invisible grounds

Riccarda Cappeller
architect. urban designer. author. researcher. curator

NEUSTADT
short film | 2025
Cooperation: Constantin Melczer

Halle Neustadt. An assemblage of everyday life observations between vacancy and inhabited space.
The place´s appeareance is characterized by traces of the socialist utopia and the shrinking city. In the shimmering summer heat, an idea of urbanity emerges while the echoes of the past, present and future quietly reverberate from the concrete.

The film was shot in Halle/Saale

documentary
ethnographic exploration
observation
urban research
lterature research
concept, camera, editing

COOPERATIVE ARCHITECTURE
short films | 2024
Editing: Hannes Bruun

The three essayistic film fragments are experiments to grasp three urban spaces cinematically; Granby Four Streets in Liverpool, Can Batlló in Barcelona and ExRotaprint in Berlin. As research objects and case studies of my PHD disseration on Cooperative Architecture, they help to reflect upon the creation and mediation of spatial experiences and the possibility to use space as a medium in film.

How can the invisible; social and cultural capacity of space, become an experience and contribute to an enriched urban-knowledge creation?

essayistic film
urban research experimental
concept, camera

STADTMOLEKÜL
short film | 2021
Colorgrading: Susi Dollnig
Comissioned by: BDA Sachsen-Anhalt

The film “Stadtmolekül” shows the old granary (ca. 1710) in its current use and makes its history and spatial quality visible through the stories of the residents and neighbors. Although the focus is on the architecture, social and emotional aspects are also addressed and made to speak together with the material.

This film was shot in one day as a “one-woman production”.

documentary
reportage
case study report
on-site exploration
interviews concept, camera, editing

KUPFERHAUS | COPPER HOUSE
short film | 2014

Cooperation: Julia Tarsten, Tim Mahn
Created at: Centre for Documentary Architecture

Announced as a technical invention and transportable living space, it was designed in the 1930s by K. Wachsmann and W. Gropius as a prefabricated house and produced in Germany. Some Jewish families bought it as a capital investment (money could only be exported to a limited extent) and emigrated with the house to their “new home” in Israel/Palestine. Based on the material of 3 houses still standing in Haifa, the historical, structural and social fragments associated with the house are brought together in the film.

The film is part of a series of a research project with films, about architects who emigrated from Germany in the 1930s – based on the estate of Myra Warhaftig.

experimental film
documentary
on-site exploration
urban research
interviews
concept, camera, editing

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