Die Hard and Other 'Lessons in the Inappropriate Use of Architecture'

Let’s continue on this fandom kick, as we turn to Geoff Manaugh‘s fantastic essay over at BLDGBLOG, “Nakatomi Space.” The name, of course, comes from the fictitious tower in Die Hard, also known as this writer’s favorite Christmas movie, or in Manaugh’s opinion, “one of the best architectural films of the past 25 years.” Stripped down to its basic idea, it’s a great, winding discussion of how architecture is manipulated to exist without boundaries like walls or doors — in Die Hard and others like it, these get blown to pieces to create new methods of traveling within a building — defying the “spatial logic” we’re familiar with.