RESEARCH PAPER
A Pattern Language for cinema: spatial semiotics in Villeneuve’s Dune
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Wydział Budownictwa i Architektury, Politechnika Lubelska, Polska
Submission date: 2025-10-28
Acceptance date: 2026-01-22
Publication date: 2026-01-22
Corresponding author
Olga Skoczylas
Wydział Budownictwa i Architektury, Politechnika Lubelska, Nadbystrzycka 40, 20-618, Lublin, Polska
Architektura, Urbanistyka, Architektura Wnętrz 2025;(25)
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ABSTRACT
The article explores the possibility of applying Christopher Alexander’s Pattern Language to the analysis of film architecture, using Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) as a case study. The research examines whether architectural patterns can function as a visual language that conveys relationships, hierarchies, and power dynamics within cinematic storytelling. Through diagrammatic mapping of Alexander’s patterns across three scales—city, building, and construction—the study identifies their recurrence within Dune’s narrative structure. The findings suggest that architecture in the film acts not merely as decor but as a semiotic and narrative agent, shaping the viewer’s perception of space, emotion, and ideology. By linking spatial design with interpersonal and political relationships, the film’s built environment becomes an expressive system that supports storytelling. The study concludes that Alexander’s framework offers a valuable analytical tool for interpreting cinematic world-building and suggests directions for further research across other science fiction films to assess the universality of this approach.