Architecture icon

The Sydney Opera House is one of the world-famous architectural icons.

Architectural icon is a term from architectural criticism and describes buildings that are or were groundbreaking or that claim uniqueness due to their design.

Examples

Seagram Building in New York City

One example of this is the Seagram Building in New York, which became an icon of the modern skyscraper and, in the decades that followed, the most imitated example of its kind around the world. The construction of the Sydney Opera House, in turn, was part of a rethink in architecture in the 1950s.

“As icons of a place or a time, buildings like the Opera House in Sydney or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao are more likely to be built today. However, they have a similar function as the colossal statues once did and shape the image of the respective city internationally. "

definition

These outstanding structures , buildings and ensembles meet several of the following criteria:

1. general recognition
2. popularity
3. originality
4. Symbol value
5. Significance for the development of architecture
6. Representative of an architectural style

Sabine Thiel-Siling writes in her foreword to architectural icons of the 20th century:

"The buildings are spectacular for their time and their surroundings, be it through their constructive achievements or innovative use of materials, through their formal language or because they embodied a completely new type of building for the first time."

Some buildings have become places of pilgrimage for architecture enthusiasts or have even become landmarks of cities, even countries. But they were often misunderstood even by laypeople, even if they became a model for entire generations of architects.

Tom Wright , the architect of the Burj al Arab , said on the same subject:

“How do you know that a building has become a symbol? When you can draw it in five seconds and everyone knows what it is. "

criticism

Farnsworth House

In order to achieve an abstract goal, architects often plan past the needs of their clients. The Chicago doctor Edith Farnsworth, who commissioned Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1945 to design a weekend house in which she could retreat to relax, was not impressed by the purism of her house , which cost her a lot of money, and she said so Architects as follows:

"I wanted something 'meaningful' and all I got was this smooth, superficial sophistry ."

And it is precisely this house that has become a place of pilgrimage for architecture tourists. People of whom LeBlanc writes:

“The architecture tourist is a courageous person who easily plans an entire trip to see a particular building; who searches half a day to find it; who lingers on the doorstep for hours hoping to get inside. But his persistence is worth it, because to fully understand a building you have to see it for yourself. "

Jürgen Tietz also takes up the fact that you have to see a building for yourself. In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, he critically examines the urge for ever new architectural symbols, which is caused by the so-called " Bilbao Effect " by Frank O. Gehrys Guggenheim Museum in Basque Bilbao was raised. This fashion wave first hit the metropolises before it also reached the smaller cities, because the more distinctive a building is, the easier it is to market it. Well-known buildings ensure that individual locations are immediately recognizable: The Eiffel Tower stands for Paris and the Acropolis for Athens.

In the age of globalization , architectural icons become trademarks in the competition between metropolises.

“At the same time, the growing inflation threatens to contribute to general confusion on the catwalk of architectural images. Was this house in Hamburg, Tokyo or Paris? Was it the museum in Bern, Manchester or Seoul? Was the architect's name Eisenman, Koolhaas or Piano? "

The dilemma of this image-oriented architecture is that it has to rely on a quick glance. Tietz calls it “an architectural fast food that is as easy to consume as possible”. It is often forgotten that what defines the quality of architecture can only be experienced on site.

"But the modular system of modernity also continuously generates new images for global marketing in the architectural circus: ecologically ambitious at Foster, elegantly expressive at Gehry, jagged deconstructed at Libeskind."

According to Tietz, these computer-designed and built marketing strategies threaten to freeze the architecture into a cliché full of Potemkin villages .

List (selection)

This list can never be complete, but it is intended to give an overview of the diversity of building.

image	Name / year	architect	place	Remarks
	Parthenon 5th century BC Chr.		Athens , Greece	Classic Greek temple, which has been famous for its harmonious proportions since its construction and is therefore seen by many as the “peak of all architecture” and a perfect expression of humanity.
	Pantheon 119/125		Rome , Italy	The Pantheon, which was completed under Emperor Hadrian, had the largest dome in the world, measured by its inner diameter, for more than 1700 years and is generally considered to be the best preserved building from Roman antiquity.
	Hagia Sophia 537		Istanbul , Turkey	The church, built as a domed basilica, set new architectural accents in the 6th century. The importance of the dome in terms of architectural history lies not in its size, but in the fact that for the first time it rests on only four pillars and thus floats over the space below.
	Chartres Cathedral 1260		Chartres , France	Many art and cultural-historical currents converge in the Cathedral of Chartres. At the beginning of the classical phase of Gothic architecture there were two fundamentally different approaches, only one of which has prevailed and which has become much better known.
	La Rotonda 1571	Andrea Palladio	Vicenza , Italy	Ideal Renaissance building whose aesthetics sought to match the ancient models. Thomas Jefferson submitted a plan anonymously to the competition to design the presidential residence in Washington DC, which was a variation of the Villa Rotonda. Although this design was not accepted, he took up elements for his own home in Monticello .
	Crystal Palace 1851	Joseph Paxton	London , UK	Prefabricated building based on serially manufactured, modular components. To deliberately display the construction in representative architecture was a novelty.
	Sagrada Família 1882	Antoni Gaudí	Barcelona , Spain	The Sagrada Família is an unusual work of sacred architecture that reinterprets Gothic motifs using modern means.
	Eiffel Tower 1889	Gustave Eiffel	Paris , France	The steel truss structure has been the tallest structure on earth for 41 years since it was built and triggered a worldwide wave of towers . The architecturally outstanding position is due, on the one hand, to many buildings that followed the construction principle, some of which even copied the appearance, and on the other hand, the tower was built without any historical model.
	Rietveld Schröder House 1924	Gerrit Rietveld	Utrecht , Netherlands	The building is one of the most important structures of the De Stijl movement.
	Chile House 1924	Fritz Höger	Hamburg , Germany	The Chilehaus was exemplary for the brick expressionism of the 1920s. With its tip reminiscent of a ship's bow, it became an icon of Expressionism in architecture.
	Einstein Tower 1924	Erich Mendelsohn	Potsdam , Germany	The observatory in the "Albert Einstein Science Park" on Telegrafenberg in Potsdam is a revolutionary building for the time it was built.
	Horseshoe settlement 1925–1930	Bruno Taut	Berlin , Germany	The horseshoe settlement, to which the holiday home “Tautes Heim” also belongs, is internationally regarded as a key work in reform-oriented urban housing.
	Bauhaus Dessau 1926	Walter Gropius	Dessau , Germany	In addition to the functional separation that was new at the time, the special thing about it is the wall of the workshop wing, which is completely dissolved in glass.
	Barcelona Pavilion 1929	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Barcelona , Spain	The building, which set the style for modern architecture, implemented two design principles by van der Rohe: the " free floor plan " and the " flowing space ".
	Villa Tugendhat 1930	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Brno , Czech Republic	Construction and wall were strictly separated from each other and should allow a "freely" divisible floor plan.
	Fallingwater 1937	Frank Lloyd Wright	near Pittsburgh, USA	The client wanted a building with a view of the waterfall. However, after a precise survey of the construction site, which also included all the trees and exposed rocks, Wright suggested that the building be erected over the waterfall.
	Glass House 1949	Philip Johnson	New Canaan, USA	The Glass House is characterized by a radical reduction in the outer walls.
	Farnsworth House 1951	Ludwig Mies van der Rohe	Plano (Illinois) , USA	The outer walls are made entirely of glass and allow a direct reference to nature in every situation, only light curtains are provided as privacy screens.
	Notre Dame du Haut 1955	Le Corbusier	Ronchamp , France	Due to the organic design, the church is also a place of pilgrimage for architects and those interested in art.
	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1959	Frank Lloyd Wright	New York City , USA	Wright created a winding ramp and elevator that transports visitors to the top of the ramp so they can walk down past the artwork.
	Berlin Philharmonic 1963	Hans Scharoun	Berlin , Germany	The architecture largely eliminates the separation between artist and audience, the artists sit “in the middle” of the audience.
	Montreal Biosphere 1967	Richard Buckminster Fuller	Montreal , Canada	The US pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal is made of steel and acrylic and was the model for numerous subsequent buildings.
	Brasília Cathedral 1970	Oscar Niemeyer	Brasília , Brazil	The newly built Brazilian capital is characterized by the cathedral and parliament building.
	Finlandia Hall 1971	Alvar Aalto	Helsinki , Finland	The architectural style is functionally oriented and offers a lively contrast to the often gloomy landscape.
	Olympic Stadium Munich 1972	Günter Behnisch	Munich , Germany	The Olympiapark architectural group designed a stadium that is embedded in the landscape. The Olympic Stadium became a symbol of a new lightness in West German post-war architecture .
	Sydney Opera House 1973	Jørn Utzon	Sydney , Australia	The Sydney Opera House is a popular tourist attraction, landmark of Sydney and Australia. Denmark also sees the opera house as part of its cultural heritage today.
	Center Georges Pompidou 1977	Renzo Piano , Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini	Paris , France	The supporting structure and pipes for building technology and access were visibly arranged on the outside of the building. Significant step towards modernism and postmodernism .
	Glass pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre in 1989	Ieoh Ming Pei	Paris , France	The pyramid consists of 602 rhombic and 69 triangular glass segments. The Great Pyramid of Giza served as a model for the proportions .
	Fire station of the Vitra plant in 1993	Zaha Hadid	Weil am Rhein , Germany	The structure consists of clearly cut spikes and edges in a disc construction.
	Oriental Pearl Tower 1995	Jia Huancheng	Shanghai , China	Its unique construction of eleven spheres of different sizes at different heights and supported by columns has become one of the most famous landmarks of the city of Shanghai.
	Therme Vals 1996	Peter Zumthor	Vals , Switzerland	The bathroom is reminiscent of a quarry from which cuboids were cut. The remaining blocks and the cavities in between form the entire building.
	Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói 1996	Oscar Niemeyer	Niterói , Brazil	The Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC) has a diameter of 50 m and its shape is reminiscent of the foot of a mushroom cloud or a UFO.
	Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 1997	Frank Gehry	Bilbao , Spain	The very bizarre building is famous for its deconstructivist architectural style . The museum building also stands for economic success, see Bilbao effect .
	Burj al Arab 1999	Tom Wright	Dubai , United Arab Emirates	The client wanted a landmark for Dubai, which the architect implemented with the help of a memorable shape. Within a very short time, the luxury hotel in the form of a yacht sail became a distinguishing feature of Dubai.
	Beijing National Stadium 2008	Herzog & de Meuron	Beijing , China	Because of its shape, the stadium has been nicknamed "Bird's Nest". The architect Jacques Herzog hopes that “this building will be to Beijing what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris” .
	Burj Khalifa 2010	Adrian Smith	Dubai , United Arab Emirates	The Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure in the world since 2008. Investors kept the amount a secret until the opening on January 4, 2010. With the Burj Khalifa, the various categories of records for the tallest structure go back to a single building for the first time since the Empire State Building was built in 1931.
	Metropol Parasol 2011	Jürgen Mayer	Seville , Spain	The new landmark of Seville is 150 meters long, 70 meters wide and 26 meters high and is considered the largest wooden structure in the world.

literature

• Charles Jencks: The Iconic Building: The Power of Enigm . Rizzoli, 2005, ISBN 978-0711224261
• Isabel Kuhl: 50 Buildings You Should Know . Prestel Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3791338378
• Jonathan Lee: 50 great adventures. Special places and the people who created them . Prestel Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3791335308
• Andres Lepik: Skyscraper . Prestel Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7913-3454-9 .
• Neil Parkyn: Seventy Architectural Wonders . Frederking & Thaler Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3894055363
• Sabine Thiel-Siling (Ed.): Architecture! The 20th century . Prestel Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-3791320137

Web links

• Interview with Charles Jencks ( Memento from September 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Built symbols - what is the meaning of architectural icons? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 30, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andres Lepik: Skyscraper . Prestel Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7913-3454-9 .
2. ↑ Sabine Thiel-Siling (Ed.): Architecture! The 20th century . Prestel Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7913-2013-0 .
3. ↑ Jonathan Lee: 50 Great Adventures. Special places and the people who created them . Prestel Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7913-3530-8 .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Sydney LeBlanc: Modern Architecture in America. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 1998, 246 pp. ISBN 978-3421031365
5. ↑ ^{a b} Constructed signs - What is the meaning of architectural icons? In: NZZ , January 30, 2006
6. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner : European architecture from the beginning to the present . Prestel Verlag 1994, p. 11. ISBN 3-7913-1376-2 .