Experiencing cinematic architecture: the impact of architecture on the audience emotional engagement

Purpose The goal of the study is to underline “Cinematic Architecture” as another source of architectural thinking and research. This study is also a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema. Moreover, the study introduces the architectural components that qualify the cinematic spaces to be influential cinematic experience. This is in addition to investigating the impact of these components on the viewers' cognitive and emotional experience of films. Design/methodology/approach In the reported study, an empirical experiment examined scenes from three different movies as experienced by a selected group of audience of movies fans (architects and laypersons). The audience was asked to report feelings the audience had about each scene using a questionnaire that was designed for this purpose, and the audience was asked to write down the aspects that affected the audience's emotions. The experiment evaluated selected emotional states and could specify the architectural features and/or objects that significantly contributed in inducing these emotions. Findings This study's findings concluded that emotions, which exist in the positive margin of the emotions “circumplex model,” were influenced by architectural components that were different from those that influenced emotions which lie in the negative margin of the model. Research limitations/implications As for filmmakers, the study contributes in developing filmmakers' knowledge about the role of architecture in scenic creation and thus how that knowledge enhances filmmakers' film narrative and the narrative's spatial imagery. As for academia, this study contributes in developing the knowledge about film cognition as related to architectural semiotics. In the context of behavioral approach to architectural design, a behavior setting which is the basic element in environmental design can be dramatized by applying a cinematic narrative to a human activity system within a milieu of architectural design elements. Practical implications This study is important for architects, as the study provides architects with an alternative tool for fictional experience and for testing architectural ideas through cinematic architecture. This study also helps in developing new venues for the practice of architecture into the world of fiction. This study also contributes in developing the trend that architectural design thinking can learn from cinematic thinking and practice. Originality/value This study introduces an empirical approach to evaluate architectural entities as part of cinematic experience. This study also comes as a response to the shortage in empirical research on architecture in the cinema.