Iconic Architecture and Capitalist Globalization

Author: Leslie Sklair
Year: 2006 (City 10(1), 21–47)
Source type: article
Raw file: raw/articles/sklair-2006-iconic-architecture-capitalist-globalization.md

Summary

The companion article to Sklair's TCC paper, focused on iconicity and the impact of capitalist globalization on the production, marketing, and reception of iconic architecture. It develops the iconicity thesis: iconic architecture (fame + special symbolic/aesthetic significance) is a hegemonic project of the transnational capitalist class, driven by the "centrality of the image," and argued through the diachronic shift from pre-global state/religion to global capitalism.

Key Claims

• Definition of iconicity: iconic architecture = buildings/spaces that are (1) famous for professionals and/or the public and (2) have special symbolic/aesthetic significance attached. Distinctions: professional vs public icons; local, national, global icons; historical vs contemporary icons.
• The centrality of the image: "no minimizing the centrality of the image in the production and iteration of iconicity" — iconicity is produced and iterated through the media/circulation of images.
• Diachronic thesis: "in the pre-global era ... most iconic architecture was driven by the interests of the state and/or religion, while in the era of capitalist globalization the dominant force driving iconic architecture is the transnational capitalist class."
• Iconicity and globalization: capitalist globalization transforms the production/marketing/reception of the icon; the TCC uses iconic architecture to further the "culture-ideology of consumerism" and city branding.
• Professional/public and Iconic I/II: distinguishes the stereotypical copy (Iconic I) from the unique "unique selling point" (Iconic II); distinguishes professional from public iconicity.

Connections

Concepts: Iconic Architecture · Star Architecture · Consumerism · Spectacle
Authors: Leslie Sklair
Debates: Spectacle vs. Function
Related source notes: The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture (Sklair 2005) · Iconic Architecture and the Culture-ideology of Consumerism (Sklair 2010)

Direct Quotes

"Iconic architecture is defined as buildings and spaces that are (1) famous for those in and around architecture and/or the public at large and (2) have special symbolic/aesthetic significance."

"[N]o minimizing the centrality of the image in the production and iteration of iconicity."

Open Questions

• Does the "centrality of the image" thesis (and the fame+symbolism definition) hold for contemporary iconic architecture once the image economy itself becomes fragmented (Instagram, viral architecture), and for the "autistic"/serial objects of global capital?