[5] Viktor Kossakovsky presents an epic, intimate and poetic meditation on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction – and offer hope for survival and a way forward.

Kossakovsky reflects on the rise and fall of civilizations while focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, using imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to AD 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023.

[21] Jordan Mintzer reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter dubbed it as "Solid as a rock," and opined, "The director’s latest work, Architecton, is more about death than life, capturing the natural and manmade structures formed out of the planet’s bedrock and manipulated over time, destroyed quickly or gradually and then built anew."

"[22] Guy Lodge writing in Variety gave positive review and said, "There is no escaping our own mastery, our own determination of what is beautiful and useful, a man-made work that is very much both of those things, Architecton frustratedly awaits a new world order, or at least a new blueprint.

"[24] Nicholas Bell in Ion Cinema rated the film with three and half stars and said, "As we drift through the ruins of the past, a portrait emerges juxtaposing the inherent differences regarding the materials and designs of the present.

"[26] Damon Wise for Deadline began his review by quoting Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli, "There is something new within the sun today, or rather ancient," and felt, "This fascinating, engrossing film interrogates the subtext of this seemingly paradoxical statement."