*What is a building? According to Vsauce (and where ever he got his info. from) "Technically a building is a structure in which at least 50% of its height comes from plates (does he mean area?) where people can live, work, chill out-it has to be habitable, any less than that and it's not a building, it's a tower"
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Can you name an iconic structure*? Here are a few off the top of my head: The Taj Mahal, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Eiffel tower, The Empire State Building, what else...the Sydney Opera House, The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (?) Big Ben, Not too hard, is it? In fact it seems very easy and I bet you can name many more. Can you explain why these structures are iconic? Maybe you have an idea as to why but for most of us, including architects, we take these marvels for granted and don't give much thought to what makes them so successful. If you're a design professional you may be curious as to what specifically makes a building or structure iconic. You may have questions like; What is the definition of an "Iconic Structure" or why does a structure get labeled "Iconic"? Who bestows this unofficial universal status on a piece of architecture or structure? What are the architectural qualities, elements that define these structures. How do I know when I'm designing an iconic structure?All good questions which one would assume are easy to answer. The answer to the first question should be very apparent, (the definition of an iconic structure), however it's not! There is no official "Iconic Committee" and NO agreed upon definition. Unfortunately you can't just open a dictionary or do a google search and expect to find a text book definition, (it didn't work for me) it's like trying to define porn; you really can't but you know it when you see it. Here is what I found on the Internet: Unique design, historical importance, symbolic quality, distinct, easily identifiable, association to a particular place or city. Basically key words but not much else (OK maybe I didn't try hard enough). .
Well, you're not here for the typical view point on iconic architecture, or its definition (or lack of), you can find that on your own. No, you are here because (most likely you here by accident through some other unrelated search, but that's OK) you want the alternative view. What is an iconic building-structure according to AD? Here it is in a nutshell: Icon equals synaesthesia. If you can make a building "synaesthesic" you can make an "Icon Structure" or any other great building for that matter. Watch this Daniel Tammet video for a brief explanation on synaesthesia.
Synesthesia (Text from wikipedia) (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia; from the Ancient Greek σύν syn, "together", and αἴσθησις aisthēsis, "sensation") is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes.
The concept of synaesthesia works by stimulating the interconnections between our senses which heighten our emotional response to a given experience. Iconic structure through clever design and statement push all the right buttons to trigger this physiological response. The other big factor is a purely mental task involving perception which compares "architectural correctness" to information stored in our mind. When a person observes a piece of architecture the brain becomes preoccupied on where does the structure "fall short" or "exceed" my expectations based on previous similar examples. This kind of thought process makes our Parietal Cortex light up. The parietal cortex connects the brains visual processing center with the motor cortex. When your brain looks at a building it tries to match and compare other buildings in the brains data bank. In the case of an iconic structure, the comparison exceeds the brains expectation of what constitutes "good" architecture, hence the "oooohing an ahhhhing" when marveling in front of one.
Let's do a case study. I shall choose the Eiffel tower. Why? Because I've been there a few times and have been to the top, sketched it from the park, have taken the metro to the Trocadero, site of the Palais de Chaillot and approached it from many points but most importantly, this must be the most iconic of all iconic structures on the planet, perhaps the very definition of it.
For any structure to achieve "Icon" status, the design professional must learn how to incorporate the synesthesia effect in every step of the design process. To start with we must understand "Place", in particular the geo-social aspect of the place. When we begin a building project we are typically aware, or should be aware of all the basic characteristics of an area that any architect would know about but in the case of iconic architecture we view those factors on a grander scale, we must understand all the social attributes and associations of the place and people. In the case of the Eiffel Tower things like, lights, glamour, love, romance, history etc. describe both place and people. However we cannot assume these will be automatically given to our project because the "place" in which our building is located is associated with it: we must earn them through clever design and brilliant architecture.
But before we understand what the city does for our architecture we must have proper intention. No great work happens by accident and to have an iconic structure we need great intention (this applies to any worthy piece of architecture) Now intention can be financial gain, political statement, egotistical showmanship, pure functionality or a combination of these and many more. What ever the prime intention of the architecture is, the final product never lies: It will be clear for all to see. Here with the Eiffel Tower, the intention was to represent an invisible idea, belief; Representation of a people through physical expression at the 1889 Worlds Fair. So successful was the end product that it not only survived scheduled demolition (it was slated to be taken down after 20 years) it has gone on to be loved not only by its city inhabitants but by its parent country and the world at large. Intention, albeit not written anywhere on the tower, triggers our synaesthesia senses as we are reminded of greater and bigger ambitions we all share as part of the human race. For those that are purely pragmatic and do not believe in such "gibberish" and who think intention and the rest of this discussion is sentimentality gone wild, I feel sorry for you since that which is unloved, buildings or otherwise, are routinely demolished and a blight to society. know this: Intention trumps function. In the case of the tower how many people visit the tower and don't even go in it? Function is not the soul of architecture, intention is. For those that think of themselves as "builders" know your intention because you're not really fooling anybody with your self gain and low class architecture.
Now we need a designer, one who can translate our intention into a physical object. One that is not simply talented (there are many talented smart people in the world, that's not a high priced commodity) but one with cache, a name. Sounds very shallow I know but trust me it's not. No, it doesn't have to be a world famous designers name but it must sound like one because one day it shall- Gustav Eiffel that's it! Why is a name so important? I discuss that at length here: whats-in-name -If you don't read the article suffice it to say thankfully we don't call the Eiffel Tower, "The Faget Tower". (Please, I'm sincerely not trying to offend)
Finally we arrive at the actual design, which some may say is the easy part. Why? I may not have a Paris, or grandiose intention, or a conducive name... However with that said, the Eiffel tower was not easy to design I'm sure. The tower is a complicated mesh of parts that have come together in an extremely logical and comprehensible way. It's seeming complexity is expressed in such a way that even those without any engineering background believe they understand it.
Design excellence does not come easy; it is hard fought for as anyone who creates for a living can tell you. The ability to order layers of complication into a single cohesive functional and aesthetic creation is extremely difficult, as any skyscraper designer could attest to. Richard Feynman (Noted scientist) said it best, "If you can't explain it to a 6 year old you don't really understand it". In the case of the tower the simple geometry comes together effortlessly transcending architecture and tapping into a universal order of rationality. I could continue to elaborate on the Towers brilliance so what. What people really care about in life and architecture is, "Does this move me?"
 |
| Photo by L.Portal |
For any structure to achieve "Icon" status, the design professional must learn how to incorporate the synesthesia effect in every step of the design process. To start with we must understand "Place", in particular the geo-social aspect of the place. When we begin a building project we are typically aware, or should be aware of all the basic characteristics of an area that any architect would know about but in the case of iconic architecture we view those factors on a grander scale, we must understand all the social attributes and associations of the place and people. In the case of the Eiffel Tower things like, lights, glamour, love, romance, history etc. describe both place and people. However we cannot assume these will be automatically given to our project because the "place" in which our building is located is associated with it: we must earn them through clever design and brilliant architecture.
But before we understand what the city does for our architecture we must have proper intention. No great work happens by accident and to have an iconic structure we need great intention (this applies to any worthy piece of architecture) Now intention can be financial gain, political statement, egotistical showmanship, pure functionality or a combination of these and many more. What ever the prime intention of the architecture is, the final product never lies: It will be clear for all to see. Here with the Eiffel Tower, the intention was to represent an invisible idea, belief; Representation of a people through physical expression at the 1889 Worlds Fair. So successful was the end product that it not only survived scheduled demolition (it was slated to be taken down after 20 years) it has gone on to be loved not only by its city inhabitants but by its parent country and the world at large. Intention, albeit not written anywhere on the tower, triggers our synaesthesia senses as we are reminded of greater and bigger ambitions we all share as part of the human race. For those that are purely pragmatic and do not believe in such "gibberish" and who think intention and the rest of this discussion is sentimentality gone wild, I feel sorry for you since that which is unloved, buildings or otherwise, are routinely demolished and a blight to society. know this: Intention trumps function. In the case of the tower how many people visit the tower and don't even go in it? Function is not the soul of architecture, intention is. For those that think of themselves as "builders" know your intention because you're not really fooling anybody with your self gain and low class architecture.
 |
| Photo by L. Portal |
Now we need a designer, one who can translate our intention into a physical object. One that is not simply talented (there are many talented smart people in the world, that's not a high priced commodity) but one with cache, a name. Sounds very shallow I know but trust me it's not. No, it doesn't have to be a world famous designers name but it must sound like one because one day it shall- Gustav Eiffel that's it! Why is a name so important? I discuss that at length here: whats-in-name -If you don't read the article suffice it to say thankfully we don't call the Eiffel Tower, "The Faget Tower". (Please, I'm sincerely not trying to offend)
Finally we arrive at the actual design, which some may say is the easy part. Why? I may not have a Paris, or grandiose intention, or a conducive name... However with that said, the Eiffel tower was not easy to design I'm sure. The tower is a complicated mesh of parts that have come together in an extremely logical and comprehensible way. It's seeming complexity is expressed in such a way that even those without any engineering background believe they understand it.
 |
| Photo by L.Portal |
Design excellence does not come easy; it is hard fought for as anyone who creates for a living can tell you. The ability to order layers of complication into a single cohesive functional and aesthetic creation is extremely difficult, as any skyscraper designer could attest to. Richard Feynman (Noted scientist) said it best, "If you can't explain it to a 6 year old you don't really understand it". In the case of the tower the simple geometry comes together effortlessly transcending architecture and tapping into a universal order of rationality. I could continue to elaborate on the Towers brilliance so what. What people really care about in life and architecture is, "Does this move me?"
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