Critical iconic architecture
Introduction
Starchitect or Starchitect is a concept (and also an acronym "Portmanteau (type of word)") used to describe architects whose celebrity and critical acclaim have transformed them into idols of the world of architecture and may have even given them a degree of fame among the general public. Celebrity status is generally associated with cutting-edge novelty. Real estate investors around the world have proven eager to sign up "top talent" (i.e. star architects) in the hope of convincing reluctant municipalities to approve large infrastructure developments, to obtain financing or increase the value of their buildings.[1] A key characteristic is that star architecture is almost always "iconic" and highly visible within the site or context. As status depends on current visibility in the media, the fading of media status implies that architects lose the status of "star architects" and consequently, a list of "former star architects" can be drawn up.
The Bilbao effect
Buildings are often seen as profit opportunities, so creating "scarcity" or a certain degree of uniqueness gives more value to the investment. The balance between functionality and avant-garde has influenced many real estate developers. For example, architect and developer John Portman discovered that the construction of skyscraper hotels with large atriums (in several US cities during the 1980s)[2] made this type of construction more profitable than maximizing the floor area.[3].
However, it was the emergence of postmodern architecture in the late 1970s and early 1980s that gave rise to the idea that star status in the architectural profession was an avant-garde linked to popular culture, which, postmodern critics such as Charles Jencks argued, had been ridiculed by the guardians of a modernist architecture. In response, Jencks advocated "double coding";[4] that is, the general public could understand and enjoy postmodernism and still gain "critical approval." The star architects of that period often built little or their best-known works were "paper architecture": schemes not built or even impossible to build, but known through frequent reproductions in architectural magazines, such as the work of Léon Krier, Michael Graves, Aldo Rossi, Robert A. M. Stern, Hans Hollein and James Stirling "James Stirling (architect)"). As postmodernism went into decline, its avant-garde credentials suffered due to its associations with the vernacular and traditionalism, eventually reverting celebrity to modernist avant-garde.[5].