Lecture 6: Theories of Design Thinking
- OLIVIA TAM SIE WEN 1001540443
- Mar 8, 2016
- 3 min read
Question 5: What is the impact of branding and celebrity status to Design Thought? Show examples of projects or architects to best showcase your point.
Architectural branding has proved beneficial to cultural organisations. The Bilbao Effect, the idea that attracting a world-class cultural institution, has a recognized architectural brand helps raise public interest in a project at its inception. Having a recognizable architectural brand is also a key ingredient in fund raising. What is takes is conventional: a good location, strong demand, and competitive pricing. The lesson is that architectural branding has to be very carefully positioned with respect to demand. The market for a boutique hotel or a small residential project may appreciate and even be willing to pay extra for a name-brand architect. The broader market, even the luxury sector, may be more value-oriented. To the extent that a name architect delivers a superior product, a truly better and more efficient building, he will add value to the project and that product will deem to become his brand. The icon that will pretty much resembles him, and when people looked at that building, they will know who designed it.
Starchitect is a portmanteau 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" 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 starchitecture is almost always "iconic" and highly visible within the site or context. As the status is dependent on current visibility in the media, fading media status implies that architects lose "starchitect" status. Hence, a list can be drawn up of former "starchitects".
Rem Koolhaas
A recognizable brand depends on more than merely name recognition. For instance, the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has tried to transform his personal celebrity into an international brand, which he calls the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). OMA, with offices in Rotterdam, Beijing, and New York, has produced a variety of work, from a big-box convention center in Cordoba to a crystalline library in Seattle and an unusual skyscraper in Beijing. A large, mixed-use complex in Louisville, Kentucky, will include a hotel, offices, residences, and an art museum. Like Foster, Piano, and Rogers, OMA has avoided architectural style as a branding tool, although its designs are distinctly fashionable, in an edgy sort of way. The buildings are frequently not conventionally attractive, and they often challenge established taste. But OMA also demonstrates the perils of turning avant-garde architecture, usually associated with individual designers, into an international brand. The entire New York City office broke away from the OMA organization and set up on its own, as if Diet Coke had split off from Coca Cola.
Crystalline Library in Seattle
Skyscraper in Beijing
One of the celebrity architects is Frank Gehry. He has perhaps the strongest architectural franchise in the world today. Although he has built a number of small commercial projects in Prague, Berlin, and Boston, he is chiefly known for his cultural monuments, notably the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Gehry brand is unmistakable: whimsical, sculptural, quirky buildings that don’t look like buildings, incidentally are difficult and expensive to build. It will be a challenge to successfully adapt Gehry’s approach to a large commercial development such as the ones that he is planning for Brooklyn and downtown Los Angeles.
Atlantic Yards, Brooklyn.
It is not difficult to explain why architects are attracted to branding. Like lawyers, doctors, and accountants, architects are essentially professional workers who are paid highly, by the hour. Although they create organizations that are able to produce many projects at once, when all is said and done, they are only as solvent as their next commission.
In conclusion, architectural branding and celebrity status bring a lot of impacts to the design thought as the architects apply their unique and creativity ideas in the building designs which may become a landmark of a city. These iconic building design within the site or context gives the opportunity to influence people to know more about architecture. From these building designs, people can differentiate the difference in architect's personality.