Iconic architecture

The term "Bilbao effect" describes the potential of iconic architectural developments (IADs) designed by world famous architects to act as a catalyst for economic revitalization and transformation within neighbourhoods or regions. Despite the ubiquity of this term, its validity is still debated. Furthermore, research on the topic has relied almost exclusively on individual or small-N comparative case studies. This paper builds on this research by testing the Bilbao effect through a quantitative analysis of 142 IADs completed in Canada and the United States between 2000 and 2009. Using "fixed effects" modelling, a method that controls for selection bias, the analysis examines the effect of IADs on a set of outcome variables that measure neighbourhood-level economic and cultural changes between 2000 and 2010: population, rent, the number of local arts establishments, and the number of cultural workers living in the area. The analysis demonstrates that neighbourhoods with IADs generally experienced more economic and cultural growth than non-IAD neighbourhoods during this time period. However, the paper also complicates these findings by examining differences in how this growth manifests itself within emerging versus established neighbourhoods. These differences are illustrated through a comparison of the Dallas Arts District and Lincoln Square, Manhattan.

Production of space has always been a multi-dimensional phenomenon for various disciplines. This multi-dimensional nature; including politics, technology, sociology, economy etc. of this phenomenon creates a fertile tool for understanding 21st century’s world.
Architecture, the discipline of spatial production also embodies the creation of meaning for both individuals and communities. This comprehensiveness of architecture has always given it an active role for building and making visible the dynamics that shape the world.
In the light of this, in order to understand the today’s world, architecture serves as a key tool in means of both production of space and production of conflicting meanings. Since neoliberalism is used for defining the major impetus beginning from 20th century, how are the spaces/places and meanings change under this impetus is a worth-asking question. 
Following this question, taking architecture and production of space under the effects of neoliberalism as a focus point, the term “non-spaces” which first enounced by Augé (Augé, 1995) can give us a general idea about the spaces of today’s milieu. Augé used this term generally for describing spaces like airports, highways and shopping malls etc. that represent emptiness and give no chance for establishing meaningful bonds.
Taking a step further; this paper aims to discuss the role of architecture as a key component for competing cities through production of space following neoliberal urban politics. In this point of view, can architectural icons with similar functions such as culture, sports or other international events, created by star architects, help us to enlarge the scope of “non-spaces?” is the basic question of this paper.
The paper will be based on the theories of neoliberal urban politics and the role of architecture in creating meaning and rationalizing these politics in competitive cities. Secondly, new functions and the role of star architects will be focused through these theories. Following these discussions, examples of mega-projects, both built and unbuilt, of some star architects will be opened to discussion.

Iconic Building is the term coined by Charles Jencks in “Iconic Building - The Power of Enigma” (2005) to name the phenomenon, common in the field of architecture and urbanism which followed the so-called “Bilbao-Effect”. In other words: the current global construction epidemic of emblematic buildings which followed the successful case of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao designed by Frank Gehry and conceived by local authorities as key part of the city’s economic and urban revitalization. Characterized by the current scenario of global competition between cities, this phenomenon, in short, presents itself as investments, both state and private, in buildings of condensed and striking forms, which work as trademarks, designed by so-called starchitects (orcelebrity architects), looking for instant success with the public (especially tourists) and, consequently, financial income.
Despite accusations of introducing sensationalism and spectacle in architecture, and regarded as a result of commodified culture, which address the issue on the autonomy of architecture, this trend has undeniably been playing a key role in the making of contemporary urbanscape. Due to such relevance and popularity and besides its seducting images, this dissertation, after a general outline of the phenomenon and historical precedent, explores through concrete cases the capacity to face the alleged situation of impaired autonomy and to transform the significant symbolic content in effective urban places and also set up relevant architectural experiences.

The Mphil thesis takes as its subject the city of Dubai in the period 1971 to 2010, tracing the city’s historical and urban development in relation to its architectural and social identity. It proposes a critical hermeneutic framework as a possible method to understand the city’s deficiency in fostering a genuine urban discourse. Through hermeneutics some sense can be made of Dubai’s enigmatic over-use of iconic architecture, which was firstly employed to draw global attention and yet has arguably resulted in a lack of architectural coherence and identity. These “icons” are seen as a set of empty signifiers capable of being integrated into a communicative circle, and the proposed method accentuates the role of reciprocation in the evaluation of art/architecture and in enhancing communal identity.  The research examines and sets aside certain generally employed traditional art historical methods, such as those of Panofsky, Gombrich and Gestalt theory, on the grounds that they marginalize the ways in which iconic art is initially given meaning by a protracted social discussion that is never complete or definitive.   
By means of a hermeneutic critical analysis, the thesis argues that Dubai’s architectural product is largely a symptom of alienation and fragmentation, and signals the presence of a complex dual system.  First is Dubai’s highly iconic architecture which operates as a relatively neutral primary sign system and second is the function of Western culture, which the city holds as an ideal image according to which it aspires to build. Even though Dubai posits many challenges to its resident population, the thesis concludes that any attempt to promote a more communicative architecture in the city must address its particular historic and social construct. It is argued, then, that Dubai can become more culturally discursive, but not by implementing yet another universalizing Western conception of the city. What is required is a method that can tell us how “to understand the phenomenon itself in its unique and historical concreteness . . . [and can] understand how this man, this people, or this state is what it has become or, more generally, how it happened that it is so”. (Gadamer, Truth and Method; 4)

The concept of identity; enables to build relations in a wide extent; from natural to built-environments, from sexuality to culture, from individual to society and gives opportunities to read the common codes in these different scales.
In today’s world, characterized by globalization; identity, within different conceptualizations, is an outstanding issue for various disciplines. It can be said that, the global milieu, offers a basis for speculation and rationalizations for identity that is a special subjective concept described through the existence of the other. In this milieu as a basis including a kind of rivalry between dualities such as heterogeneity, plurality-homogeneity, global-local; the identity itself emerges as a both background of different struggles for existence and an ephemeron object that can be produced, marketed and consumed.
With the leading roles of transnational corporations more than nations and networks more than spatial borders shaping the global system, this article discusses the potentials and implications of architecture and architects as a tool for rationalization of this global capital-based rivalry. The icon as an architectural product and the star as an architectural agent are taken as the key focus points to materialize these relations, in the general view of architectural practice in last 20 years from around the world.

By 2030, 70% of the global population will be living in cities (United Nations, 2013). Tall buildings that create Skylines have emerged to fulfill the requirements of populated cities. The introduction of the steel frame structure followed by advanced software resulting from information technology enabled the rapid proliferation of tall buildings around the world, whose iconicity was later utilized for marketing. Iconic architecture is among various other tools in marketing a city’s identity, cultural values, economic stability, and power. Cities like Paris, Dubai, Shanghai and Kuala Lampur have made their international presence with a crop of iconic tall buildings and the current architectural trends suggest that Colombo, the Sri Lankan’s commercial capital, is also experimenting this notion with an emerging skyline.
This study focuses on the role of iconic tall buildings in creating a marketable skyline for Colombo, Sri Lanka.  Firstly, the study identified the relationship between iconic tall buildings and skylines and how they are used as a marketing element. Then the study identified the characteristics which help to market Colombo’s skyline. For this purpose,Lotus Tower, Altair and Cinnamon Life  were selected informed by criteria prepared by the author. In order to evaluate the selected case studies, physical parameters were identified under each characteristic informed by previous studies. A conceptual framework was developed based on the findings of the literature review. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with the stakeholders of these iconic buildings which was followed by a collection of public perceptions on iconic building with regard to their marketability through a survey. The content thematic analysis approach was utilized to analysed qualitative data. The qualitative and quantitative data were compared and interpreted. The findings of the study revealed that all three case studies satisfied the established roles identified in order to market local aspirations to the global builtscape. Elements such as height, form, and location were identified as the driving force behind the cause. The researcher suggests that the study will serve for the better understanding on how architecture can be used as a tool to manifest different roles in marketing Colombo’s skyline and help derive more accurate indicators of its success or failure

Résumé
La recette de l’architecture iconique peut se décrire assez simplement. Il s’agit d’ériger un édifice culturel spectaculaire afin qu’une ville se transforme sous cette impulsion nouvelle. De nombreuses villes occidentales ont adopté cette stratégie de régénération urbaine au vu de l’expérience de Bilbao, une ville d’Espagne qui a engrangé des retombées économiques intéressantes à la suite de la construction d’un musée par l’architecte Frank O. Gehry. Mais au-delà de sa nature stratégique, l’architecture iconique comporte un sens connoté profondément énigmatique. Si les édifices iconiques sont emblématiques de la production architecturale contemporaine, ils doivent bien dire quelque chose sur la société dans laquelle ils sont érigés. Mais quoi ?

L’auteur de cet ouvrage a vu émerger un fait singulier dans l’étude de ces édifices iconiques : tous présentent une rupture importante avec leur contexte d’implantation. Il les appréhende ainsi comme des objets dont la logique culturelle consiste à se distinguer de leur milieu (forme iconique) pour ensuite rétroagir sur lui de manière à le transformer (fonction iconique). Il prend pour point de mire quatre édifices de Toronto, l’Ontario College of Arts and Design, le Royal Ontario Museum, l’Art Gallery of Ontario et le Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, la ville ayant connu une véritable renaissance culturelle dans la décennie 2000, alors que pas moins de onze institutions culturelles majeures se sont refait une beauté. Ces leçons torontoises permettent d’entrevoir comment est pensé le rapport au contexte dans la conception des icônes, et comment, de manière générale, ce processus relève d’une tentative d’organisation de sens dans une société en crise de représentation.

2015, 312 pages, G4242, ISBN 978-2-7605-4242-6

When Panayotis Tournikiotis wrote Historiography of Modern Architecture in 1999 it started to be obvious the strategies the theorists of architecture have followed to present the words of the so-called pioneers of the Modernity as a kind of consistent discourse that eventually never existed. On top of that, if we see the original writings of those architects we will find that, in most cases, they use the format of a Manifesto -probably influenced by the Avant-Garde artistic movements from the beginning or past century- to express those ideas. Based on Tournikiotis book and comparing his theory to the original Manifestoes it is clear how theorists of Modern architecture used these texts, that were just expressing immediate ideas on one particular matter, as small pieces in their own historical puzzle to build a theory capable of explaining the evolution of architecture since the Industrial Revolution. From the publication of the “gentle manifesto” Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Robert Venturi, 1966), according to some American authors like Charles Jencks the definition of an architect started to be dependent on his relationship with Modernity. In this way, Piano and Rogers are defined as Late-Modern architects because of their refusal to condemn Modernity (as Venturi and the Post-Moderns did) even though they considered themselves followers, such as Isozaki, Hertzberger or Foster. According to Piano and Roger´s Manifesto of 1975, Declaration, could be interpreted as an attempt to make Modern architecture more contemporary by defending the idea of using the technique in a way the Pioneers never could, just because technology was not developed enough at the moment. At the same time other architects like Eisenman were somehow claiming a revolution from the basis of modernity, going beyond the question of style that Postmodernity had put on the table with its article-manifesto Post Functionalism (published by the magazine Oppositions in 1976), using two exhibitions of the MOMA to reinterpret the world according to the latest philosophical theories, introducing the idea of mixing disciplines to get a more contemporary (complex) result. In sight of this process the aim of this work is to show how this process has evolved in the latest years, in a way that nowadays the Manifestoes tend to be built to fit their place in the puzzle of the theory of architecture exactly and to secure the position of the architects in the line of argument of the contemporary theorist, necessary accomplice in this process.

Since building became a representation of religion, power, culture, or technology, a phenomenon of iconic architecture started. How could these buildings be defined? When did the movement begin? What main features could be named? Each historical stage formed icons: whether ancient times religious or today commercial. For the first post-modernism iconic building, designed by Le Corbusier in the 1950s, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (France) is admitted. The later iconic building, which started a trend of contemporary iconicity in architecture, is the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, opened in 1997, and created by architect-celebrity Frank O. Gehry. According to researches, the iconic building trend illustrated a strategy of a planned attraction by the implement of an impressive and symbolic form, being designed by a famous architect.

Because of quick changes in technology and switching from local to a globalized world, countries and cities are compelled to compete for one another to become an attractive workplace, social and cultural traveller destination. This paper introduces a new iconic architectural project in Kuwait "Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Cultural Centre", which used Titanium for the first time in the Middle East as a building envelope. The paper deals with the material and how it was employed in the building to deliver a unique design. The project was required as a national demand to meet the needs of the citizens culturally and to change the visual image of Kuwait City as well. The work aims to tackle how successful the experiment is by Qualitative and Quantitative framework methods. Two well-documented topics: Titanium as a promising architectural material, and Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Cultural Centre design in Kuwait as a global iconic project have been discussed to cover the pros and cons of each, followed by an analysed questionnaire that measures the project role in enhancement of the visual image of Kuwait City In addition to the development of cultural life among Kuwait residents .The Conclusion and recommendations will be presented to support the impact of building iconic Titanium sculptural project to the city visual image.

In this contribution I sketch a framework for interpreting the parallel process of banalisation of old and proliferation of new ‘iconic’ corporate architecture as the Janus-faced manifestation of a qualitative shift in the relationship between capital and architecture. Highlighting the change from place-bound, place-loyal urban elites to footloose transnational elites, I argue that after the 1970s the need to develop a new set of building specifications and use values to accommodate the requirements of a new urban economy was matched by an equally pressing need to institute a new set of symbolic values for a new generation of elites. Drawing upon Castoriadis’s work, I conceptualise architecture as the narrativisation of the desires of elites during a given era, and as a key component in instituting a society’s radical imaginary during moments of change. Within this framework, I argue that despite their common commitment to spectacular design, there are a number of significant differences between contemporary and earlier corporate ‘icons’. Discerning the distinct symbolic, material, and social role of contemporary corporate buildings, I challenge their identification as ‘iconic’ architecture and place them instead under a new category, which I term ‘autistic architecture’.

The development of sustainable iconic projects is becoming a global phenomenon in recent years. These projects are producing attractive and convincing environmental images which serve globalization goals. Sustainable iconic projects are oriented to become an ecologically friendly tool that supports economy investments and tourism, by using the potential of the cultural, aesthetical and moral meanings. This paper investigates the emergence of a remarkable style of architecture which starts out from purely image-obsession, it emphasizes the importance of symbolic form as well as the use of renewable energies in the world and particularly in Arab Gulf cities (and first local try). The research problem is (The question of sustainability as a strategy that has helped in certain ways to create an iconic building and if so, is this are an advantage or disadvantage for the built environment). The paper suggests that: the implementation of sustainability in these buildings have drawn a false image which is far away from the goals of sustainability in conserving the resources. Also, the paper argues that cooperation among sustainable concepts, iconic designs, and attractive images has a wide acceptance and economic profits which may stay as a trend in the 21st century and in time will more and more be frequent and tend to be ordinary.

Urban activation is the result of numerous events. We are defining two types of events: intellectual (or media) and social. “Intellectual events” — educational or entertaining events, located in the city, creating urban polylogue. «Social events» — events in the communicative environment of public space.

Event is a tool to make an experiment of urban defragmentation (the process of structure updating and optimizing). It means a form of regulation of modern society behavior and modern environment development by the means of information, media, and communication. The place in the city starts evolve (change) due to connected to this point events, that are the means of function, interest, advantage, financial gain. The indicator of the urban development is new construction, new events, new look.

In the borders of this fact it is evident to create the concept of urban regeneration: creating events recreates the urban fragments.

The notion of identity is an important dimension of social and cultural life in cities. It grounds the city for its people to create a continuity of place identity through attachment and sociability. The research is based on the evolution of cities under capitalist globalisation conceptualised by the phenomenon of Postmetropolis by Edward Soja. The trends of globalisation within Indian cities and penetration of the image of ‘global city’ has altered the development of transaction spaces within postmetropolising cities. The homogenising economic trends of globalisation have created fragmented expansions to the city. The fluctuations of densities within the central city and peripheral areas, shifting centres of growth towards the service sectors and shifting ideologies of public spaces to consumerist spaces have created segregated city identities. The methodology establishes the relationship between urban identity, transaction and sociability to measure parameters for vitality within public spaces. The observations of transaction typologies within spaces of the city’s economic timeline revealed the difference in spatial practices for developing neighbourhoods, landuse and transaction zones.  The thesis seeks to nurture, protect and evolve sociability within transaction spaces to enhance the urban life within the emerging postmetropolis. The enhancement of transaction through urban hybridisation is an opportunity to create equitable public spaces by integrating the local economy within global spaces. The strategies include inclusivity of local contexts within global spaces, transaction spaces that allow for various exchanges and allowing spaces for informal interactions within formal settings.

Ikonična je arhitektura tema aktualna još od vremena piramida i antičkih civilizacija – vladari i elite društva htjeli su arhitekturom naznačiti važnost i uspješnost svojih država, gradova ili zajednica. Međutim, u 20. i 21. stoljeću tema ikonične arhitekture je postala simbol talenta i kreativnosti i samih arhitekata, koji više nisu ostajali anonimni iza mecena što su ih financirali, već je i njihovo ime raslo svakom novom zapaženom, često i ekstravagantnom zgradom. Vrhunac toga novog vala arhitekata koji su počeli obilježavati gradove i stavljati ih na mapu svijeta – takozvani starhitekti – obilježen je prijelazom u 21. stoljeće muzejskom zgradom Franka Gehrya. 'Bilbao efekt' pokazao je kako arhitektura može stvoriti turističku atrakciju od gotovo nepoznatoga grada i svojom neuobičajenom formom postati tema svih svjetskih medija.

Iako ovo predavanje nema iluziju da je potrebno uspoređivati Gehrya i Magaša, ideja je ipak prikazati važnost Borisa Magaša kao možda najkompleksnijeg arhitekta u našoj novijoj povijesti. Predavanje ispituje, kroz nekoliko njegovih kapitalnih djela, kojim je to arhitektonskim alatima stvarao ikone gradova ili naselja što su prije njegovih realizacija ili idejnih rješenja bila nedovoljno poznata. I dok se objekti koje diljem svijeta grade Gehry, Eisenman ili Zaha Hadid čuvaju i obnavljaju jer ih se smatra velikom vrijednošću za grad ili državu, bit će zanimljivo promotriti koje su to sudbine doživjele Magaševe zgrade, unatoč svojemu antologijskom značenju. Krajnje, postavlja se pomalo provokativno pitanje – je li Magaš bio naš starhitekt? I to je posebno izazovno propitati u gradu u kojem se Magaš rodio – Karlovcu.

This book applies the discourse of the so-called ‘spatial turn’ to popular contemporary cinema, in particular the action sequences of twenty-first century Hollywood productions. Tackling a variety of spatial imaginations (contemporary iconic architecture; globalisation and non-places; phenomenological knowledge of place; consumerist spaces of commodity purchase; cyberspace), the diverse case studies not only detail the range of ways in which action sequences represent the challenge of surviving and acting in contemporary space, but also reveal the consistent qualities of spatial appropriation and spatial manipulation that define the form. Jones argues that action sequences dramatise the restrictions and possibilities of space, offering examples of radical spatial praxis through their depictions of spatial engagement, struggle and eventual transcendence.

This essay explores the strangeness of a boldly modernist building arriving in the heart of a city renowned for its historic architectural image. In October 2004 and again in January 2005, vandals attacked the Thermae Bath Spa (Grimshaw and Associates, 2006), a state-of-the-art facility under construction in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bath, England. Smashing the image of the city as reflected in the Spa’s glass curtain wall, the attacks made visible the strange incursion of the Spa into the purportedly public space of the city. Using this violence as a point of rhetorical departure concerning the fraught urban context of Bath, this essay examines the ways in which architecture can bring hegemonic struggles to the surface of the urban realm, creating a strange space of convergences between past and present, civic ambition and local resistance, architecture as icon and architecture as communication. The essay charts a course between the way that the new Bath Spa operates in promotional and journalistic discourse as an icon, and the way that its design is, in fact strangely discreet. Mobilizing a stealth modernism, the Spa appears to refuse the appellation, ‘icon’, operating smoothly as communicative mirror of its social and cultural context. Smoothly but for critical moment(s) of rupture – the violence enacted upon and the discord surrounding the Spa – in which the estranged relations between newness, heritage, power and cityscape in this particular location come sharply into focus.

By 2030, 70% of the global population will be living in cities (United Nations, 2013). Tall buildings that create Skylines have emerged to fulfill the requirements of populated cities. The introduction of the steel frame structure followed by advanced software resulting from information technology enabled the rapid proliferation of tall buildings around the world, whose iconicity was later utilized for marketing. Iconic architecture is among various other tools in marketing a city’s identity, cultural values, economic stability, and power. Cities like Paris, Dubai, Shanghai and Kuala Lampur have made their international presence with a crop of iconic tall buildings and the current architectural trends suggest that Colombo, the Sri Lankan’s commercial capital, is also experimenting with this notion with an emerging skyline.
This study focuses on the role of iconic tall buildings in creating a marketable skyline for Colombo, Sri Lanka.  Firstly, the study identified the relationship between iconic tall buildings and skylines and how they are used as a marketing element. Then the study identified the characteristics which help to market Colombo’s skyline. For this purpose, Lotus Tower, Altair, and Cinnamon Life were selected informed by criteria prepared by the author. In order to evaluate the selected case studies, physical parameters were identified under each characteristic informed by previous studies. A conceptual framework was developed based on the findings of the literature review. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with the stakeholders of these iconic buildings which was followed by a collection of public perceptions on iconic buildings with regard to their marketability through a survey. The content thematic analysis approach was utilized to analyzed qualitative data. The qualitative and quantitative data were compared and interpreted. The findings of the study revealed that all three case studies satisfied the established roles identified in order to market local aspirations to the global builtscape. Elements such as height, form, and location were identified as the driving force behind the cause. The researcher suggests that the study will serve for a better understanding of how architecture can be used as a tool to manifest different roles in marketing Colombo’s skyline and help derive more accurate indicators of its success or failure

With a significant number of the world's cranes in Dubai, the economic and physical growth in the Emirates is rising faster than ever, pushing the boundaries of architecture and urban planning both horizontally and vertically. Dubai, once a peaceful small village of trade and pearl, has changed its cityscape through the construction of iconic buildings, Media and Internet focused cities, residential and commercial developments, and an eight-lane Sheikh Zeyed Road. Dubai has created the 'Brand' and became a Disneyland in the heart of the desert.
Additionally, private real estate and private investment have constructed a city that is an accumulation of a network of diverse architectures and large urban developments. The thriving millennium city has developed long blocks of high-rises on Sheikh Zeyed Road creating a feel of uneasiness for pedestrians and drivers, thus eventually causing congestion for commuters in Dubai. Mixed-use development, once at the heart of traditional Emirati Islamic architecture, as seen along Dubai’s Deira Creek, was replaced by an auto-oriented urbanism in search for a global identity, despite the fact that cities for people have humane and contemporary patterns for sustainable progress.
This paper uses the analytic lenses of smart growth to examine how city planning in the Gulf could propose an efficient pattern inspired from vernacular architecture and planning that responds to this context. The article is based on a triangulation of academic literature, recent media on Dubai, and interviews of architects on the Gulf area. The paper proposes a vision of an equitable and distributed growth in Dubai to reform its 'bingo growth' effect.

Keywords: Dubaization, Iconic, uneven development, smart growth

Space of iconic architecture Keywords: iconic architecture, provocation, manifest Urban environment, particularly of dynamic megalopolis cities, is constantly changing in physical and metaphysical forms. Urban fragments are cleared for new construction, redesigned and built up. Buildings or urban designs, implanted in particular context, start interact in active or passive form, causing mutation and transformation of the urban fabric. On the one hand, Manifest Architecture embodies a certain autonomy, on the other – it is aimed to disturb the tranquility. ‘Kubuswoning’ by Piet Blom, much talked-of Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, The Sydney Opera House provoked, irritated and harbored the ethics, but ethics of nihilism. Each iconic building as less well known has a bright visual shell and receives instant fame (Jencks, 2005). They are not silent. They scream. However, what is the result? Do the authors achieve the task? Perhaps the autonomy of object should be considered as a tempo...

London’s skyline is changing significantly with a new generation of iconic buildings, of which the Swiss-Re Tower is the most well known. Despite the fact that many of these buildings are located in the City (London’s financial heart), little attention has been paid to the relationship between the transformation of London’s skyline and the recent institutional reconfiguration of the Corporation of London, the authority that runs the City. Focusing empirically on the City’s iconic architecture, and foregrounding a period of institutional crisis for the Corporation (1970–1990), the paper: first, departs from the standard analysis of iconic buildings as signifiers of economic success, and sketches a framework for examining the role of iconic architecture during moments of crisis and, second, offers a new approach to understanding the City’s iconic commissions: not as signifiers of London’s international economic power, but as symptoms of changes in the institutions and élites that promote the City’s new urbanity. The article details how the internationalisation of London’s economy after the 1970s challenged the Corporation’s insular character. The Corporation’s resistance to the ‘invasion’ of foreign companies, people and architectural styles in the City in the midst of a rapid expansion of London’s economy and growing inter-urban competition, led to open threats from the government for the abolition of the Corporation. Responding to these threats, the Corporation reinvented itself with an institutional reform and re-branded its identity in the early 2000s as an outward-looking institution, open to London’s new transnational élites. The 2002 Unitary Development Plan that introduced a new architectural language in the City corresponds to the same need to construct a new imaginary identity for a re-branded Corporation. Towering over the City’s traditional signifiers, the City’s new buildings constitute an ode to the Corporation’s new identity and a visual coup d’état against its time-old heritage-oriented planning.

The Emirates Airlines website welcomes visitors by stating that Dubai’s iconic architecture is not only encouraged, but “actively pursued.” A subsequent list of evidence describing extreme heights, unconventional shapes, and cutting-edge materials supports the claim. The Gulf states have turned to architecture as a way to build globally-recognized skylines. This wave of new, iconic buildings is often an attempt to build an urban uniqueness which, moreover, is part of the quest for a stronger national and social identity....

This paper presents a methodology that grounds the understanding of
consumerist iconic architecture, in relation to Cairo-­Egypt. This term is proposed to
connect the different disciplines of sociology, architecture, and urban studies. It relies
on the relation between the dominant culture of consumerism, and iconic architecture
practice. Most research in this field argues this phenomenon from a global perspective,
yet little attention is given to developing countries. This study, hence, adopts a
systematic situational analysis method based on contemporary Cairene architects'
interviews. Such a bottom up approach clarifies the applicability of this method on
developing countries, in order to assist in the interpretation of consumerist iconic
architecture. The conclusion discusses the emergent values as well as other secondary
and blinded factors that are very specific to Cairo. The findings are expected to deepen
the grounded understanding of consumerist iconic architecture review and critique,
aiming to reflect possible alternative interpretations that might affect the future.

The newly opened campus of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien) has quickly developed into a public attraction. It is the most frequently asked aim of all architectural tours in Vienna since 2013. The nine hectares area houses the largest University of Economics in the European Union. With the participation of star architects, this greenfield project was developed on the basis of the Anglo-Saxon spatial model of a campus. Despite the effective staging architecture, this area has not become an exciting and lively part of the city. At weekends and during the term holidays the campus looks like a ghost town, due to the fact that there are not enough attractions for people outside lecture time. A contrasting example of this suburban concept is the campus of the University of Vienna (Altes AKH), which was implemented in the late 1990s in a historic complex of buildings in the city. Although it was built with a lower budget, this campus still works very well – both as an educational institution and as part of the urban neighbourhood. This example shows us that in the long tradition of urban development in central Europe the universities and their environment have always been closely associated within the city. This concept ensures a better function in this region up to nowadays.

This essay tackles two very closely intertwined, but highly controversial notions in Byzantine studies: 1) the idea that Byzantine religious architecture can be understood as an icon, and 2) the thought that architecture as icon can and should be examined through the lenses of the vigorous intellectual debates within Byzantine Iconoclasm. The Byzantine iconoclastic debates subtly interwove the ontological philosophy into the epistemiological discussion of icons. In such a context, the human body (of Christ in particular) and the architectural body (an altar canopy in the case of this study) can be understood as “homomorphic“ entities. Therefore, a canopy as micro-architecture becomes an icon of the sacred place.

The Emirates Airlines website welcomes visitors by stating that Dubai’s iconic architecture is not only encouraged, but “actively pursued.” A subsequent list of evidence describing extreme heights, unconventional
shapes, and cutting-edge materials supports the claim. The Gulf states have turned to architecture as a way to build globally-recognized skylines. This wave of new, iconic buildings is often an attempt to
build an urban uniqueness which, moreover, is part of the quest for a stronger national and social identity....

http://argument.uauim.ro/en/issues/6/128/
The article is a discussion on the possible links between the architecture implant features in notable sites and the characteristics of the public space, location, urban environment, urban body design and volumetric design, between the dimension and community perception on the new altimetry and city representation. If London City Hall is, by definition, a model for Thames pedestrian esplanade and becomes a new landmark of the development milestone of 2000, it is also a building that targets the plus energy efficiency, getting to produce a surplus in some seasons. As design, it is the contemporary landmark that diversifies the specific presence of the London Bridge. Swiss Re is itself a technological invention in every significance urban layer: it is a iconic landmark for the London downtown high developed area, on the opposite side of the Thames Riverview and in the neighborhood of Building 42 and Lloyd’s Building. As a landmark, it physically replaces another building with a tragic end. Swiss Re Building design is, in fact, a license of the architect – Sir Norman Foster – and of the structural engineers from ARUP – as in the first example. The Shard is the newest icon of London signed by architect Renzo Piano (building inaugurated in 2012), situated on the opposite from Swiss Re building over the Thames and closed to London City Hall. Actually, the building is a macrostructure and it doubles the existent landmarks height, having the characteristics of a vertical city.

Urban scholars have devoted significant attention to the "cultural city," but less attention has been paid to how different forms of culture relate to each other and to the larger urban environment. In this paper, we compare two quintessential forms of culture-led urbanization that represent opposite ends on a spectrum: iconic architecture and neo-bohemia. While iconic architecture is a "top-down" approach to culture involving large budgets, elite "starchitects," and powerful clients, neo-bohemia tends to be a "bottom-up" phenomenon formed as individual artists gravitate toward particular neighborhoods, establishing arts scenes. Using a combination of neighborhood case studies and national-level quantitative analysis, we investigate the ecological relationship between these two phenomena. In doing so, we provide new insights into the geographic and social structure of the cultural city.

Deindustrialized cities often struggle with developing a new economic base and place-based identity while also honouring the memory of the industrial past. In this process, local governments have used cultural branding and iconic architecture to present their city as a tourist destination and attractive location for capital investment. Such regeneration strategies have been critiqued as elite projects, divorced from a local sense of place and the everyday realities of residents experiencing 'industrial ruination'. Yet, this need not always be the case. Focusing on one example of iconic architecture-the spectacular remaking of the railway station of Heerlen, a Dutch former coal-mining town-this article argues that middle-class memories of industrial Heerlen informed both the genesis of this project and its polarized reception by residents. The article demonstrates the linkages between historical and contemporary class divisions, resulting in a complex politics of memory at play within regeneration strategies.

Image of the city is what makes it distinctive among other, as well as the perception of people towards that place and how it remarks in their memories. Iconic architecture is among the major shapers of this image, where a remarkable, eye-catching design gives sharper identity for the place. The feature of being iconic can fit both old and modern buildings. However, the study focuses on contemporary iconic architecture that became a trend in the 1990's, using technology and radical design forms by famous architects. Amsterdam has a dominant image of traditional architecture, an image that is replaced rapidly by international style buildings, and a few Iconic buildings. This replacement is promoted by policies encouraging creativity while urbanizing more and more lands around the city center. NEMO center is a good example of a successful iconic building as a touristic attraction and a landmark for the city center. However, compared to Guggenheim Bilbao, the city is still developing its contemporary Iconic architecture, where the Bilbao effect does not seem to be the first priority rather than redevelopment and gentrification of suburbanites within the city.

The development of sustainable iconic projects is becoming a global phenomenon in recent years. These projects are producing attractive and convincing environmental images which serve globalization goals. Sustainable iconic projects are oriented to become an ecologically friendly tool that supports economy investments and tourism, by using the potential of the cultural, aesthetical and moral meanings. This paper investigates the emergence of a remarkable style of architecture which starts out from purely image-obsession, it emphasizes the importance of symbolic form as well as the use of renewable energies in the world and particularly in Arab Gulf cities (and first local try). The research problem is (The question of sustainability as a strategy that has helped in certain ways to create an iconic building and if so, is this are an advantage or disadvantage for the built environment). The paper suggests that: the implementation of sustainability in these buildings have drawn a false...

Since building became a representation of religion, power, culture, or technology, a phenomenon of iconic architecture started.

How could these buildings be defined?
When did the movement begin?
What main features could be named?

Each historical stage formed icons: whether ancient times religious or today commercial. For the first post-modernism iconic building, designed by Le Corbusier in the 1950s, the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (France) is admitted. The later iconic building, which started a trend of contemporary iconicity in architecture, is the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, opened in 1997, and created by architect-celebrity Frank O. Gehry. According to researches, the iconic building trend illustrated a strategy of a planned attraction by the implement of an impressive and symbolic form, being designed by a famous architect.

""In his chapter “Iconspicuous Revolutions of 1989: Culture and Contingency in the Making of Political Icons,” Dominik Bartmański revisits the European icons of the euphoric year of 1989 and asks what constitutes a powerful iconic fact. Specifically, he explains why the fall of the Berlin Wall emerged as the icon of 1989 and has retained this symbolic status ever since.

The answer is not obvious. 1989 was full of epochal events and important figures busy making history. Especially the earlier, politically unprecedented changes in Hungary and Poland had opened up a revolutionary space in which such events like the fall of the wall became possible at all. And yet they have not attained the same lasting influence on the international collective imagination. To reconstruct this phenomenon is to tell a story about how the iconic can trump the political. By demonstrating what counts in public perception as “revolutionary,” “political signal,” and “beginning” and “end” of a social process, Bartmański shows the role that iconicity plays in constituting these key categories and thus in structuring our ability to notice, understand, and remember events. By "public perception" Bartmanski does not mean only the "lay audiences" but also the producers of the journalistic facts themselves. Indeed, all social groups are deeply enmeshed in and responsive to the background codings and symbolic imperatives of a given culture.  It is precisely the various aspects of iconic power that makes events amenable to wide appropriation and socially "resonant". It is their iconicity that turns them into “objective,” temporal markers of history.

Of course, the key question is: what constitutes "iconic power"? Is it purely arbitrary signification structure or something different? What accounts for the fact that some symbolic representations and performances stick and others don't?

To answer these questions the present paper offers an analytical framework that identifies several constituent elements of iconic power. It distinguishes (1) "iconic capital," i.e. the historical accretion of symbolic resources associated with a given entity, (2) "cultural congruity," i.e. the fit between a given entity's character and the genre of cultural performance it is supposed to represent, and (3) "remembrance patterns," i.e. commemorative practices.

Each element is a bundle of material forms and affordances ("surface") and discursive content ("depth"). Only when all the elements coalesce in a felicitous way can an iconic effect emerge. Bartmanski observes that although open-ended and contingent, this iconic process is not arbitrary but instead rooted in the specific meanings structures that make certain social outcomes more plausible than others. 

Performing the cultural reconstruction of 1989 along those lines provides a "thick" elaboration of two observations that function as epigrams for the present paper.

The first is theoretical and was made by Roland Barthes in his essay "Rhetoric of the Image": "In every society various techniques are developed intended to fix the floating chain of signifieds in such a way as to counter the terror of uncertain signs."

The second was made by an anthropologist Daphne Berdahl who insisted that "among other things, the revolutions of 1989 were about visibility - making visible 'the people'."

Just like other chapters in this book, the present sociological interpretation of political symbols inevitably takes us beyond the surface of news pictures to the surfaces and depths of events, to singular bodies and powerful crowds, sights and sites, built structures, and symbolically constructed narratives. It is the new prism of iconicity through which the effects of shocking and euphoric events that seem deceptively simple and well known can be explained in full. """

Можем ли мы активизировать среду событиями? Может ли событие стать генератором пространственных перемен? Активизация среды – это результат множественных событий. Различные формы социальной активности – происходящие «социальные события» – влекут за собой физическое развитие города, «средовые события», становясь, таким образом, урбанистическими точками роста.

The development of sustainable iconic projects is becoming a global phenomenon in recent years. These projects are producing attractive and convincing environmental images which serve globalization goals. Sustainable iconic projects are oriented to become an ecologically friendly tool that supports economy investments and tourism, by using the potential of the cultural, aesthetical and moral meanings. This paper investigates the emergence of a remarkable style of architecture which starts out from purely image-obsession, it emphasizes the importance of symbolic form as well as the use of renewable energies in the world and particularly in Arab Gulf cities (and first local try). The research problem is (The question of sustainability as a strategy that has helped in certain ways to create an iconic building and if so, is this are an advantage or disadvantage for the built environment). The paper suggests that: the implementation of sustainability in these buildings have drawn a false...

Background: In recent years, Dutch architect Maurice Nio has built an array of projects in the Netherlands, which have generally been considered within the spectrum of the Superdutch phenomenon, and more broadly, within Iconic Architecture. Seemingly, to his Dutch colleagues, Nio's work is on the track of liberating architecture from the burden of cultural responsibilities (Ibelings Supermodernism: Architecture in the age of globalization: Nai Uitgevers Pub, 1998), yet it evinces significant differences from other work in that vein. Methods: Nio's projects are compared with Jencks' phenomenology of iconic architecture (Jencks The iconic building: Rizzoli New York, 2005), in order to demonstrate the importance and peculiarity of Nio's work within the context of Iconic Architecture and the Superdutch period, and the extent to which his work can be considered different. Results: This article argues that Nio's architecture is not based on the production of outstanding shapes (Lootsma SuperDutch Afterthoughts Post. Rotterdam. Rotterdam: 010 Publisher, 2001), or the clever interpretation of a given program (Betsky Reading MVRDV: NAi 2003), but on the creation of disquieting presences in the built environment. Most of his work consists of pieces of architecture each of which has its own name, character and identity and seems to rely on disrupting the expected and disturbing the quiet. Conclusions: This paper examines Nio's work, with particular attention to three case studies, in order to generate a series of qualitative characteristics that define his idiosyncratic architecture.