Architecture in ''Star Wars'' includes the cities, buildings, ships, and other structures of the fictional ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

as described and depicted in books, movies, comics, and cartoons. ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is a professional architecture magazine, published monthly in London by Metropolis International. Each issue includes in-depth features on relevant current affairs, alongside profiles of recently completed buildings. Ten t ...

'' ranked the top 10, including the

Death Star The Death Star is a fictional space station and superweapon featured in the ''Star Wars'' space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire, the Death Star is capable of obliterating entire planets, and serves to enforce ...

and the Jedi Temple.James Palliste
Top 10: The Architecture of Star Wars (pt II)
15 June 2009 Architects Journal (UK) Comparing the urban and natural environments pictured in ''Star Wars'', Mark Lamster wrote that the cities are places of danger and corruption, while the forces of good find sanctuary in the natural world.Mark Lamster "Evil foes build ever-more-elaborate urban monstrosities- machines not for living but killing, and killing on a grand scale
Architecture and film
Star Wars and the City page 6 He also describes the "retro-

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

" cities in the series as being in between those extremes and places of "great beauty but dubious moral character." He attributes the ambivalence towards urbanity to series creator

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

' own feelings about cities and urban environments.

Planet settings

Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the original film trilogy as the main protagonist and also appears in the sequel trilogy. Raised as a poor moisture farmer on the desert planet Tat ...

is first seen in '' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'' living with his adoptive parents in a "complex of caves and domed structures" on

Tatooine Tatooine ( ) is a fictional desert planet that appears in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It is a beige-colored, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars, and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life forms. The planet was fi ...

, filmed in the

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

n desert town of Matmata. The end of the first movie was shot in the

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

rain forest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

where a celebration with rebel allies takes place in a caved area (a scene said to be borrowed from

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, Film producer, producer, screenwriter, Film editing, editor, photographer, and actress. She is considered one of the most controversial ...

's 1935

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

'' Triumph of the Will''). The exotic locales provide scenery that is unfamiliar to "all but a few experts in non-western architecture", providing the films with fantastic settings that could still be believable.Mark Lamste
Architecture and film
Wretched Hives: George Lucas and the Ambivalent Architecture of Star Wars page 234

Urban planning

In 1999, architecture and planning students noted that ''The Phantom Menace'' offered "a variety of urban development options". The "urban future" has also been depicted in ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'' where "the setting is a grimy, crime-ridden

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in the 21st century". The architecture of ''Star Wars'' may also have been influenced by

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

's '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. The designs continued Lucas' work from his first feature film, ''

THX 1138 ''THX 1138'' is a 1971 American social science fiction film co-written and directed by George Lucas in his feature directorial debut. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Walter Murch, the film stars Robert Duvall and Donald Pl ...

'', which featured a claustrophobic,

Orwellian ''Orwellian'' is an adjective which is used to describe a situation, an idea, or a societal condition that 20th-century author George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society. It denotes an attitude and ...

"subterranean world of black-and-white spaces" where the population is subdued with drugs and kept under constant surveillance.

Jedi Temple

'' rated the Jedi Temple (located in the capital planet of Coruscant) third on its top-ten architecture of ''Star Wars'' list behind the second

and Jabba the Hutt's palace on

, and ahead of Coruscant, capital city of the Old Republic. The temple is described in the article as adapting "the robust typology of Mayan temples, with durasteel cladding specified for the external stone walls for improved defensive strength" and said to be a

ziggurat A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude'), ( Persian: Chogha Zanbilچغازنجبیل) is a type of massive ...

that "is built above a Force-nexus and has ample room for training facilities, accommodation and the Jedi Archive." The temple has five towers—the tallest is Tranquillity Spire—that are stylistically similar to the

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

s surrounding the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. '' Star Wars Insider'' listed it as the 100th greatest thing about ''Star Wars'' in its 100th-issue special.

Ships

The battle cruisers featured in ''Star Wars'' have been described as examples of " Suprematist architecture". Ship designs in ''Star Wars'' often make heavy use of greebles to create an illusion of mechanical function and scale.

Real world buildings that mirror ''Star Wars''

The

San Francisco Federal Building The San Francisco Federal Building, formally the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, is an 18-story, building at the corner of Mission and 7th streets in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The federal building w ...

Thom Mayne Thom Mayne (born January 19, 1944) is an American architect. He is based in Los Angeles. In 1972, Mayne helped found the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he is a trustee and the coordinator of the Design of Cities po ...

has been compared to the Jawa Sandcrawler featured in '' Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope''. The ING headquarters building (in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) has been described as looking like something out of ''Star Wars'' that could "move forward on its legs". Conversely, the

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

, Long Room Library is thought to be the basis for the

Jedi Jedi (), Jedi Knights, or collectively the Jedi Order are fictional characters, and often protagonists, featured in many works within the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Working symbiotically alongside the Galactic Republic, the Jedi Order is depic ...

Academy Library in '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones''.

Planet settings

Urban planning

Jedi Temple

Ships

Real world buildings that mirror ''Star Wars''

See also

References

Further reading