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Untapped – HomeUntapped is a design journal that looks back to look forward. We view the human experience as a special source of knowledge: It tells us what has worked, and what hasn’t. How can we use that information to improve our lives?Untapped – Home Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with news, interviews, and events. Issues About Contributors Purchase Contact Press Search ← Issue 13 DATE↓ STORY TYPE↓ AUTHOR↓ 12 PERSPECTIVE 09.23.2024 20240923 Redefining “Iconic” Architecture and Ideals by Sophie Lovell 12 PERSPECTIVE 09.09.2024 20240909 Surrendering to What Is by Marianne Krogh 11 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 08.26.2024 20240826 Sometimes, Democratic Design Doesn’t “Look” Like Anything by Zach Mortice 11 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 08.19.2024 20240819 What Does Your Home Say About You? by Shane Reiner-Roth 11 BOOK REVIEW 08.12.2024 20240812 Is Building Better Cities a Dream Within Reach? by Michael Webb 11 PEOPLE 08.05.2024 20240805 The Value of Unbuilt Buildings by George Kafka 11 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 07.29.2024 20240729 Future-Proofing a Home Where Water Is a Focus and a Thread by Alexandra Lange 11 BOOK REVIEW 07.22.2024 20240722 Modernist Town, U.S.A. by Ian Volner 11 PEOPLE 07.15.2024 20240715 Buildings That Grow from a Place by Anthony Paletta 10 URBANISM 06.24.2024 20240624 What We Lose When a Historic Building Is Demolished by Owen Hatherley 10 PERSPECTIVE 06.17.2024 20240617 We Need More Than Fewer, Better Things by Deb Chachra 10 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 06.03.2024 20240603 An Ode to Garages by Charlie Weak 10 PERSPECTIVE 05.28.2024 20240528 In Search of Domestic Kintsugi by Edwin Heathcote 10 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 05.13.2024 20240513 The Perils of the Landscapes We Make by Karrie Jacobs 10 PERSPECTIVE 05.06.2024 20240506 Using Simple Tools as a Radical Act of Independence by Jarrett Fuller 9 PERSPECTIVE 04.29.2024 20240429 Why Can’t I Just Go Home? by Eva Hagberg 9 PEOPLE 04.22.2024 20240422 Why Did Our Homes Stop Evolving? by George Kafka 9 ROUNDTABLE 04.08.2024 20240408 Spaces Where the Body Is a Vital Force by Tiffany Jow 9 BOOK REVIEW 04.01.2024 20240401 Tracing the Agency of Women as Users and Experts of Architecture by Mimi Zeiger 9 PERSPECTIVE 03.25.2024 20240325 Are You Sitting in a Non-Place? by Mzwakhe Ndlovu 9 ROUNDTABLE 03.11.2024 20240311 At Home, Connecting in Place by Marianela D’Aprile 9 PEOPLE 03.04.2024 20240304 VALIE EXPORT’s Tactical Urbanism by Alissa Walker 8 PERSPECTIVE 02.26.2024 20240226 What the “Whole Earth Catalog” Taught Me About Building Utopias by Anjulie Rao 8 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 02.19.2024 20240219 How a Run-Down District in London Became a Model for Neighborhood Revitalization by Ellen Peirson 8 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 02.12.2024 20240212 In Brooklyn, Housing That Defies the Status Quo by Gideon Fink Shapiro 8 PERSPECTIVE 02.05.2024 20240205 That “Net-Zero” Home Is Probably Living a Lie by Fred A. Bernstein 8 PERSPECTIVE 01.22.2024 20240122 The Virtue of Corporate Architecture Firms by Kate Wagner 8 PERSPECTIVE 01.16.2024 20240116 How Infrastructure Shapes Us by Deb Chachra 8 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 01.08.2024 20240108 The Defiance of Desire Lines by Jim Stephenson 7 PEOPLE 12.18.2023 20231218 This House Is Related to You and to Your Nonhuman Relatives by Sebastián López Cardozo 7 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 12.11.2023 20231211 What’s the Point of the Plus Pool? by Ian Volner 7 BOOK REVIEW 12.04.2023 20231204 The Extraordinary Link Between Aerobics and Architecture by Jarrett Fuller 7 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 11.27.2023 20231127 Architecture That Promotes Healing and Fortifies Us for Action by Kathryn O’Rourke 7 PEOPLE 11.06.2023 20231106 How to Design for Experience by Diana Budds 7 PEOPLE 10.30.2023 20231030 The Meaty Objects at Marta by Jonathan Griffin 6 OBJECTS 10.23.2023 20231023 How Oliver Grabes Led Braun Back to Its Roots by Marianela D’Aprile 6 URBANISM 10.16.2023 20231016 Can Adaptive Reuse Fuel Equitable Revitalization? by Clayton Page Aldern 6 PERSPECTIVE 10.09.2023 20231009 What’s the Point of a Tiny Home? by Mimi Zeiger 6 OBJECTS 10.02.2023 20231002 A Book Where Torn-Paper Blobs Convey Big Ideas by Julie Lasky 6 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 09.24.2023 20230924 The Architecture of Doing Nothing by Edwin Heathcote 6 BOOK REVIEW 09.18.2023 20230918 What the “Liebes Look” Says About Dorothy Liebes by Debika Ray 6 PEOPLE 09.11.2023 20230911 Roy McMakin’s Overpowering Simplicity by Eva Hagberg 6 OBJECTS 09.05.2023 20230905 Minimalism’s Specific Objecthood, Interpreted by Designers of Today by Glenn Adamson 5 ROUNDTABLE 08.28.2023 20230828 How Joan Jonas and Eiko Otake Navigate Transition by Siobhan Burke 5 OBJECTS 08.21.2023 20230821 The Future-Proofing Work of Design-Brand Archivists by Adrian Madlener 5 URBANISM 08.14.2023 20230814 Can a Church Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis? by Alex Bozikovic 5 PEOPLE 08.07.2023 20230807 In Search of Healing, Helen Cammock Confronts the Past by Jesse Dorris 5 URBANISM 07.31.2023 20230731 What Dead Malls, Office Parks, and Big-Box Stores Can Do for Housing by Ian Volner 5 PERSPECTIVE 07.24.2023 20230724 A Righteous Way to Solve “Wicked” Problems by Susan Yelavich 5 OBJECTS 07.17.2023 20230717 Making a Mess, with a Higher Purpose by Andrew Russeth 5 ROUNDTABLE 07.10.2023 20230710 How to Emerge from a Starchitect’s Shadow by Cynthia Rosenfeld 4 PEOPLE 06.26.2023 20230626 There Is No One-Size-Fits-All in Architecture by Marianela D’Aprile 4 PEOPLE 06.19.2023 20230619 How Time Shapes Amin Taha’s Unconventionally Handsome Buildings by George Kafka 4 PEOPLE 06.12.2023 20230612 Seeing and Being Seen in JEB’s Radical Archive of Lesbian Photography by Svetlana Kitto 4 PERSPECTIVE 06.05.2023 20230605 In Built Environments, Planting Where It Matters Most by Karrie Jacobs 3 PERSPECTIVE 05.30.2023 20230530 On the Home Front, a Latine Aesthetic’s Ordinary Exuberance by Anjulie Rao 3 PERSPECTIVE 05.21.2023 20230521 For a Selfie (and Enlightenment), Make a Pilgrimage to Bridge No. 3 by Alexandra Lange 3 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 05.08.2023 20230508 The Building Materials of the Future Might Be Growing in Your Backyard by Marianna Janowicz 3 BOOK REVIEW 05.01.2023 20230501 Moving Beyond the “Fetishisation of the Forest” by Edwin Heathcote 2 ROUNDTABLE 04.24.2023 20230424 Is Craft Still Synonymous with the Hand? by Tiffany Jow 2 PEOPLE 04.17.2023 20230417 A Historian Debunks Myths About Lacemaking, On LaceTok and IRL by Julie Lasky 2 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 04.10.2023 20230410 How AI Helps Architects Design, and Refine, Their Buildings by Ian Volner 2 PEOPLE 04.03.2023 20230403 Merging Computer and Loom, a Septuagenarian Artist Weaves Her View of the World by Francesca Perry 1 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 03.27.2023 20230327 Words That Impede Architecture, According to Reinier de Graaf by Osman Can Yerebakan 1 PEOPLE 03.20.2023 20230320 Painting With Plaster, Monica Curiel Finds a Release by Andrew Russeth 1 PERSPECTIVE 03.13.2023 20230313 Rules and Roles in Life, Love, and Architecture by Eva Hagberg 1 Roundtable 03.06.2023 20230306 A Design Movement That Pushes Beyond Architecture’s Limitations by Tiffany Jow 0 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 02.07.2023 20230207 To Improve the Future of Public Housing, This Architecture Firm Looks to the Past by Ian Volner 0 OBJECTS 02.07.2023 20230207 The Radical Potential of “Prime Objects” by Glenn Adamson 0 PEOPLE 02.20.2023 20230220 Xiyadie’s Queer Cosmos by Xin Wang 0 PEOPLE 02.13.2023 20230213 How Michael J. Love’s Subversive Tap Dancing Steps Forward by Jesse Dorris 0 SHOW AND TELL 02.07.2023 20230207 Finding Healing and Transformation Through Good Black Art by Folasade Ologundudu 0 BOOK REVIEW 02.13.2023 20230213 How Stephen Burks “Future-Proofs” Craft by Francesca Perry 0 ROUNDTABLE 02.27.2023 20230227 Making Use of End Users’ Indispensable Wisdom by Tiffany Jow 0 PEOPLE 02.07.2023 20230207 The New Lessons Architect Steven Harris Learns from Driving Old Porsches by Jonathan Schultz 0 PERSPECTIVE 02.07.2023 20230207 The Day Architecture Stopped by Kate Wagner 0 OBJECTS 02.07.2023 20230207 The Overlooked Potential of Everyday Objects by Adrian Madlener 0 ROUNDTABLE 02.07.2023 20230207 A Conversation About Generalists, Velocity, and the Source of Innovation by Tiffany Jow 0 OBJECTS 02.07.2023 20230207 Using a Fungi-Infused Paste, Blast Studio Turns Trash Into Treasure by Natalia Rachlin Untapped is published by the design company Henrybuilt. Untapped is published by the design company Henrybuilt. PERSPECTIVE 09.23.2024 Redefining “Iconic” Architecture and Ideals The term is unsustainable and destructive—and there are other ways of building far more worthy of attention. by Sophie Lovell Berlin’s Floating University, in 2018. (Photo: Alexander Stumm) It is time to stop the use of the word iconic as if it were a desirable attribute, because it isn’t. This infuriatingly ubiquitous adjective gained traction in the design and architecture world in the early aughts to describe a consumer object, building, or person as a symbol of a particular ideology or way of life—one that happened to be defined and perpetuated by the rise of a global postindustrial elite.This was particularly true in the case of architecture. The “iconic” city building types of late capitalism—the Shards, the Gherkins, the Burjs, the CCTV Headquarters, and pretty much anything by Frank Gehry—were the successors of what used to be called “monuments.” They are not innovative emblems of the avant-garde. They are bombastic indicators of dominance, excess, indiscriminate growth, and disconnection dressed in shimmering parametric and deconstructivist skins engaged in what critic Edwin Heathcote, writing in the Financial Times in 2017, called an “arms race of the spectacular.” “Iconic” is an indicator of a time that has had its time. It is the go-faster stripes of the 21st century with a dodgy ideology to match.This author fully admits to her own complicity in the careless use of iconic in her writing over the past 20-odd years, and is not proud of it. Having a view of architecture that contains such a word unironically in its vocabulary is not only unsustainable, but destructive. I would like to explain why that is so, and also, highlight other ways of building that are far more worthy of attention.MeTwenty-first century “iconic” buildings are 100 percent formal in the sense that, on the surface, they’re all about looks. Massive, shiny, eye-catching structures in urban centers are considered icons—but icons of what? Superficially, they are symbolic of a celebrity-fixated culture of Western individualism, of ego-led “me” culture, where the celebrities represent a lifestyle and an attitude.One of “iconic” architecture’s most obvious deceptions is that of single authorship. Renzo Piano didn’t design all of The Shard, for instance; the dozens of architects at RPBW did. The names of the so-called starchitects hired to design “iconic” buildings represent brands hired in the service of branding. Architectural theorist Simone Brott has called this kind of architecture a “visual stunt,” noting that these “megaprojects are only made possible by colossal debt arrangements that have the capacity to generate savage distortions of capital and social abuses.”The singular status of the “iconic” building also extends to the structure’s position within the city. “Iconic” buildings are by nature stand-alone, fabricated narratives of success. They tend to disrupt, rather than integrate into, the urban environment, bring little or no social value to the communities around them, and are often shoddy public spaces, too. Worse, in their role as showstoppers, each screaming “I won!” louder than the rest, “iconic” buildings are physically and stylistically dead ends, incapable of adaptation or evolution.WeThankfully, there is a branch of architecture that does not subscribe to the myth of the spectacular. Beyond the headlines of real estate reporters, a post-“iconic” form of collective authorship has been a thing for some time. It comes from a growing shift away from seeing architecture as an act of commoditization and toward, instead, an act of moderation and responsibility. Within the same avaricious economic constructs that gave birth to the “arms race of the spectacular” lay the seeds of a more relational kind of architecture, one in which the architect is collaborative. Its role is to create and enrich environments in which people live without detriment to others, and where social value is prized above capital.Raumlabor in Berlin, Germany, a collective of 20-some architects founded in 1999, exemplifies this form of ego-less urban practice. The collective, whose name translates as “space laboratory,” tends to work in spaces between buildings rather than within them, and often creates playful temporary structures that enliven public spaces and influence local government planning policies.One of its most inspiring projects has been the award-winning Floating University in Berlin, an informal learning space in a disused concrete rainwater retention basin from the 1930s. Since 2018, this cluster of temporary structures has been rebuilt each summer, according to its budget and thematic focus. Spaces of gathering, cooking, exchange and learning host a free, accessible program that ranges from architecture lectures to the annual Climate Care festival, and show how urban infrastructure can evolve while remaining in service to its community and local ecology.Exyzt, based in Paris and active from 2003 to 2015, was another urban interventionist collective. Founded by five architects who acquired and temporarily occupied vacant buildings, its work used inexpensive materials to transform these structures into spaces for living, workshops, and events—including the 2006 Venice Biennale, where for three months, Exyzt turned the French pavilion into what it called a Metavilla, featuring a print workshop, kitchen, sleeping spaces, sauna, and showers for a rotating series of guests to use. The project set an international, much-imitated benchmark and massively raised industry awareness and acceptance of contextual, collaborative architectural interventions. (Exyzt’s Alexander Römer went on to co-found the transdisciplinary design-build network Constructlab; its 2023 book Convivial Ground: Stories from Collaborative Spatial Practices is an excellent primer in the field.)These and other like-minded practices acknowledge that architecture is not the ultimate art form, but rather the product of a particular skill set that is highly dependent on collaboration with others for its realization. If architects have any kind of superpower, it is the training to creatively conceptualize within a framework of complex systems with multiple (sometimes dynamic) parameters, but it only activates in a team context.ThemPost-“iconic” collaborative architecture must engage multiple stakeholders, producers, and users alike. For this to work, transparency is key to the design process, as are equity, equality, and a contextual understanding of culture, history, and environment.The 20th-century Finnish architect Alvar Aalto famously said that “true architecture exists only where man stands in the center.” By “man” he (hopefully) meant the user. Aalto represented the humanist face of Modernism. He did not treat buildings as investment objects or status symbols, but as places of refuge, comfort, welfare, and shelter.The main focus of one of his practice’s most renowned buildings, Finland’s Paimio Sanatorium, completed in 1933, was the comfort of the tuberculosis patients it was built to house in isolation. Aalto and his wife, Aino, felt that part of this user comfort involved designing furniture for the building, which they did, using natural materials and soft organic forms that followed Modernist principles. With their Paimio furniture designs, the Aaltos quite literally bent wood to their will to create prototypes for a plywood furniture series, some of which continues to be manufactured to this day.While Aalto’s vision of human-centric design was admirable, Modernism belongs to a paradigm that views nature as an exploitable resource and a chaos upon which order must be imposed. His “man” standing at the center of architecture comes from a perception of “man” standing at the center of all things, where the natural world is nothing more than a supplier of materials and decorative inspiration.On this branch, “man” is the icon on which the “iconic” building is based. But which man are we talking about? The Modulor Man, introduced in 1948 by another Modernist, Le Corbusier, is famously non-inclusive, as are the “norm” figures of Ernst Neufert’s Architect’s Data, from 1936—a book that, astoundingly, remains a pedagogical standard to this day.Only when all humans are considered equal by architects, and by society, can a human-centric architecture become a viable proposition. But even that may not be enough to lay the foundation for a long-term regenerative and inclusive model for architecture. As long as the othering of nature—of the nonhuman—continues, it will continue to be viewed as a resource and perpetuate insidious “them” (nature) versus “us” (humans) dichotomies.UsIn an interview earlier this year, The Guardian’s architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, remarked that “the age of iconic projects, authored by a global elite of celebrity ‘starchitects,’ seems to be coming to an end, in favor of a more pragmatic approach, with a renewed emphasis on the importance of context, climate, local materials, and low-carbon construction.” I would add that this new approach stems from a deep reprogramming of the parameters of architecture.Some firms are now broadening their interdisciplinary scope to include geographers, geologists, biologists, social scientists, policy and environmental experts, and, tentatively, AI. Architecture as a tool for growth, and building cities and economies, is being succeeded by architecture as a means for mediation, repair, and even research, with fields of practice focused on urban and rural ecologies, both human and not human. This requires leaving the simplistic comfort zone of thinking about architecture as a sum of physical forms or commodities.Tatjana Schneider, a professor for history and theory of architecture and the city at Germany’s Technische Universität Braunschweig, for example, sees architecture as a form of agency rather than objects. Her work focuses on, as she puts it, “unraveling, disentangling, and explicating the interdependencies between architecture and other forces by developing ways and means that make such forces”—including politics—“visible and negotiable.” In 2021, she ran for mayor of Braunschweig in order to help do so on a citywide level.Or consider the European studio Forty Five Degrees, whose work focuses on intangible human and nonhuman resources. Its ongoing project Radical Rituals—a traveling topography-led survey along the 45ºN parallel, between 45°N 1°W and 45°N 35°E—studies “the inventiveness of everyday life, new spatial practices, and vernacular rituals that stimulate and nurture commons across Europe.” It seeks out the best possible solutions, rooted in a local context, around climate justice, biodiversity, gender, and other issues.Not only are more interdisciplinary collectives emerging, but new forms of collective approach are, too. Post-“iconic” collaborative architecture is as much about teaching and learning as it is about buildings, if not more so. At last November’s RIBA + VitrA Talks, Jayden Ali of the London collective practice JA Projects said, “We must produce gateways with which people can engage with the future of a site in which they are already heavily invested.” The route to making architecture that’s better for communities, people, and the planet seems to lie in zooming out, where designers change their thinking from the individual to the collective when designing, and where the individual has agency in the process.Collaboration is not only cooperation and coordination, added Torange Khonsari of the London nonprofit design practice Public Works at the same event: “It’s about relationship building, disagreeing, learning and unlearning, building trust, and engaging in shifting power relations […], a place where relearning, agreeing to be wrong, and negotiating and renegotiating the self and the collective comes to play.”And, Not OrBy now, the message should be clear: the word iconic is representative of a toxic, destructive paradigm. It belongs to a mindset of dominance over people and nature, in which humankind is perceived to be discrete from nature, not part of it, and in which some people are more equal than others.So where are the new words to replace it? When disciplines or societies are in a state of upheaval, language changes with them. Words that belong to and continuously reinforce the old paradigm are replaced by words that better represent the new one. What is the collective noun for human and nonhuman? For organic, mineral, and atmospheric matter? For a new, post-growth cultural landscape in which stakeholders (we need a new word for them, too) are symbiotes, not parasites? An inclusive and positive language of “and,” not “or,” signifies the reality of truly working together, where “value” is measured in levels of care.The world is an entangled place. When a woodland, grassland, lake, or reef ecosystem is thriving, we can see that it is through its lush diversity, the vibrance of its colors, and how it thrums with life. It is beautiful because it is a balanced system with built-in longevity, because it works. Let that be a goal for our cities: no icons, no idols, no false gods—just beautiful, regenerative, long-term, functioning entanglement. I look forward to discovering what the new words for this will be. Similar Stories PEOPLE There Is No One-Size-Fits-All in Architecture by Marianela D’Aprile THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Future-Proofing a Home Where Water Is a Focus and a Thread by Alexandra Lange THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT To Improve the Future of Public Housing, This Architecture Firm Looks to the Past by Ian Volnerenen1727171644https://untappedjournal.com

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