•

What is an iconic building?

What are the elements that de ne it?

What are the elements that dis nguish it from other types ofbuildings?

32

beter integrate into the global economy, to engage in tourism or to consolidate their place among
international touristc destinations.These considerations are closely related to issues of territorial
identity. The call for a media zedarchitect was operated by local o cials aswell as the launch of
major fes ve event, orenhancement of heritage, architecture playsa major role in the construc on
or renewal oflocal iden es.More than other func ons, public buildingswith a cultural voca on such
as museums, havefocused these trends over the last decade, butthese iconic buildings o en take
place in anexis ng urban and societal context with, oragainst which they must
deal. Indeed, if the Guggenheim of Bilbaowas built in a large abandoned industrial area,completely
«rewri en» it goes di erentlyfor most iconic buildings that must t in aninhabited urban district. The
impressive prismsof the Denver art museum by architect DanielLIBESKIND stand out so prominently
by theirshapes and their volume from the urbanlandscape around them. The Kunsthaus by
PeterCOOK and Colin Fournier, Graz, with its radicallydi erent form from those of the
surroundingbuildings, according to its designers, is an alienlanded in this nice small Austrian town,
etc...In some cases, the construc on of an iconicbuilding can give coherence to exis ng urbanfabric,
trauma sed with past urban hazardousopera ons; it is for example the case of theBullring shopping
center in Birmingham, whichhelped the restructuring and retraining of thedistrict of the same name.
But it can o enundermine secular urban forms that lose theirformal symbolic value.The study of
iconic buildings and theirin uence on the environment requires a look inthe role of each ac ve force
in the process thatgenerates them.

4. The active forces in the materialisation oficonic buildings

There are three driving forces in theprocess of materializa on of the iconic buildings:the client, the
architect, and society. Theseplayers are the same for all the other buildings,yet here their characters
are di erent.
Fig 15

Kunsthaus. Peter COOK and Colin FOURNIER, Graz Austria

33

Let’s explain

a.

the client He is the holder of a power that hewants to materialize through the design of thearchitect.
The architectural historian CharlesJENCKS states that un l the nineteenth century,the rela onship
between architects and clientsin the West was clear ; the customer has thepower to guide the
design of the architector even impose his percep ons and sense oficonography, which was in most
of the meshared by both.The best example of this may be that un l theRenaissance, most of
the architectural work waslinked not to their designers, but to their awners.LThe proof is that the
architects of most of thecathedrals of the Middle Ages are unknown

while the kings who have ordered theirconstruc on are easily iden able. But thingsbegan to
change because of the changes broughtby the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolu on, the

Tradi onal art oeuvres stayed generally anonymous, un lnowadays where the modern individualism
caused the at-tempts to a ribute it to the few names in history, and thesea ribu ons are o en
very hypothe cal.

two world wars, coloniza on, globaliza on, etc...These changes have led to the mul plica onof
symbolic spa al models and change, oreven elimina on, of values and tradi ons thatonce served as
guides for society in all areasincluding architectural and urban. Therefore,the uncertain client
focused only in obtainingan architectural symbol, abandoned more spotto the architect, sole holder
of knowledge andscholarly architecture, to conceive it. JENCKSstates that the Bilbao e ect
completed the task,ci ng the case of Walt Disney Concert Hall inLos Angeles (WDCH)

, whose construc on wasstopped due to the extravagance of the Gehrydesign, and has con nued
a er the success ofthe Guggenheim Bilbao, where Gehry resumed
«

The Disney Concert Hall by Gehry was stopped, desig-

ned in ‘ , it wasn’t going to go ahead l Bilbao(...)TheBilbao E ect had an e ect on (Gehry), I mean
he couldbuild (the WDCH)! Now everybody wants one, and that’s

driving architecture. It’s a real double-edged sword, as Iwas saying last night. You’re in a double
bind(...)you know,

astonish me, excite me, show me something. Wow! That’snever been done before! And make it
cheap, e cient func onal, da-duh-da-duh-da, and make it t in

JENCKSCharles, Interview withJohn Jourden

http://archinect.com/features/article/ /charles- jencks-being-iconic

Fig 16

Denver art museum. LIBESKIND , USA.

x

34

much of its original design from the WDCH. Butfor JENCKS, the client and the architect shouldtake
responsibility together to face society’sexpecta ons.

b. The architecte

The normal role of an architect is todesign and materialize the desires of the clientin the context of
determined society andgeography. Projects of symbolic importancehave always aroused the interest
of architects,but have consistently been conferred to the elitebecause of their competence and
exper se, butalso because of their names and signatures aresupposed to bring glory and
media sa on totheir works.Therefore, we can dis nguish among architects,two broad categories:
stars, and others. Theirwork is not so di erent. However «

stars
» arethose who realize the great iconic, public andprivate projects and par cipate in
prodigiousinterna onal compe ons, while la er havelower scale projects and a weaker
rela onshipwith governments and private corpora ons andclients, and therefore fewer resources. as
saiearchitecture cri c François CHASLIN :

The epoch, magazines, the media system ingeneral, and even the most modest architects(what
whatever they pretend and whatever

their frustrated exaspera on), are primarily

concerned with a thin cohort of stars, thosewho for a reason or another, were able to focus

a clearly iden able part of the architecturalre ec on of the moment

These stars of contemporary architecture, whichwe call here «starchitects» are

the contemporaryequivalent of the architects of the Renaissanceand An quity as VITRUVIUS,
Palladio orMICHELANGELO, with a reputa on that makesthem iconic gures for their respec ve
socie es,and gives them above a power, accentuatedby their role in the social organiza on andthe
crea on of built iden ty of ci es andna ons. Most of their projects are huge urbanopera ons of
great importance; contemporaryurban monuments, museums, theaters, publicbuildings, o ces of
major corpora ons and

CHASLIN François, quoted in

« L’Architectured’Aujourd’hui»

, n° , December, . P: . Translatedinto english by us.

some wealthy homes that allow them someexperimenta on, as it was for early modernarchitects,
Le Corbusier and company.«Others» share small public compe ons andprivate commands the
cultural and economicelite. They ght on the same territory withstarchitects, but with less power
and freedombecause of the media za on, some mes withless talent also. They are struggling to nd
theirplace when they fail to become interna onalstarchitects, or even local, they almost all
runbehind this same dream. Finally they are forcedeither to comply with the formal requirementsof
commands, forge ng their convic ons,or to imitate the starchitects, or at least theimage of their
architecture.

The architecture

of starchitects is o en rejected by the neophyte popula on. It is every me an extreme example

of the idea that architects are expensive and fantasist, and yet they are the reference and
themajority of “other” architects, by following their

model, move away a li le more from popularaspira ons, which are a reality that the architect

should normally take into account whenconceiving if he wants to have a real impact and

ful ll his role in society

The life me work of an architect, staror not, is an anecdotal given the vastness ofarchitectural
produc on. However, becauseof the contemporary phenomena of formalpas che, were starchitects
are being imitatedwe observe their model spreading by the handsof other architects, it starts well
before becomingan architect in architecture schools, as said byPhilippe Tre ack in his book «Should
we hangarchitects? » :

What is taught, it is the ideology of the «genius

or nothing.»[...] Naturally, all students dream

of becoming one day a LE

CORBUSIER

, Louis

KAHN and since few years, a Frank O. Gehry,Rem KOOLHAAS or a Toyo ITO. You cannot

blame school for giving ambition to studentsthat it forms; this megalomaniac hypertrophyhas
excellent aspects: outstanding efforts andcreative lyricism. But the flip side is blinding:defiance of
public opinion, inability to engagea dialogue and communicate, to act otherwisethan an artist
cleared of any social obligations,

Pierre COMBARNOUS, «

Architecture etaltermondialisation

», édi on l’Harma an, .P: muta s mutandis. Translated into english by us.

promoting architectural objects, of the sculpturalarchitecture

»
1

Therefore the Western architect is taughtto respond to Western preoccupa ons thatcan be
summarized today in the formal image,and not to worry about cultural di erenceswhile conceiving.
And this accentuate more thecleavage between him and society .

c.

A society or a community?

Society is the raison d’être of architecturein general, and iconic architecture in par cular.It is the
catalyst and the judge who acceptsor rejects it but never ignores it. However,the rela onship
between a society and itsarchitecture is a rela onship of con nuousinterac on, because the
architecture is alsoinvolved in the de ni on of the society thatcreated
it. Despite the fact that iconicity andbanality are two contradictory concepts, theyboth result from
the regard that a society, ata de ned moment, has in its architecturallandscape that is built to
poli cal, economicand cultural objec ves constantly renego atedbetween the di erent actors
involved in thisprocess.The banal just as the iconic are con nuallychanging with the changing in
society’s values.For example, Nazi monuments that survivedto the Second World War were all
destroyed,because they contrasted with the new ideologiesand values of the a er war Germany.
Their imagehas become representa ve of an unwanted past,while a few decades ago; it was the
promise of abe er future for the Germans. This also applies,in another level, in the case of certain
GAUDI’sworks, such as Casa Mila, which was nicknamed“La Pedrera” literally “the career” as a sign
ofugliness or at least of unusual appearance. Hisowner refused even, at rst, to pay the architect.Yet
today, the image of this iconic buildinghas changed. It has become a popular touristdes na on and a
sign of dis nc on of the formaliden ty of the city of Barcelona and all Catalanregion in
Spanish society
Iconic buildings are a definition of a city; a statement about its history, ambition or how it wants to
be seen. Often they have a story, such as the Sydney Opera House, whose architect, Jørn Utzon,
abandoned the project amid a series of controversies, seven years before it was completed, and
never returned to Australia.

Iconic buildings can affect the way that we feel about a city, often giving residents a monument to
be proud of. But what is it that makes a building iconic? Does it need hundreds of years of history,
such as St Paul’s Cathedral in London, to stir emotion? Is unique design more important, as in the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao? Or is it enough to break world records, like the Burj Khalifa? Three
UAE-based architects weigh into the discussion ahead of Cityscape Global in Dubai from September
21-23.

Bart Leclercq, the head of structures design for the Middle East at the architecture firm WSP, says a
building can be iconic for many reasons. “If we look at a few of the truly iconic buildings in the world
today, we realise that these actually have very few similarities. For instance, the Sydney Opera
House, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State building or the Burj Al Arab. They are all so different –
different in height, different in shape, different in function. What makes them iconic is probably
their unique design, their symbolic value and their history – the impact they have had on the city
where they were built,” he says.

Salim Hussain, the head of design at the chartered architects Brewer Smith Brewer Gulf, agrees that
unique design is key as it “lifts the building above the crowd and becomes a metaphor for man’s
aspirations; so, as well as a statement of design, it becomes a statement of intent”. He adds that
accessibility is important – people are more likely to be drawn to public buildings. “You will find
buildings that can be used by everyone are generally held in greater affection than those that are
reserved for the privileged few. If a building is iconic on these various levels, it stands a better
chance of becoming truly iconic.” So to plant itself in the hearts of the masses, it helps if a building
stands out visually, has an intriguing background and is open to the public.

Richard Fenne, a senior associate at Woods Baggot Middle East, fears that the term “iconic” is in
danger of being overused, as it becomes an increasingly common requirement from clients,
particularly in emerging markets. He believes that “iconic” status is bestowed by the public and
cannot necessarily be designed. An interesting story also helps. “Most buildings that are regarded as
iconic tend to have a controversial history and it is the debate that surrounds them that raises their
notable status,” he explains. “The Eiffel Tower was originally denounced as a ‘useless and
monstrous’ structure, claiming that its ‘hateful shadow’ would overwhelm Paris’s finer monuments.
George Orwell even called the Sagrada Família in Barcelona ‘one of the most hideous buildings in the
world’.”

If having a controversial story is crucial to iconic status, does this mean that newer buildings face a
greater struggle in gaining recognition? If the UAE is anything to go by, the answer is no. Hussain
believes that new buildings have the upper hand, because technological advances mean that
architects and engineers can now do the previously unthinkable. “New designs that were impossible
only decades ago are being constructed. The sense of adventure and promise of a more exciting
future are things that grab people’s attention,” he says, citing the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, as an
example. “These represent new ideas in construction as well as a new vision, not only for
themselves, but also their city.” But Fenne warns that modern architecture that contrasts sharply
with its surroundings can attract its fair share of criticism. “30 St Mary Axe, affectionately known as
‘The Gherkin’, raised many eyebrows when it first appeared and was lambasted for denigrating the
London skyline,” he says.

If there’s one country that champions the case for iconic new structures, it’s the UAE, where modern
statement buildings are the norm – the more unusual and different, the better. The Burj Al Arab,
which arguably launched Dubai onto the world stage with its “seven-star” luxury when it opened in
1999, has become an instantly recognisable symbol of the city. The sleek, sail-shaped building is now
rivalled by the headline-grabbing Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building, which opened to
much fanfare in 2010. Other buildings, such as Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi or Cayan Tower in Dubai
Marina – previously known as Infinity Tower – draw attention because of their seemingly impossible
design. Capital Gate holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s farthest leaning man-made
tower at 18 degrees, while Cayan Tower attracts double-takes because of its twisted appearance.

Leclercq highlights the uniqueness of the UAE’s buildings in his list of the country’s most iconic
structures. “The Burj Khalifa, because of its staggering height and slender elegance; the Burj Al Arab,
because of its stunning shape and immaculate, serene white appearance against the blue sky and
green-blue sea; [Cayan] Tower in Dubai Marina, because of its rotated sculptural appearance; Capital
Gate in Abu Dhabi, because of its dramatic cantilevered organic shape; and Emirates Towers, with its
similar mirrored presence.”

As well as the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab, Hussain adds the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and
Emirates Golf Club to the list. “Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque [is] a stunning white building with
intricate artwork internally and externally, coupled with the emotional tale of being linked with the
life and passing of [the UAE’s] founding father, Sheikh Zayed,” he says. “The Emirates Golf Club is an
older building, but a great example of contemporary architecture integrating the history and
traditions of the region. Its role as the host of the [Dubai] Desert Classic [golf tournament] keeps it in
the public eye and so it continually connects new generations with the rich history of the UAE.”

Taking the country’s history into consideration, Fenne suggests that Qasr Al Hosn is “probably the
most iconic building in the UAE in the true sense of the word, although it may not be recognised as
such given that it is currently undergoing restoration. It was once the most notable building in the
emirate and the fabric of the fort really encapsulates the evolution of Abu Dhabi, from its origins as a
watchtower to the residence of the ruling family, to a historic monument.” He also notes the World
Trade Centre in Dubai and the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi, not necessarily for their
architectural form, but for their contributions to the development of the nation. But when it comes
to widely recognised symbols of a city, few could go past the Burj Al Arab. “[It] is a building that
helped put Dubai on the global radar with its reputation as the world’s only ‘seven-star’ hotel,”
Fenne says. “This is a great example of architecture supported by a sensationalist and compelling
marketing strategy that is synonymous with the city’s identity. In a similar vein, Abu Dhabi has
Emirates Palace acting as its own global marketing machine for luxury.”

As Dubai prepares for Cityscape Global, which will be the biggest in five years and previously hosted
the announcement of the Burj Khalifa, one has to question whether there’s room in the UAE for
more iconic buildings. Apparently so, according to Hussain, Leclercq and Fenne, particularly with the
Cultural District on Saadiyat Island and Dubai’s plans for Expo 2020.
“Existing icons – old and new – have placed the UAE on the world stage as an innovator. Planned
projects such as the museums on Saadiyat Island and Expo 2020 will continue to keep the UAE on
the world stage and propel it even further,” Hussain enthuses.

Fenne, meanwhile, expects that the development of internationally renowned museums, such as the
Louvre and Guggenheim, on Saadiyat Island will promote cultural tourism and have a “Bilbao effect”
on visitor numbers. “Dubai will look towards the Expo 2020, where the new-built environment
surrounding this event will further the social and cultural legacy of the city, as seen in other
examples, like the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and the Expos in Lisbon in 1998 and Glasgow in
1990,” he elaborates.

While the UAE waits to see whether the announcements at this year’s Cityscape Global can rival
those of 2008’s property boom, its residents can reflect on the country’s standing in the realms of
the world’s great pieces of architecture.

“There is no doubt in my mind that iconic architecture changes the way a city or even a country is
viewed on the world stage,” Leclercq says. “Iconic buildings stir the blood and make people curious.
They tell us something about the people and the society that made the building possible – and, as an
inquisitive human being, you want to find out what that story is. The UAE is now one of the great
tourist destinations and its iconic buildings have played a major role in this.”
1 DEFINITION Museums are defined as ‘semi-formal’ places of learning which collect, display and
interpret artefacts of some sort, for educational purposes

Learning in museums generally involves a visitor or a group of visitors attending to an object, a

display, label, person, element or some mental construct of these.

The fixed exhibition room is different from the temporary exhibition space because of its simpler
function and particular atmosphere, which relates to the individual theme of each fixed exhibition
room.

NEED FOR THE STUDY The following are the need for study about museum planning process: • To
analyse the feel of space in an human environment. • To provide a effective circulation path and
services. • To develop new concepts for interior spaces as well studying sustainable building
materials thro case studies. • To investigate museum architecture and to define the role of a
contemporary museum in terms of function and architectural implementation. The above said need
clearly defines the importance of museum studies, hence this topic as dissertation.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES This dissertation aims to explore how people make meaning in and from
museums, through the spaces from time to time. Museums are broadly viewed as places of informal
learning, and most people visit museums expecting to learn something. This Dissertation seeks to
explore various representations of contemporary and historical spatial conceptions, using
architecture as the medium for representation. From this research, it is hoped that the reader will
gain an understanding of space and the impact it has on museums. A museum has specific functions
different from other kinds of buildings. Its architecture, interiors and exhibitions are unique.
Museum space follows function and its interior space should respond to and go well with its
exhibitions. In addition, the exhibitions, presentations and displays should be interesting and
interactive. The architecture should communicate scientific feeling and thought to the visitors.

GENERAL STUDY OF MUSEUM PLANNING ♦ Various definitions ♦ Site selection ♦ Zoning ♦ Evolution
of museum space (Foreign & Indian context) ♦ Museum circulation ♦ Type of Exhibits ♦ Type of
Display ♦ Lighting ♦ Services ISSUES IN MUSEUM PLANNING (Through various case studies)
CLASSIFICATION OF MUSEUMS MUSEUM DESIGN FACTORS SYNTHESIS SCOPE FOR FURTHER
RESEARCH Fig: