CITY, VOL. 10, NO.

1, APRIL 2006

The iconic building is here to

stay

Charles Jencks
Taylor and Francis Ltd

The iconic building is here to stay? Charles Jencks contrasts the view that asserts the build-
ings’ staying power with that of, for example Deyan Sudjic, who argues that it is a short-
lived phenomenon and about to disappear. It will stay, Jencks argues, because iconic build-
ings reflect the dominance of powerful forces and the decline of others. He sees the struggle
for a religious dimension as essentially lost (contra Christopher Baker, ‘Religious faith in the
exurban community’ in City 9:1, pp 109–123). At best, these buildings bring together
conflicting metaphors and embody cosmic meanings. They can then tend towards meaning,
but they can also tend towards meaninglessness. Jencks weighs up the pros and cons of these
‘enigmatic signifiers’ and explores the possible elements of a code of good practice which
could ‘neutralise those embarrassing mistakes that come with any high-risk venture.’

S
ome people, especially English archi- modernization and the constant upheavals of
tects and critics, bemoan the emer- the marketplace. When whole areas of the
gence of the iconic building.1 This new city, as Marx described them, “melt into air”
genre, I believe, is fast replacing the monu- because of development, when the names of
ment. Monuments have lost their power to squares and districts change overnight, what
persuade, and enshrine permanent memo- is the meaning of a monument? It can signify
ries, but society has hardly lost its appetite anything, and often today that might be an
for grand structures. Quite the opposite: the embarrassing change in sentiment. This can
self-important building characterizes our be seen clearly in places of revolutionary
time, partly because the size of commissions change, of course, and military conflict. Viet-
becomes ever larger under late-capitalism nam and Iraq have witnessed the constant
and partly because architects and their toppling of monuments and renaming of
commercial products must compete for squares. But the shift was already apparent in
attention. So a strange mood has developed, 18th-century France.
something of a double-bind, where the In the space of about 50 years, the major
architect and society both have misgivings public square in Paris next to the Tuilleries
about the iconic building but cannot help was re-named and restyled five times. First, in
producing it, in ever greater numbers and its creation, what was christened the Place
ever weirder form. This is a cause for consid- Louis XV had a face-lift and a new monumen-
erable irony, and a little analysis. tal setting for the new monument to the King,
an equestrian statue based on that of Marcus
Aurelius in Rome. Then, like Saddam
Decline of monuments Hussein’s statues, this was toppled in a revo-
lution, and the square was named after the
Consider the decline of the monument, event, in 1789. Then, after the guillotine had
something that sets in with the rise of its work on Danton, Robespierre, Mme

ISSN 1360-4813 print/ISSN 1470-3629 online/06/010003-18 © 2006 Charles Jencks

DOI: 10.1080/13604810600594605
4 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

Roland, and countless others, the Place de la believe in nothing—they believe in anything”.
Revolution was re-styled as the Place de la This epigram by Chesterton nicely states the
Concorde—for 20 years. Predictably then problem for society and the architect. Today,
with The Restoration it was re-christened anything can be an icon. The philosopher,
“Place Louis XV” and then, on schedule at the Arthur Danto, has drawn a similar conclusion.
appropriate moment, “Place Louis XVI”. As he has written on many occasions about the
Finally, because of an overwhelming desire to post-Warhol world of the marketplace,
please the people, the King Louis-Philippe re- anything can be a work of art. A Brillo Box
minted the old coin for the area, calling it the was Warhol’s contribution to this truth, a
Place de la Concorde. More honestly it might ridiculously banal object, as unimportant as he
have been Discorde. What was the monumen- could find. Yet with his nomination of the
tal strategy of Louis-Philippe? Where the throw-away package, one supported by Leo
guillotine was, he erected a large, granite Castelli and then the art world, this ephemeral
obelisk, borrowed handily from Luxor and, box became expensive art. Marcel Duchamp,
underlining the point of the images and hiero- originator of the Ready-Made 50 years earlier,
glyphs carved into its surface, pronounced the was piqued; at least his objets-trouvés had a
great lesson for France: “it would not recall a sculptural and industrial presence, a surreal
single political event.”2 Fantastique! charge, a convulsive beauty. Yet Duchamp’s
Here is the first icon of calculated ambigu- ire had no more effect than other attacks on
ity, call it the “icon without a clear iconogra- Pop Art. Along with many other contempo-
phy”, or the “enigmatic signifier”, a sign that rary art movements, the politics of the
becomes its hallmark—the move was destined counter-culture ushered in the period of
to be repeated.3 pluralism and relativity, the era of post-
Ever since Louis-Philippe, artists, architects modernism.
and now the general public have learned to The implications were not terribly pressing
enjoy, or suffer, their perplexing situation. in the conservative world of architecture, at
The monument has been toppled as much by least for 30 years until Frank Gehry’s New
commercial society as by revolutions, by Guggenheim and the so-named “Bilbao
branding as by conscious iconoclasm. It is true Effect” did its work (Figure 1). At that point
the World Trade Center was destroyed as a developers and mayors could see the
symbol of American hegemony, as an icon of economic logic of the sculptural gesture, with
a foreign policy that was hated; but it is untrue its many enigmatic signifiers, and the same
to think that Americans ever liked the building method was applied to any and every building
very much, or thought of it as a venerable type. This presented a semantic problem,
monument worth worshipping. That is, until inverting notions of appropriateness and
it was brought down, repeatedly, on TV. At decorum, for now an outrageously expressive
that point, the media gave the ruins and the museum could take on the urban role of a
previous image an enduring religious pres- cathedral or public building, such as a city hall.
ence. An icon always has a trace of sanctity Lincoln Cathedral, Nikolaus Pevsner had
Figure 1theFrank
engages total landscape—the
Gehry’s New Guggenheim,
industrial elements
1997, cost
and$100
bridge,
million
the Nervion
and in two
River,
years
and
brought
the hills
in on
$400.
both
This,
sides
theofBilbao
the river.
Effect, was not the first use of enigmatic signifiers on a landmark, but it was the most effective. Note the way the building

about it, the aura of a saint, by definition it is pronounced, is architecture, while a bicycle
an object to be worshipped, however fitfully. shed is building. Architecture versus mere
building, everyone carries around such a
distinction because it is historic, economic,
Spiritual inflation ornamental and social. So, what happens
when this difference is eroded, or even
And this leads to the second reason that the reversed; when a bicycle shed becomes not
iconic building has replaced the monument. In only architecture, but an icon?
our time in the west, as the adage has it, “when That is the question raised today in an age
people stop believing in God, they don’t when anything can be believed. Consider
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 5

Figure 1 Frank Gehry’s New Guggenheim, 1997, cost $100 million and in two years brought in $400. This, the
Bilbao Effect, was not the first use of enigmatic signifiers on a landmark, but it was the most effective. Note the way the
building engages the total landscape—the industrial elements and bridge, the Nervion River, and the hills on both sides
of the river.

some of the more famous recent iconic build- a cocktail party, determined to strut her stuff
ings, the ones that receive media saturation while all the time, squashed low in the back-
from New York to Beijing. Prada Headquar- ground, are the darkened bones of an
ters in New York and Tokyo by Rem Kool- unloved church—dirty, miserable and in the
haas and Herzog and De Meuron; the shade. As in a typical Thurber cartoon, the
LVMH Tower in New York by Christian de woman’s bloom brings on the man’s cringe.
Portzamparc; Philip Johnson’s AT&T Build- Selfridges, as its architects grant, is meant to
ing; convention centres by Peter Eisenman be sexy and remind one of a Paco Rabanne
and Santiago Calatrava; and, perhaps most dress, body-hugging clothes, sparkling
symbolically, Future Systems building for sequins, tits and bums and, on the inside, yet
Selfridges in Birmingham (Figures 2 and 3). I more intimate parts.
have selected only commercial exemplars to Why not? This emporium markets the
simplified
Figure 23 in
Future
Metaphorical
someSystems,
ways and
analysis,
Selfridges,
the perplexity
Selfridges
Birmingham,
is (drawings
how to 2003,
deal
bywith
Madelon
usurps
this.theVriesendorp).
monumental presence of the church in the distance, and uses several explicit signifiers and a reduced image to do so. Iconic architecture is, by definition of the icon, always

bring out the fact that relatively banal build- body image, why can’t the whole building be
ing tasks have usurped the expressive role of an icon to taking off and putting on clothes,
more elevated ones—demonstrating the rela- to narcissism? If sexuality pervades the media
tivism of post-modernism. But the poignant and the arts, why can’t architecture reflect it
truth about the last mentioned structure is too? If people no longer go to church, only
that it has appropriated the position of the follow politics as a sport, and dedicate them-
church, both literally and metaphorically. selves to shopping, then why can’t Prada
Here, an all-over skin of glistening discs become the icon of the moment? Clothes are
bumps and grinds its way to the edges of a worshipped, scanty-clad celebrities are
big site, sprawling like a garrulous matron at emulated today almost like saints, and money
6 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

Figure 2 Future Systems, Selfridges, Birmingham, 2003, usurps the monumental presence of the church in the
distance, and uses several explicit signifiers and a reduced image to do so. Iconic architecture is, by definition of the
icon, always simplified in some ways and the perplexity is how to deal with this.

is the only universal in which a global culture can be made. The decline of religion, as post-
believes. modernists such as Jean-François Lyotard
Put like that it sounds rather grim, which it have argued, is part of the broader trend, the
is; but there is no decadence without at least increasing scepticism towards all meta-narra-
some silver lining and redemption. Besides, tives. Whereas in 1851 between 40 and 60% of
many architects are learning how to exploit the British population went to church regu-
the iconic building for creative purposes. larly, today the figure is less than 7%; in abso-
Before I come to them, a few general points lute terms Sunday church attendance has
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 7

Figure 3 Metaphorical analysis, Selfridges (drawings by Madelon Vriesendorp).

8 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

declined, since 1968, from 1.6 million to The double bind

Figure
in this part
4 ofTaipei
the world.
101, Taipei Financial Center, 2005, C.Y. Lee Partners, architects. The largest skyscraper in the world is themed as a Chinese pagoda with Egyptian and Futurist details—an exotic Asian hybrid typical of the “race to the top”

950,000 today. Even in 2001, a leading cardinal

of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain (and The problem, of course, is that it is happen-
now its head), Murphy-O’Connor, said ing to us and the trend will not go away
“Christianity is almost dead”, while the Arch- simply because architects and critics do not
bishop of Canterbury responded, “Christian like it.5 The iconic building is an over-
churches in Britain are ‘almost vanquished’”.4 determined genre, it has many deep causes
By contrast, others argue that religion and that find support in the economy and society.
nationalism have actually increased, in this the The two I have mentioned, the decline in
age of fundamentalisms; but I think this is an belief and the eclipse of the monument, are
unhistorical view. Fundamentally, one is powerful enough, but consider the other
inclined to say, fundamentalism is an ersatz forces. Politicians, such as John Prescott in
religion, the reduction of a complex cultural Britain and mayors such as Bloomberg in
discourse to a set of slogans, scriptures and New York, demand the “wow factor” in new
programme. It is not the sign of belief but the building, explicitly ask for the “Bilbao
fear of its absence, not the commitment to the Effect”, which brought in millions of dollars
church as a transcendent ideal but the Church to that rust-belt city. Developers have always
Militant. The same is true of ideologies; they had one eye on this factor, it is nothing new
are phoney religions no matter if they are for skyscrapers or the recent spate of
believed passionately or even unconsciously, competitive tall buildings that Mayor Living-
like faith in the free-market system. As stone is supporting for London. Architects
philosophers and theologians have pointed who don’t compete for these jobs may
out, fundamentalism is also a modernist reac- consign themselves to the second rank, don’t
tion, and most often but not exclusively a themselves become the “iconic architects”
reaction to a modernization that has failed. who are on everybody’s lips, and short-lists.
The iconic buildings that have arisen It is no accident that the list is now global
recently in Asia, Africa and the Muslim and recurs like a litany: Foster, Gehry,
world often underscore these general points. Libeskind, Koolhaas, Herzog and De
They appear to have little faith in the Meuron, Hadid, Calatrava, Alsop, Nouvel—
iconography and symbolism they sport the usual suspects. A new arrival, such as Ken
(Figure 4). Like slogans they hang around, Shuttleworth at his newly designed firm,
with embarrassment, in the air. In this sense, MAKE, shows this pattern and, with his
failed iconic architecture is a very good iconic skyscraper design, the strategy. His
symbol of failed belief, which is why some tall projects are all enigmatic signifiers with
people hate the genre. Icons without a sculptural shape and suggestive overtones,
supporting iconography are like spots on the corkscrews and vortex. As one of the team
skin that signify measles, an unintended that designed Foster’s “gherkin” for Swiss
betrayal of meaning, a symptom waiting for Re, he knows how to position the image and
the doctor’s analysis, often a denial of the function of the landmark building. And
very meaning they hope to assert. In such these, typically, cost a lot of money, often
cases, the genre should be re-christened more than a £100 million.
Ironic Iconic for it sends self-cancelling Global society and its largest corporations,
messages. Graham Morrison, an English those commissioning the expensive land-
architect and critic of the movement, speaks mark, in turn force architecture to be medi-
of the Thames River transformation into the ated by the mass media—above all TV, the
“Costa del Icon”. Like Mrs Malaprop Sunday supplements, airline magazines and
putting on airs and confusing words, the international weeklies such as Time. Partly
failure of iconography can be funny, as long global clients must use the media to organize
is it is happening to other people. consent and raise a huge amount of risk
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 9

Figure 4 Taipei 101, Taipei Financial Center, 2005, C.Y. Lee Partners, architects. The largest skyscraper in the world
is themed as a Chinese pagoda with Egyptian and Futurist details—an exotic Asian hybrid typical of the “race to the
top” in this part of the world.

capital, and the “Starchitect” is essential in the 1980s, proclaimed to the media—“I am a
getting this attention. Partly the big clients whore”—not only because he would work
need a judicious mixture of fame and contro- for anyone who paid him a lot, but also
versy to keep the media interested. The because he exulted in saying what his
“iconic architect” is thus encouraged to take competitors were denying: that he would go
risks, break the rules, upstage his competitors to any lengths to get the job, and design in
and shamelessly grab the spotlight. Philip any strange manner to keep it. The necessity
Johnson, notoriously leading this charge in to shock and take risks, within a high-voltage
10 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

corporate culture, explains the distaste of one-liner, the a-contextual building, the
architects for the whole business. For them it destruction of the city—has been made for
is a double bind: they are damned if they many years. Graham Morrison repeats such
don’t compete to be outrageous, and damned arguments in his article “Look at Me!”,
when their risks look stupid, which is most published widely, and Miles Glendinning
of the time. adds a few more in his optimistically titled
But beyond such factors as the expensive polemic, The Last Icons, Architecture
building and the media, there is a positive Beyond Modernism. Glendinning and the
force: the public’s growing taste for iconic Observer critic Deyan Sudjic argue that the
building. When done well, by Gehry at Bilbao iconic building is a short-lived fashion and
or with his Disney Hall in Los Angeles, it about to disappear. Indeed, the latter, by his
finds a popular response parallel to triumphs weekly attacks on the genre, actually ampli-
in the art world. Both Gehry buildings fies the message of his supposed enemy. As
became instant public sensations, tourist with journalistic censure of page-three girls,
destinations and much loved by hundreds of the hypocritical media can’t avert their eyes
thousands of visitors. I have already from the sinners; besides, moralistic outrage
mentioned the well-documented case of the not only sells well, but is an essential and
Bilbao Effect on the public, but also architects calculated part of the message, both by the
and critics in America, Europe, Japan and iconic architect and his detractor. Risk,
Asia hailed these two icons as victories for controversy and fury are, in this sense, the
creative risk. Even the initially sceptical message.
Basques, wary of big American imperial art, However, it is wishful thinking on the
came round to the new museum in their heart- critics part to think the “iconic age is over”
land. Gehry enjoyed the kind of popular (and (as it is styled).6 The supposition is based on
Pop) status of Bob Geldorf and artists such as a false historical analogy, the confusion of a
Claes Oldenburg—both, incidentally, his new genre with a stylistic movement or a
friends and exemplars when it comes to media cultural sensibility, like Art Nouveau, as if
savvy. Architects, rarely popular at any time, the forces at work were ones of taste. But
had with Gehry also become newsworthy. fashion and style are a distraction from the
While a few modern artists, such as main determinants of the trend, the economic
Picasso, were celebrities, it is now a well- and ideological issues of a global society, one
travelled route to the top in Brit Art, and for without common religious beliefs or a shared
their American counterparts. Peter Eisenman culture.
remarked that it is unlikely for an architect to
have a building reviewed in The New York
Times unless it is promoted by a press agent; The erosion of deference and hierarchy
indeed it has to be one of the best agents,
because these column-inches are the rarest The critics of the iconic building often
and most powerful commodity. Damien assume we are living in a Christian, or
Hirst has said branding is most important for Modern, or socialist culture, that is, one with
artists, and when architects follow suit, one some coherence and shared values. Or,
appreciates that the information world has perhaps, they hope we will soon recapture
exacted its nasty revenge. Yet in spite of the such a condition. For instance, in The Last
hype, one should not underestimate the Icons, Glendinning argues for a return to a
desire of the public for good iconic buildings. ‘hierarchy of decorum’, in effect a new social
They still make people leave home, to enjoy contract going back to the 18th century and
the expressive aspects of the public realm. its hierarchy of the genres and the arts (with
Complaint about their very real prob- historical painting at the top and genre scenes
lems—the simplified image, the stupid at the bottom) and he ends up supporting
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 11

social housing and the Cumbernauld New Such confusion of values finds its counter-
Town, as antidotes to the iconic disease. part in the architectural free for all. The old
One only has to note the assumptions of hierarchy of building types, with the church
this to see it is not about to happen. The at its apex, is not much respected by develop-
belief in the church, the monarchy and the ers, architects or the public. Characteristi-
19th-century social order, not to mention cally, the media lionize the private house
the ideologies that sustain them, is weakly designed by an iconic architect and disregard
held. The desire for state socialism has also the large public building, usually designed by
waned. It is one thing to go to church for a mediocre firm. We ritually bemoan this
the ritual, or on Christmas Day, but few inversion of values, then go right on accept-
people believe in a creator God in a universe ing the celebrity culture behind it. Hypocrisy
that is 13.7 billion years old, whose expan- or impotence—what is the cause of this
sion rate we know. They may pay lip service double standard?
to Christianity, especially when answering A similar argument can be made for the
questionnaires, and feel they ought to decline in deference. Since Margaret Thatcher
believe strongly, but their actions on introduced the ‘culture of contempt’ in the
Sunday, and when faced with rational 1980s, the sight of one profession deferring
choices of a secular society, tell a different to another out of respect, or a sense of duty,
story. has become as rare as a stiff collar. Pluralism
If they somehow do believe in the God of and competitive commercialism have eroded
the Big Bang, they do with so many caveats traditional norms of discourse as is plain in
that their conviction can only be described as tabloid journalism, and the way this last
idiosyncratic and weak, not shared and bends public policy is perfectly plain to
strong. The truth of science conflicts with the anyone who watched the Bush–Blair axis
truth of scripture to the point where, if triumph on TV, for 15 minutes, with their
joined, both become confused. For instance, display of Baghdad fireworks they shock-
Pope John Paul II had private conferences ingly exulted in as “shock and awe”. When
with scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, leaders are so brazenly driven by the media
and took on some of the ideas of contempo- spectacle, carefully filmed at night for maxi-
rary cosmology and Darwinism. But he mum impact, their followers will lower the
demanded that Hawking and others not bar of decency. The iconic building is, on one
pontificate on what happened before the Big level, just the application of shock and awe to
Bang and Who caused it; that was forbidden architecture, with fewer victims.
territory. For the Pope, the cosmos was still Of course one must curse and lampoon
designed by a deity, “God the architect of the the follies, and try to prevent them, although
universe” as Plato and others styled him, and demanding better icons by better architects
one whose creation has to be benign. This might be a better policy. In any case, the
desire to reconcile current science and tradi- strategy of deference to a past hierarchy is at
tional religion and morality is entirely under- best a stop-gap and at worst a craven
standable. But it leads to such anomalies as a posture. Consider Graham Morrison’s solu-
good God who will design a universe where tion to iconitis, the building that doesn’t
99% of the species that have ever lived have know its social station. He puts forward
been killed off in a competitive, and often Richard Rogers’ London skyscraper on
accidental, slaughter. Darwinian evolution is Leadenhall Street as a positive icon. Why?
not a moral way to run a universe. Killing Because it is ‘in keeping with [its] surround-
nine so the tenth may live—decimation, as ing without compromising architectural
Steven Jay Gould describes the usual evolu- integrity’ and, in particular, because it ‘bril-
tionary statistics—was prohibited in most liantly’ defers to St Paul’s Cathedral.
traditional religions. Whether this tall structure is in keeping and
12 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

doffs its cap to St Paul’s is as likely as Year 2000, featured the Holocaust carried
Global Cooling; but the real question is the out in gory detail by toy Nazi soldiers, and a
more difficult one for a pluralist culture, very realistic, bloodied Pope John II being
facing up to the unpopular assumptions struck to the ground by an asteroid. Shock
behind “deference”. and awe against symbols of conformity.
The unpleasant truth of the Fashion– The news lesson is clear: if an iconic build-
Celebrity culture is that it substitutes fame ing isn’t hated enough, like the Eiffel Tower
and notoriety for traditional value. It knows was at its inception, it will never inspire
the price of everything, in Oscar Wilde’s enough negative energy to be noticed, and
definition of the cynic, and the value of then go on to be debated and, perhaps,
nothing. Today social hierarchies are defended.
suspect and are perceived to rely only on It is worth recalling that, in 1888, The
power and class. The value and symbolism Committee of Three Hundred attacked this
that used to justify an integrated culture are 300-metre tower and tried to stop it. The elite
no longer currency. That is why Modern Parisian group fought the project every
architects, especially very commercial ones metre of its climb to the top; that is, before it
such as Morrison, sublimate iconography to became the icon, first of Paris, then of
technique and abstraction. They don’t ask France. Part of the paranoia here concerns
what deeper symbols a building should the raw discontinuity with the context. If the
provide, nor in what style should it be, building is not new or unusual enough, it will
because these questions are thought to be not have sufficient charge to become iconic.
dangerous and meaningless. Instead, they Consider Thomas Heatherwick’s “B for
take the pragmatic route of deferring to St Bang”, a calculated icon meant to give new
Paul’s; and again not because they are life to a Manchester stadium. It did go off like
Christians, or sudden converts to Prince the journalistic firecracker it was meant to be,
Charles’ entreaties to respect this past. creating a small media explosion. But after a
Rather, it is the easy way to get planning week of awe at the cantilevered length of the
permission. “Being in keeping” means “get stainless steel spikes, they were absorbed into
the job, and keep it.” Wilde’s definition of the well-known image of the comic book
the cynic was right. explosion (and Andy Goldsworthy’s similar
work with icicles). The one-liner was already
known, assimilated beforehand, discounted.
Outrage or inrage Thus it didn’t have the lasting power of a
successful icon.
In this light it is easier to understand the Here we touch one of the deep and
negative logic of the outrageous iconic build- complicated truths of the genre. How does
ing, the way it seeks to provoke a paranoid the successful iconic building inspire para-
reaction, especially among the hypocritical noia, fear, even initial loathing, and then go
media. Since the scarce resource of a celebrity on to win over a more permanent response?
culture is column-inches, these structures How does the architect steer between the
have to grab attention with an unusual image Scylla of the one-liner and the Charybdis of
that annoys just as it inspires. This ironic mere provocation? The “Costa del Icon” on
message can be carefully double-coded. With the Thames is a real cautionary tale; horrors
one gesture it says “who wants to defer to the outnumber Cinderellas, by ten to one. Obvi-
outmoded symbols of St Paul’s, especially in ously there is no simple strategy of design
an age of celebrity?” Here it follows the logic and, as in all things creative, risk and failure
of the art world, one adopted by the success- stalk every move. Yet there are several basic
ful exhibits Sensation and Apocalypse at the guidelines, if not rules, for dealing with the
Royal Academy. The latter, celebrating the iconic building.
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 13

Cosmic and multiple end up malapropistic, and a one-liner. Obvi-

ously then, one answer to the problem is to
In my recent book, I argue that architects, carefully code the unusual image in multiple
through their recent practice, have shown a metaphors, many allusions, and be more
few successful strategies of design. If an iconic conscious of the way aberrant readings can
building must have a new and provocative torpedo a building. Clearly Piano did not
image, and also cannot directly call on the want to allude to the “rat” or “beetle” or
iconography that underlay traditional or reli- “insect”; but such metaphors have been seen
gious architecture (because that is no longer by the public and are underscored by the
believed), then it must produce enigmatic heavy hide of the Roman structure, its
signifiers that allude to unusual codes. These ponderous lead covering that leads a reading
will be affective, and some of the excitement in these directions.
will come from the convulsive interaction of A more self-conscious strategy, that
the meanings. adopted by Le Corbusier in his Ronchamp
In the case of Norman Foster’s Swiss Re Chapel and Gehry in his Disney Concert
skyscraper in London, the codes are fairly Hall, is to code the shapes with overtones
obvious—missile, screw, bullet, penis, finger, that relate to the function—acoustic curves in
pine cone, cigar—and also somewhat far- the latter case—and a host of pleasant if
fetched—brain and Russian Doll (Figure 5). provocative associations: sailboats, galleons,
The sketches that Madelon Vriesendorp and and the billowing skirts of Marilyn Monroe
I have made to bring out these analogies among other things (Figure 6). The point is
usually map an outline or silhouette, and that the multiple metaphors relate to diver-
obviously there are many more than the ones gent things some of which relate to music,
we show: particularly visual metaphors in the and that the architect works with the skill of
details, materials and interior spaces. All a sculptor. Le Corbusier and Gehry may not
these similarities make up the compound have trained in that artistic profession, but
experience of relating the new and unusual they certainly were well versed in it and
shape to the old and familiar code. That relat- work on their models as if they were sculp-
ing is what the eye and brain do, when ture.
confronted by a shockingly different build- If multiple enigmatic signifiers overcome
Figure 6 Marilyn Monroe’s fluttering skirts and legs are actually Gehry’s real Disney Hall, Los Angeles, 2003, collaged without distortion in Photoshop (Madelon Vriesendorp, back cover of The Iconic Building: The Power of Enigma, 2005).

ing. They map new on to old visual codes. the bane of the one-liner, they also have
This instant and largely unconscious process another potential virtue. They can allude to
produces the metaphor—in Foster’s nature and the cosmos. At the end of my
skyscraper the tabloid one, “it looks like a treatise I summarize many of the key signifi-
gherkin”—and the public and journalistic ers and argue that, if you scratch an iconic
excitement. And that reaction creates the building hard enough, it bleeds such mean-
iconic building, the architecture in the shape ings: overtones of the sun and water; fish and
of something uncanny, fascinating, horrible, animals; crystals and our body parts; rhyth-
lovely. mical growth forms of plants and galaxies.
So far, so obvious; it’s even a strategy These patterns of nature are the not-so-
Figure 5 Norman Foster’s Swiss Re skyscraper mapped on to codes that are iconic to it (drawing by Madelon Vriesendorp).

followed by failed iconic buildings, for hidden code of the iconic building, and
instance those of Renzo Piano, his concert perhaps they are so for want of anything
hall in Rome (that has overtones of a “rat and more pressing, faute de mieux. If the archi-
shoe”), or his Paul Klee Museum in Berne, tect is going to spend an excess of time and
Switzerland (that looks too much like a ride money on an unusual image, one that does
at the amusement park). Piano is a good not have the sanction of religion or ideology,
designer, but these failures show the diffi- then in the age of the ecological crisis it will
culty a functionalist architect has when he be an image that relates us to the cosmos.
tries his hand at the sculptural gesture. It may Not everyone agreed. Several critics have said
14 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

Figure 5 Norman Foster’s Swiss Re skyscraper mapped on to codes that are iconic to it (drawing by Madelon Vrie-
sendorp).
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 15

Figure 6 Marilyn Monroe’s fluttering skirts and legs are actually Gehry’s real Disney Hall, Los Angeles, 2003,
collaged without distortion in Photoshop (Madelon Vriesendorp, back cover of The Iconic Building: The Power of
Enigma, 2005).
16 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

this conclusion was sadly predictable, a the overall, natural connotations that matter,
special pleading which they disliked. They ones that are fresh here, slightly hostile and
didn’t want icons to the cosmos. As Woody severe as nature can be and, importantly, ones
Allen opined in Annie Hall, “what has the that are transformed throughout the building.
universe ever done for me?” In effect, they The carrying over of the metaphor into the
as Philip78 Johnson
Figure Rem
Metaphors
Koolhaas’
called
(drawings
it, architecture
Casa da
byMusica,
Madelon
as the
Porto,
Vriesendorp).
high 2005,
art of opaque
waste space.
“milkyHere
quartz”,
it is entirely
a seven-sided
convincing.
polygon, made in cream-white concrete. The interior spatial dynamics are a consequence of wrapping the exterior planes across shifted volumes—

would prefer the return of God. plan, section and detail makes the work, like
In His absence, however, it is possible I Gehry’s Disney Hall, a convincing building.
was right: cosmogenesis, the process of the Even the impressive play of voided space on
universe unfolding, will become the ultimate the inside turns the same theme outside-in. A
referent of this expression. We will have to meandering route takes one through this
wait another 10 years to find out, but already cavernous quartz, up and around the musical
there is some evidence. Consider three iconic halls that are slung into the space. A satisfying
buildings not in the book, because they were consistency of geometry and material works
incomplete, or I hadn’t yet seen them: the everywhere on the route but, in certain places
new Library of Alexandria in Egypt; the it is finished in an entirely different code. The
Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, and rhomboid rooms, or angled facets that jut into
Rem Koolhaas’ Casa da Musica in Porto, the main hall, are faced in local tiles or an
Portugal. They also lend support to the ornamental system in another taste—Pop,
theory. The three are obvious icons meant to traditional, Baroque, or Naff (Figure 9). We
put their city on the map, glorify their inte- are back here in the multiple coding of post-
rior functions and canoodle the public with modernism, a building that speaks in several
their rhetoric. The three adopt unusual, voices, some of which relate to the past and
sometimes awkward geometries, to package some of which relate to nature. There is
their overall volumes, none of which is awkwardness here, the resistance to an easy
directly iconic of a single meaning but all of gesture or predictable harmony: once again
which allude to nature. the beauty is convulsive.
The Welsh Performing Arts Centre I am not arguing that the cosmic references
Figure 9 An interior polygon: the abstract crystal is often, as here, doubly-coded with local or Pop graphics.

suggests a geological metaphor of banded in such buildings act as precisely as the Chris-
courses as if it were a sedimentary stack of tian iconography in a medieval cathedral. The
different slates laid down over millennia—in point of the enigmatic signifier in an agnostic
layers of purple, grey, blue and green stone. age is to be carefully suggestive, a distinct
The Egyptian library sinks a circular disc trace rather than a conventional denotation,
partly in the ground and raises a larger section an allusion rather than a clear sign. But I stick
towards the heavens, an allusion to solar to my hypothesis that this trace is usual and,
symbolism and solar gain, and with the to a degree, inevitable in the emergent genre.
angled gesture of cosmic observatory. The If one is going to spend a fortune on a prom-
third example, a more sophisticated work of inent and uncanny landmark, it is likely to
architecture, was originally perceived in the have some iconography with cosmic over-
local Portuguese press as “the diamond that tones because these remain basic patterns and
fell from the sky”, because the crystalline affecting images. Whether the successful
facets were transparent in the competition iconic buildings, in a decadent age, make up
model. As built opaque it is now known as for the many failures is a matter of opinion,
“the meteorite from heaven”, a white-cream but the attempt to quash them with building
polygon made from rectangles plus oblique codes and committees will not be fruitful. The
triangles (Figures 7 and 8). Because of its creative forces and pluralism are too strong
seven-sided geometry and repetitive rhom- for the architectural police. Rather, the policy
boids, it is more like milky quartz than a might be to demand more thought on the
meteor or diamond, but the point of such iconography behind the buildings, more
metaphors is not, primarily, denotation. It is coherence in the use of metaphors, and the
 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 17

Figure 7 Rem Koolhaas’ Casa da Musica, Porto, 2005, opaque “milky quartz”, a seven-sided polygon, made in
cream-white concrete. The interior spatial dynamics are a consequence of wrapping the exterior planes across shifted
volumes—as Philip Johnson called it, architecture as the high art of waste space. Here it is entirely convincing.
18 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

Figure 8 Metaphors (drawings by Madelon Vriesendorp).

 JENCKS: THE ICONIC BUILDING IS HERE TO STAY 19

Figure 9 An interior polygon: the abstract crystal is often, as here, doubly-coded with local or Pop graphics.

careful interweaving of many codes to 1960s and Nikolaus Pevsner’s strictures. It was
neutralize those embarrassing mistakes that revived, in Britain, in the summer of 2004, when
critics Deyan Sudjic and Peter Murray, among
come with any high-risk venture. others, were joined by the architect, Graham
Morrison, in attacking the genre and its deleterious
effects on the Thames River, the emergent “Costa
Notes del Icon”. Morrison’s paper, ‘Look at me!’, was
reprinted in The Architects Journal and The
1 The debate on iconic building within the profession Guardian, 12 July 2004. My answer to this was
1

of architecture waxed and waned since the early ‘The truth about icons’, The Architects Journal, 9
20 CITY VOL. 10, NO. 1

September 2004, pp. 20–24. Previously, Deyan Critical American reaction has been led by the
Sudjic had repeatedly attacked iconic buildings in Columbia University historian, the Englishman,
his Observer column, most notably his ‘Landmarks Kenneth Frampton and is being published in an
of hope and glory’, Observer, 26 October 2003, anthology, Commodification and Spectacle in
p. 6. Such arguments were also answered by two Architecture: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader
English architects, Peter Cook and Piers Gough, in (University of Minnesota, 2006). See also Harvard
various debates, at the Architectural Association, Design Magazine, no. 23, Winter/Fall 2006, pp.
among other places, in the summer of 2004. This 65–69.
was the time the English professional press 2 For the quotes and sources on the change of
2

amplified the arguments; for instance, see the meaning at the Place de la Concorde, see my The
headline article and leader ‘End of the iconic Iconic Building (op. cit.) (‘Surprising conclusions’,
age?’, Building Design, 23 July 2004, p. 1 and p. 217, n. 3). Barry Bergdoll has recounted the
Editorial. changes in his ‘Enlightened problems’, Royal
On the occasion of the publication of our books, Academy Forum, reprinted in The Architectural
Deyan Sudjic and I debated at various points in Review, October 2001, pp. 91–92.
2005 (such as the Hay-on-Wye Festival) and in the 3 For these phrases see my The Iconic Building (op.
3

pages of Prospect (June 2005, pp. 22–26). His cit.) where they are discussed at length; I first aired
book, The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and the issues, particularly the concept of the
Powerful Shape the World was published by “enigmatic signifier”, in The New Paradigm in
Penguin Books (Harmondsworth, 2005); my The Architecture (‘Multivalence and the enigmatic
Iconic Building: The Power of Enigma, by Frances signifier’, pp. 29–36, Yale University Press,
Lincoln (London, 2005). Reviews in several London, 2002).
professional publications compared our positions. 4 For a recent survey of decline see the report
4

Miles Glendinning’s The Last Icons, Architecture discussed by Ruth Gledhill, ‘Liberal and weak
Beyond Modernism, published by Graven Images, clergy blamed for empty pews’, The Times, 5
Glasgow, in the Spring of 2005 became the March 2005; for the earlier quotes from 2001 see
subject of a BBC2 Scotland Newsnight debate Ruth Gledhill, ‘Christianity almost dead says
between us (17 March 2005), and also the pretext cardinal’, The Times, 6 September 2001; The
for another larger debate, this one in Glasgow Leader, ‘We can be moral without religion’, in The
organized by the architectural magazine Prospect, Observer, 9 September 2001, p. 22; Chris Gray,
in mid-April 2005. ‘Anglicans become minority for first time in 467
My views on the possibilities and problems of years’, The Independent, 7 September 2001, p. 1.
contemporary iconology in architecture were 5 See Note 1, and the following text.
5

spelled out in ‘Towards an iconography of the 6 See Note 1, and the following text.
6

present’, Log (the New York architectural journal),

Fall 2004, pp. 101–108. Peter Eisenman and I
debated the iconic building at Columbia
University, 6 November 2005, and some of this
Charles Jencks is a prolific author and lecturer
was posted on the web of Metropolis, 18 on Modern, Late, Neo and Post-Modern
November 2005. architecture. E-mail: [email protected]