the technology we have now and not look a little retro clunky.
I think the book mentions the use of lasguns to carve out the structures used by the Fremen. That would explain the rounded corners and rough surfaces depicted inside the Sietches
Didn't find your comment before adding the same. As a concrete user in construction she went to far with the whole green concrete and saying they wouldn't use water for it. She doesn't know about water reducers. Lastly, cintered stone would have been a way thing were built. They didn't have a lack of energy. She does a great job on this. I think it's funny some people think she didn't read the books because she missed something that the commenter remembered, I'm sure she remembers thing that everyone remembering the lasers doesn't.
As a Brazilian citzen I am really interested on the topic of "Brazilian Brutalism" mentioned in the video, I would be really happy to hear more on that topic in the channel.
This video is excellent! As an aside, the book called "The Dune Encyclopedia” is not officially canonical, but is filled with a prodigious amount of fascinating information. It reveals that the Fremen utilize highly durable tarpaulins, which they hang to protect certain rock faces -- and then they sandblast the unprotected surroundings or allow storms to erode them, ensuring the area behind the protection remains unaffected. The Encyclopedia also notes that in the polar regions, some Fremen cultivate plants that harbor insects secreting a varnish. This varnish is sold to other Fremen in various locations, who then apply it as a thick paste to preserve stone surfaces they wish to protect from erosion. Frank Herbert had verbally agreed with his friend, Willis MacNeally, that MacNeally would oversee compilation of The Dune Encyclopedia. Following this, Herbert planned to approve the Encyclopedia and compensate MacNeally with a substantial sum of money. Furthermore, most or all of MacNeally’s book was intended to become an official part of the Dune universe. Regrettably, before this could materialize, Frank Herbert passed away and his sons reneged on the agreement to pay MacNeally. The agreement was never formalized in writing, leaving MacNeally without legal recourse despite the book’s publication. It is a situation that I find absolutely outrageous. The concept of the planet Vulcan (T'Khasi) was, at a minimum, influenced by the notion of the planet Arrakis. Of Diane Duane's Star Trek novels, "Spock's World," mentions Vulcan megastructures constructed by eliminating all negative volume, including Pelasht -- which is described as supermassive castle-like fortification carved out from an entire mountain. So far as I know, this concept doesn't have any exact real-life counterpart. But it did remind me of Petra, which I appreciate that you mentioned. The Vulcan megastructures also reminded me of Lalibela, the tunnels of Củ Chi, and the subterreanean fortifications at Mount Suribachi. The name of the mountain comes from its shape. In Japanese, the name means a pestle for grinding medicines.
@@SandTiger42 frank gave it his blessing so you can say its canon although it does not match the books exactly. also note his son brian abandoned it in the late sequels after franks death.
Vulcan and Arrakis? For me Vulcan was always much more about philosophy than geography. I can think up lots of things Roddenberry borrowed from other Science Fiction, but nothing from Dune. I cannot speak about later Star Trek interpretations… I don't watch them.
I am close to and visit the dunes in Florence often. It is known by the locals to be a trove of rare psilocybin mushrooms found on the Pacific coast. The most potent in the world, P Azurescens and other psilocybes grow in abundance. The Azurescens mushroom is so potent that it's no wonder it found itself inspiring a writer with such a captivating and detailed story. Thank you for sharing this video, an excellent watch.
Denis Villeneuve: deep steady emotions and feelings, spiralling into a crescendo Nolan: adrenaline infused and on edge, wam bam in your face Two completely different styles. Nolan wouldn’t be good for Dune
2049 is better than the original blade runner. Deckard > Joe Tears in rain > You look lonely Buuut 2049 > original (I want to clarify that that is the greater than symbol, deckard is better than Joe)
Architecture was very important in the books! Especially the interior architecture of room. Throne rooms have been designed to create optical illusions so that the person at the Thorne feels imposing, important, and huge in size and to make the person walking in feel small. In many scenes private rooms are also described as having walls with special angles so that the acoustics focus in one corner at the ceiling for example where someone can then listen in on conversations.
On that note: the second book notes that the throne room of Paul does not just feel large, it _is_ ridiculously large. If I recall, something on the scale of a small city is the size of citadel itself, and a full keep would've fitted in this singular dome.
I found Dune's architecture super fascinating because of its brutalist influences. The dorm I live in on campus is designed by Louis Kahn so I'm surrounded by brutalist architecture. It's exceedingly cool.
Awesome! A reasonably popular youTuber by the name of Alex O’Connor has an interesting conversation with an iconographer named Jonathan Pageau. They talk about architecture, and brutalist architecture comes up. I found it fascinating.
Me too, but I think the movie's design made it difficult to really grasp the scale of the buildings, because they are so featureless, I would have liked for the palace to be a big brutalist concrete monolith, but the arakeen town to have more of an istanbul and morocco feel to it.
I'm running an RPG set in Arrakeen and this info has been EXTREMELY helpful in allowing me to visualize what daily living in the city feels like. Thank you so much!
@@joesteel7409 Agreed! I did a bunch of reading up on the modiphius RPG to help with that. Hopefully your players will be forgiving of you making changes to the setting that make it easier to run!
I think concrete was called plascrete in the books so it sounded like a modified or artificial concrete. Also, I think people in Chile use wind traps very effectively.
@@drekfletch Plastic. Plasticity is a property of materials, not just one material. Plascrete in Dune is a version of cement that apparently has much more plastic properties, making it a very flexible (both literally and figuratively) building material.
It was called Plasteel. A hybridization of plastic and steel that is purely fictional but represents peak strength and flexibility. In the Dune novels by Frank Herbert, plasteel is described as an extremely tough form of steel. It is stabilized through the integration of stravidium fibers into its crystal structure, which enhances its durability and ability to withstand repeated impacts, making it ideal for applications where resilience is crucial, like in the construction of doors which need to endure repeated blows . Moreover, plasteel is also portrayed as a composite material, comprised of organic polymer and carbon-iron alloys, which is utilized across various industries in the Known Universe of Dune due to its plasticity and macroscopic hardness .
That's cool! Are you familiar with Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno, California? It's a cool place with an amazing story, and it's a great example of adapting to extreme environments by building and growing food underground.
"I just love how the rest of the world thinks of Canada." You were quoting Patrice Vermette, the CANADIAN production designer on Dune who is from Quebec. Denis Villeneuve, the director, is also from Quebec. So... it's not how the rest of the world thinks of Canada. It's how Canadians, specifically a couple of Quebecers, view Canada.
I never would have ever been exposed to the word quebecers if it wasn't for you. It's a twisty little word. Thank you. God bless Canada. God bless all the queue Becker's. Okay text to speech mangled that but my ego won't let me backtrack Quebecers be Quebecerin' dawg
You nerd out on science fiction. You nerd out on science fact. You somehow manage to intertwine your video between the two... and keep it nerdy but entertaining. Sold! Thanks, I'll be looking for more. Very entertaining.
love anything dune related. note: arrakis does have a lot of water. as you said, the fremen were concealing it for a long time, but also the life cycle of the worm absolutely needs water (even if it "kills" them), so it was just not easily accessible or visible even if it still existed in things like aquifers rather than rain. sand trout and baby makers being the key to the "water of life" & such (even if it is also poison)
The sandtrout locked the water deep below the surface as well and as the worms died off, that water was released allowing the planet to become vibrant with life as it was at the end of the 3rd book.
@@PiXie232 No, regular water is poisonous to sandworms, not people. The Water of Life is a toxic blue liquid (obtained by drowning a young sandworm). It’s used by Fremen in an important initiation ritual for Reverend Mothers.
The Dune universe has been part of my inner world since I was a teenager. Love hearing you connect the current real world architecture and function to how Herbert's universe adapted to such extreme climates. The last movie captured the feeling of those worlds so brilliantly!
Love this show. Just a couple of points. You mentioned that the book and movie are set in the year 10,191. That's correct but it's the year 10,191 AG (After Guild), which is actually set another 10,000 years beyond what we would consider the normal timeline. Therefore, the year from the Gregorian calendar is actually the year 20,191. The second point I'd like to make is that spice, yes, is a drug that extends life and expands consciousness but it does not fold space. What allows for Faster Than Light (FTL) in the Dune universe, is what they call the Holtzman Engine. That is what fold space and allows them to travel. The Guild Navigators use spice to see a clear path to whatever destination they want to go. Without it there would be around a 20% loss of ships which is, of course, an unacceptable loss rate.
I really enjoy the multiple excellent short vids you offer from one longer vid. It's fun to see the sections all together when i finally have time to watch the full.
you are doing an amazing job!!!! every episode you do is so multi leveled and so connective to so many other aspects. you deliver more in a a few minutes than any documentary for the time frame you use!!! you are the future!!! ps. i am a 60 year old man saying this...lol
@@DamiLeeArch You're also, apparently, psychic. I've recently been curious about the moka pot coffeemaker, so even the sponsor portion of the video led me somewhere interesting.
I'm a lifelong Dune fan and the architectural designer's perspective is one that I hadn't seen the series from, so thank you very much, it was fascinating!
So nice to see you talking about dune, we know I lot about the culture and people and politics of dune, but factors such as the architecture aren’t as fleshed out. So one thing that I loved about the movie is because it showed architecture on caladan, geidi prime and arrakis
I recall a show over two decades ago, which I never forgot, on most durable structures on Earth for weather and a termite mound was seen as possibly the best.
Just a coment, the Dune novel it's not in the year 10.000, but in about the year 20.000. They say year 10.000th after the Guilda, when the humanity discovered how to fold space to long distant travels.
On the sand-concrete problem, there are also ways to make waterless concrete using sulphur as a stand-in. It's not quite a 1:1 stand in for proper concrete but it could also be a viable option on a dry world like Arrakis.
Yeah she's an architect you know how they get on their concepts of materials.😅 She does a great job communicating architecture, but this one shows her lack of concrete knowledge for sure. Great popular culture mash up.
@@sparksmcgee6641 I'm actually an architect too, we have to be pretty clued up on our materials these days with all the regulations around sustainable acquisition and fireproofing, it's just that sulphur concrete is only really used in science experiments and not in actual construction. Only reason I know about it is because I did a research paper back in Uni about construction on the Moon, which is where I found out about NASA's sulphur based "lunarcrete" experiments.
We use the "rammed earth" technique to build walls in very dry & desolate climates here on earth. On Arrakis it would probably be called "rammed arrakis". The process uses local materials like clay, sand and gravel - bound together by compacting materials with small amount of cement under high pressure.
I learned a lot today thanks to this video!!! I love the wind traps integrated into the structure of buildings. Thank you for another great video!!! Love this channel.
I read the Dune series last year and was trying to explain to my friends how absolutely amazing it was and how it feel both futuristic and historic both familiar and alien and I think it’s crazy that it was written in like what 1958 into the 60s and is STILL able to enrapture audiences today. I love Dune and have no one to talk about it with and it’s so sad!
Dune is awesome, I bet you’ll find someone to talk about it to. A strategy for finding them is to wear a shirt about dune, or put a dune sticker on your laptop or car, advertise your interests in your daily life and you may find others who share them. Have a great day.
I wish I wasn't dyslectic (and maybe adhd) so I wouldn't feel so intimidated in reading such a huge-ass series. Maybe I can opt for the audiobook version though.
Herbert's that kind of writer. He did other stuff that wasn't Dune, and even there he had the ability to impress. I remember feeling much admiration for the man as an author when, in a short story, he managed to express the exasperation and low BS tolerance that I had seen in interactions with real judges that people outside the courts so often fail to capture. Different civilization, different legal traditions more-or-less, same outlook and mood. It was an unexpected delight.
Capricho Árabe by Francisco Tarrega playing at around 14:00 is just amazing it never stops amazing me the quality production of your videos. Everything is always so well said and displayed it’s the same feeling as falling in love
I re-watched the movie in Netflix recently but now am gonna watch again with your insights. I went to Petra few years ago but didn’t connect it with Dune until you said it. Thank you so so much to you and your team for your brilliant videos. I feel the joy of this planet more after watching trying to see the nuance and history behind architecture.
I really like your take and content on architecture. Dune is my favorite sotry of all times, and then you talked and showed images from Salvador, Brazil where I'm from. Its just the feeling that this whole vid was made for me hauahsuaha 💛 thanks for this
Love your videos ! Been in Construction for years in various trades and kick myself for not paying attention to detail. Watching your videos I actually learn . You provide such amazing information. As for Dune never got into until I got a bit older now I find it so realtable and insightful especially in today's world.
Damn i love these episodes, i love the perspectives of an actual architect when it comes to SciFi. Like, it gives those SciFi settings another dimension that isn't immediately apparent
I never expected to be so drawn in to an architecture channel, but I am really enjoying your content! Dune is one of my favorite books and the recent movie is visually amazing. Your video was great!
I once read the part where the palm tree is being watered, the movie dialogue show it is sacred, whilst in the book, the city dwellers of arrakis, resent the tree, jealous on how it gets water but themselves. Show this franchise gotta be astounding to ghe mind
Oh no, I'm starting to get used to watching high quality video production. Your video just so mesmerizing. Gonna be hard to enjoy youtube, since not many that has this kind of quality
Awesome video on one of the most fascinating topics! One minor correction: it's the outworlders that come to Arrakis for spice. Fremen descent from Zensunni who settled on the planet because of its harsh conditions: to free from anything that is not strictly required for survival, which in their eyes meant to be closer to God.
1:13 The year 10 000 is not based on the AD calendar. It's 10 000 years since the navigator's guild has been established and took full control of space travel. In the AD calendar (Our calendar) the story takes place closer to the year 26 000
Excellent video, guys! This one was really well put together and I love all the tie ins from the movie and real world examples. I also think the angle on running out of sand is a great point to drive home. We tend to think that just because something is tech-related that it automatically means it won't drain the Earth of resources, and silica sand is extremely important to electronic hardware, so more and more computers will do essentially the same thing gas guzzling vehicles will do just in a different way. Very good angles to think about all around in this video. Nice work.
This issue has already been addressed since quarries are using fines to make sands that meet needed standards. Will it cost more? Yes, a little. I'm sure it will be a low single digit increase in cost to manufacture concrete with quarried sand. A highway has a foot of crushed stone under it. Then another 8 inches of crushed stone in the concrete so it's not to difficult to make sand of the same material at the same facility. Often with the same or lower carbon cost of shipped sand. This is a great big nothing burger that white-collar people in construction talk about and the blue-collar people laugh about when we hear it.
Fantastic video, I also wanted to add a minor lore correction. The Ecological research stations where built by the empire long ago, not by the Fremen. The Fremen sort of adopted them, in part because of Liet Kynes' input.
Minor lore: Arakis was a desert when humans discovered it so the buildings couldn't have been built in the time when the planet was lush. Great video. You characterized the Fremen well. They have adapted so well to the desert that they are inseparable from it. One scene in the book I always remember is when a Fremen thinks Paul is messing with them when he describes an ocean lol.
Good informational break down. Dune is a visual amazing movie, but it’s hard to capture the whole essence of the series in a movie. It would be better as a TV series like the Expanse, but that would be extremely expensive like GOT.
Expensive and to top that, they'd do 6 interesting seasons and then eventually get lazy, frustrated and dump the whole thing in a rush, disappointing everyone without a care.
I live in the Eugene/Springfield area in Oregon, so Florence is a short drive away. I’ve always thought it was such a unique and beautiful place so I think it’s very cool that it inspired such an iconic series
I really appreciate that your uploads always have proper subtitles enabled! It really helps. That said, this video is a good example of a time when the subtitles have a lot of errors, not just with some of the fictional words but also a lot of words that directly affect a reader's ability to understand the content ("wooden traps" instead of "wind traps", things like that). Wanted to make sure your team knows, and I hope those can start getting checked a little more closely :) Thank you for all your hard work and amazing content!
Dune also harks back to T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)'s book about living with the Arabian tribes during World War 1. Lots of cross over, especially on issues of tribal organisation and tribal life, military tactics, and a host of others. Well worth a read if you have the time.
Thank you for this deep dive, I love it! I am a major fan of Dune, and this is one reason why. Too often even in fantastical fiction, I feel like the environment is treated as a decorated shed in which to place the drama, rather than a living world, shaped by and shaping the actions of the people who live there. Frank Herbert did an amazing job with this, and I feel like Villeneuve and the whole production team honored the vision. Thank you for exploring this.
Can you please speculate on what the future of apartment living will look like through the lens of science fiction? I truly value your expertise and input as an architect and pop-culture critic; and would LOVE if you’d investigate the future of densification, co-living & micro-apartments. 🙌🏿🙏🏿🙌🏿
Just some inspirational food for thought. Brazil, The Fifth Element, Blade Runner 2049, etc... As an inspiring interior architect, I myself am critical of the lack-of biophilic and bio-based materials found in futuristic apartments. What does that say about our speculative futures, quality of life and climate change? What could a healthy and regenerative apartment of the future look like, from the adaptable floor-plan to the furniture inside; and how can we start to chart a path towards a more just and sustainable future?
@@AfterHours-z6g If you wanna go "green" future, than I would suggest buildings built out of genetically modified (to grow very fast) wood, possibly, based on bamboo or eucalyptus (if it is possible to make it less prone to forest fires). The problem would be of course water, but if salt water tolerance could be engineered in, they could use abundant saltwater.
We might soon find the liabilities of high population density outweighing the benefits. Cramming hundreds to thousands of people into a factory or office is less necessary than ever. If we can mostly automate factory work, transition information work to telecommuting, and don't want to shop in person anymore, with local production by 3D printing eventually becoming a thing, there's not much reason left to pack people into cities that concentrate pollution and spread disease. Architects and urban planners try to mitigate the adverse effects of high population density, taking for granted that high population density will always be desirable, despite markets suggesting preferences shifting the opposite direction.
I read the first three--plowed through them, waiting for something interesting--about forty five years ago. A few years back, I decided to return the the first book to see if there was anything I had missed the first go around. I couldn't get past the first few pages. I passed the book to a friend who had seen and liked the new movie but was unfamiliar with the books. He couldn't read it either. I'm curious as to what people who like Herbert's work see in the Dune books. I just found unreadable junk.
@@jankafka7330 I read the first 3 books on my kindle and that helped a lot with quick access to a dictionary (English is my 2nd language). When it comes the books I liked the world building and intrigue of the story. To me its a more cynical take on "the hero's journey" were power corrupts the hero showing that having a supreme leader will cause problems for society and the cult of fame/worship is a slippery slope. Also the environmental and moral arguments in the books is really interesting of how they're more than able to make Arrakis more habitable but chooses to have people live in water poverty for the wealth that spice brings them (the great houses and empire). Herberts style of writing isn't for everyone but I think it's an important read for people that like sci-fi.
I've figured it out, you don't make videos about sci-fi or architecture, you make videos about how we can incorporate science fiction into our actual lives
This movie is amazing not because how they adapted the book, but because how they did the arquitecture. The visuals. That was the fist thing that caught my attention. Love it.
I love dune, but one thing I did not like about the book and movie was how little of a look the audience got into the architecture and daily life of people on Arrakis. Great video!
Fantastic video. I want to particularly compliment you and your editor (if you have one) on your transitions and music choices. The editing and visuals were beautiful. I also loved your message about seeking out local knowledge before attempting to solve a complex problem in a new environment.
In the books it mentions using a material called "plasteel" which was some sort of organic composite for construction. It could be cast like concrete yet also had tensile strength. Also a lot of Fremen technology is following the idea of indigenous cultures adapting to their environment such as how the Inuit figured out to live in extreme arctic conditions.
What have I stumbled upon!? Woooow I can't wait to dive into the the rest of your content. This was so refreshing. I love how you have considered these nuances. Simple, yet very effective.
i didn't know that about Herbert going to the dunes in Oregon. I just looked at a map, the dunes in Florence are about 5 km x 1 km. it's wild that he envisioned an entire dune planet based on that small space.
While there aren't vast oceans like on Caladan, there is a deceptively large amount water on Arrakis. It is just difficult and time-consuming to extract from the air, using the aforementioned windtraps, for example. The Fremen have huge underground caches of water here and there throughout the desert. Also, the Bene Gesserit on Arrakis perform the Water of Life ritual using a highly toxic psychotropic compound extracted from drowned baby sandworms.
What can I say... Amazing, intelligent and engaging storytelling as usual. My partner and I highly value your channel and your style of presentation...
Love Dune and love your channel and topic. You entertain and educate me. (Much gratitude!) Given Dune's nature as a cautionary tale: being careful and vigilant in differentiating intellectually stimulating narrative from objective reality seems like something our species benefits from and sometimes gets wrong. I appreciate the care and grace you demonstrate in navigating that delicate line. May the spice continue to flow for you and your team.
What a fantastic video! Engineering porn disguised as geek content is the RU-vid content I did not know I needed. Thank you for making this - I look forward to more.
I found this episode delightful, partly because I who love Herbert’s Dune since my teens and also appreciate how until the 70’s most architecture of my home town (Caracas) was predicated on using the wind as the way to maintain the interiors cool Even though both Herbert and Leguin were not adherents to strict science fiction rules a la Asimov, they both shone exploring of how the natural environmental forces shaped societies and our psychologies.
A note on how concrete requires water. This is true, but there does not need to be a lot of water. Particularly if you have the ability to compress it, you can get away with using rather little in proportion to the other materials. It would therefore be much more efficient to ship in the smaller amount of water needed than to bring in prefab components. It would also explain why it looks more decorative than typical concrete since the compression technique basically means you're making gigantic tiles.
From my understanding, a lot of the sand used to make glass products is also the same as the construction-grade sand for things like concrete and bricks. As you rightfully pointed out, this sand is quickly being depleted and has been a huge factor in the costs for glass products going up as well - especially window and door panes.
Kull Wahad! This video is soooo good! Entertaining, thought out, well spoken, deeply researched and right on point! How the hell has the YT algorithm hidden your channel from me for this long!? Instant sub! Thank you!
Dami...well done on the brilliant and informative breakdown of Dune Architecture and culture that learned to live sustainably in a harsh climate and environment. The compariosins berween Dune and our reality provided great insight. There are so many lessons in this. So thank you, Dami, you are a wonderful storyteller and architect/ educator. ❤