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Starchitect

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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, along the Nervión River, Bilbao, Frank Gehry

Starchitect or also stararchitect [star + architect] is a normally pejorative term used to describe architects whose celebrity and critical acclaim have transformed them into idols of the architecture world and may even have given them some degree of fame amongst the general public. Celebrity status is generally associated with avant-gardist novelty. Developers around the world have proven eager to sign up "top talent" (starchitects) in hopes of convincing reluctant municipalities to approve large developments, of obtaining financing or of increasing the value of their buildings. A key characteristic is that the architect's designs are almost always iconic and highly visible within the site or context.

On status

The notion of giving celebrity status to architects is nothing new, but is contained within the general tendency, from the Renaissance onwards, to give status to artists. Until the modern era artists in Western civilization were generally working under a patron - usually the Church or the rulers of the state - and their reputation could become commodified, such that their services could be bought by different patrons. One of the first records of celebrity status is artist-architect Giorgio Vasari's monograph Le Vite delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori (or, in English, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), first published in 1550, recording the Renaissance (rinascita) - a term he himself was the first to use in print - at the time of its flourishing. Vasari, himself under the patronage of Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, even favoured architects from the city where he resided, Florence, attributing to them innovation, while barely mentioning other cities or places further away. The importance of Vasari's book was in the ability to consolidate reputation and status without people actually having to see the works described.[1] The development of media has thus been equally of central importance to architectural celebrity as other walks of life.

While status arising from patronage from the Church and State continued with the rise of Enlightenment and capitalism (e.g. the position of architect Christopher Wren in the patronage of the British Crown, the City of London, the Church of England and Oxford University during the Seventeenth century), there was an expansion in artistic and architectural services available, each competing for commissions with the growth of industry and the middle-classes. Architects nevertheless remained essentially servants to their clients: while Romanticism and Modernism in the other arts encouraged individualism, progress in architecture was geared mostly to improvements in building performance (standards of comfort), engineering and the development of new building typologies (e.g. factories, railway stations, and later airports) and public benevolence (the problems of urbanization, "public housing", overcrowding, etc), yet nevertheless allowing some architects to concern themselves with architecture as an autonomous art (as flourished with Art Nouveau and Art Deco).[2] The heroes of modern architecture, in particular Le Corbusier, were seen as heroic for generating theories about how architecture should be concerned with the development of society, yet he and other early modernist masters, in particular Frank Lloyd Wright, understood the value of exploiting the modern media. When Le Corbusier arrived in USA he held a press conference where he stated that the skyscrapers of New York were too short. Such outbursts guaranteed attendance to his lectures and continued media coverage of his visit, as well as his campaign to be chosen as the architect of the proposed UN building.[3]

Such publicity also made it into the popular press: in the post-war era Time magazine occasionally featured architects on its front cover - for instance, in addition to Le Corbusier, Eero Saarinen, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In more recent times Time magazine has also featured Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. After completing the Johnson Wax Building in 1938 Wright told his client: "Look, I've given you 2 million dollars worth of advertising by being on the cover of Time magazine and ten other magazines. It is worth 2 million dollars and I should charge you for it."[4] Eero Saarinen is also a particularly interesting case because he specialized in building Headquarters for prestigious US companies, such as General Motors, CBS, and IBM, and these companies used architecture to promote their corporate images: e.g. during the 1950s General Motors often photographed their new car models in front of their HQ in Michigan.[5] Corporations have continued to understand the value of bringing in Starchitects to design their key buildings. For instance, the manufacturing company Vitra is well-known for the works of notable architects that make up its premises in Weil am Rhein, Germany; including Zaha Hadid, Álvaro Siza and Frank Gehry; as is the fashion house Prada for commissioning Rem Koolhaas to design their flagship stores in New York and Los Angeles. However, throughout history the greatest prestige has come with the design of public buildings - opera houses, libraries, town halls, and especially museums, often referred to as the "new cathedrals" of our times.[6]

The Bilbao Effect and the rise of 'wow-factor' architecture

Buildings are frequently regarded as profit opportunities and creating 'scarcity' or a certain degree of uniqueness gives further value to the investment. The balance between functionality and avant-gardism has influenced many property developers. For instance, architect-developer John Portman found that building skyscraper hotels with vast atriums - which he did in various US cities during the 1980s - was more profitable than maximizing floor area.[7]

File:Paris.pompidou.500pix.jpg
Piano and Rogers, Pompidou Centre (1977), Paris

However, it was the rise of postmodern architecture during the late 1970s and early 1980s that gave rise to the idea that star status in the architectural profession was about an avant-gardism linked to popular culture - which, it was argued by postmodern critics such as Charles Jencks, had been derided by modernist architecture. In response, Jencks argued for "double coding";[8] i.e. that postmodernism could be understood and enjoyed by the general public and yet command "critical approval". The star architects from that period often built little or their best-known works were so-called "paper architecture", unbuilt or even unbuildable schemes, yet well known through frequent reproduction in architectural magazines: e.g. Léon Krier, Michael Graves, Aldo Rossi and James Stirling. As postmodernism went into decline, due to its associations with vernacular and traditionalism, its avant-gardist credentials suffered, and celebrity shifted back towards Modernist avant-gardism.[9]

But in parallel with post-modernism an undercurrent of modernism persisted, often championing progress by means of experimenting with technology - for instance in the work of Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, and Richard Rogers, the latter two having designed the Pompidou Centre (1977) in Paris, which received both popular and critical acclaim. What this so-called High-tech architecture showed was that an industrial aesthetic - an architecture characterized as much by urban grittiness as engineering efficiency - had popular appeal. This was also somewhat evident in the so-called Deconstructionist architecture, for instance the use by Frank Gehry of chainlink fencing, raw plywood and other industrial materials in designs for residential architecture.

With urban generation from the turn of the twentieth century picking up, economists forecasted that globalization and the powers of multi-national corporations would shift the balance of power away from nation states towards individual cities, which would then compete with neighbouring cities and cities elsewhere for the most lucrative modern industries, and which increasingly in major Western Europe and US cities did not include manufacturing. Thus cities set about 'reinventing themselves', giving precedence to the value given by culture. Municipalities and non-profit organizations hope the use of a Starchitect will drive traffic and tourist income to their new facilities. With the popular and critical success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, by Frank Gehry, in which a rundown area of a city in economic decline brought in huge financial growth and prestige, the media started to talk about the so-called "Bibao factor";[10] a star architect designing a blue-chip, prestige building was thought to make all the difference in producing a landmark for the city. Similar examples are the Imperial War Museum North (2002), Manchester, UK, by Daniel Libeskind, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, by Steven Holl, and the Seattle Central Library (2004), Washington, USA, by OMA.

The Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, Daniel Libeskind.

The origin of the phrase "wow-factor" architecture is uncertain, but has been used extensively in both the UK and USA to promote avant-gardist buildings within urban regeneration since the late 1990s.[11] It has even taken on a more scientific aspect, with money made available in the UK to study the significance of the factor. In research carried out in Sussex University, UK, in 2000, interested parties were asked to consider the "effect on the mind and the senses" of new developments.[12] In an attempt to produce a "delight rating" for a given building, architects, clients and the intended users of the building were encouraged to ask: "What do passers-by think of the building?", "Does it provide a focal point for the community?" "Performance indicators" are also being produced by the UK Construction Industry Council, so that bodies commissioning new buildings will be encouraged to consider whether the planned building has "the wow factor" in addition to more traditional concerns of function and cost.

The Wow-Factor has also been taken up by American architecture critics such as New York Times architecture critics Herbert Mushamp and Nicolai Ouroussof, in their arguments that the city needs to be "radically" reshaped by new towers. Discussing a project for a new skyscraper at 80 South Street, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, by Spanish Starchitect Santiago Calatrava, Ouroussof mentions how Calatrava's apartments are conceived as self-contained urban refuges, $30,000,000 prestige objects for the global elites: "If they differ in spirit from the Vanderbilt mansions of the past, it is only in that they promise to be more conspicuous. They are paradises for aesthetes."[13]

Measuring celebrity status

One way to measure the degree of celebrity status of starchitects would be to check how many Google hits each of them has received (researchers at Clarkson University have used this method "to establish a precise mathematical definition of fame, both in the sciences and the world at large".[14]

Architect Michael Sorkin has analysed a more specific example, in an article titled "Does The New York Times architecture critic Herbert Mushamp keep writing about the same things?"[15] Sorkin statistically showed that Muschamp had a favored circle of architects he consistently promoted. Tied for first on the list were Rem Koolhaas and Frank Gehry, who were each mentioned in 37% of Muschamp's articles. Sorkin's list: Rem Koolhaas (37%); Frank Gehry (37%); Peter Eisenman with ANY, Cynthia Davidson, Greg Lynn, Jeff Kipnis (28%); Peter Eisenman (22%); Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio (16%); Philippe Starck (13%); Christian de Portzamparc (13%); Philip Johnson (11%); Tod Williams and Billie Tsien (11%); James Stewart Polshek (11%); Jean Nouvel (11%); Robert Venturi (11%); David Childs (10%); Rafael Vinoly (10%); Zaha Hadid (8%); Greg Lynn (8%); Little-known architects (6%); Women not in partnership with the top cited men (6%); articles that do not mention Koolhaas, Gehry, or Eisenman (30%); Frank Lloyd Wright (11%); Le Corbusier (11%).

Of course, stardom isn't guaranteed to endure, and any list of Starchitects will vary from continent to continent. Certain architects have achieved high status within the cutting-edge architectural media while having built little or nothing: e.g in 2001 Time magazine named architect Greg Lynn one of '100 Innovators for the Next Century', the only architect to be included, despite the fact that he has built very little, though has had wide coverage in the avant-gardist architectural media and wide exposure.

This definitive shift and momentum continued with the emergence of a new generation of digi-stars with the Non Standard Architectures exhibition held at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2004. Curated by CNAC Design Director and renowned French architecture critic Frederic Migayrou, the exhibition grouped twelve international architects who have been researching and using digital tools and computers for generating architectural conception. This new generation of star architects were Asymptote, dECOI, DR D, Greg Lynn, Tom Kovac, KOL/MAC, NOX, Objectile, ONL, R&Sie]], Servo and UN Studio. From this emerging group Greg Lynn, Tom Kovac and UN Studio also made significant impact in the design world with Alessi's Tea & Coffee Towers in 2004 promoting them to the emerging starchitect world in much the same way that the 'Tea & Coffee Piazza' which Alessi launched twenty five years earlier propelled Aldo Rossi, Michael Graves and Richard Meier to starchitect status internationally.

Also, architects nowadays regarded as pivotal in the history of architecture may have been much admired by their contemporaries, and even honoured by professional associations, yet were virtually unknown to the general public. Trends in contemporary architectural journalism have tended to stress the fashionableness of buildings. Charles Jenck's method of sustaining celebrity status for chosen architects was to fit their current projects into an ongoing history, as evident Architecture Today.[16] This method of journalism masked as history has often been repeated, as in Architects Today by Kester Rattenbury et al.[17] and the series Architecture Now by Philip Jodidio.[18]

A list of current Starchitects

Close to Starchitect Status

Yesterday's starchitects

Dead Starchitects

This list highlights architects who were working primarily in the early to mid 1900s, before the term "starchitect" was commonly used. The rise of mass media in the mid-1900s changed the way that the general public perceives architecture, and therefore, changed the nature of architecture itself - culminating in the currently pejorative connotations of "starchitect" as a label.

Notes

  1. ^ D. J. Gordon and Stephen Orgel, "Leonardo's Legend", ELH, Vol. 49, No. 2, Summer, 1982.
  2. ^ Spiro Kostof, The Architect: Chapters in the History of the Profession, University of California Press, 2000.
  3. ^ 'Fame and Architecture', Architectural Design, vol.71, no.6, Nov. 2001.
  4. ^ 'Fame and Architecture', Architectural Design, vol.71, no.6, Nov. 2001.
  5. ^ Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen and Donald Albrecht (eds), Eero Saarinen. Shaping the Future New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006.
  6. ^ Justin Henderson, Museum Architecture, Rockport Publishers, 2001.
  7. ^ Charles Landry, The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London; Earthscan, 2003.
  8. ^ Charles Jencks, What is Postmodernism? London, Academy Editions, 1984.
  9. ^ Charles Jencks, "The new paradigm in architecture" in Absolute Motion, Datutop 22, Tampere, 2002.
  10. ^ Witold Rybczynski, "The Bilbao Effect", The Atlantic Monthly, September 2002.
  11. ^ The term has been used more often in business management. See for instance: Tom Peters, The pursuit of wow, New York, Vintage, 1994.
  12. ^ Paul Kelso, "Architects urged to go for the 'wow factor' in designs for Britain's new public buildings", The Guardian, November 27, 2000.
  13. ^ Nicolai Ouroussof, "The New New York Skyline", The New York Times, September 5, 2004
  14. ^ Mike Martin, "Scientists Use Google To Measure Fame vs. Merit", Sci-tech today.com - May 20, 2004, [1]
  15. ^ Michael Sorkin, arch_01.06, [2]
  16. ^ Charles Jencks, Architecture Today, Harry N Abrams, New York, 1988.
  17. ^ Kester Rattenbury, Robert Bevan, Kieran Long, Architects Today, Laurence King Publ., 2006.
  18. ^ Philip Jodidio, Architecture Now, 1-4, New York, Taschen, 2002-2006.

See also

Pritzker Prize

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