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June 4, 2005
Towering egos
Guardian Unlimited discusses "tyrants, kings and tycoons [erecting] grand monuments to their own vanity" and introduces the term "Ediface Complex." Also included are stories about Frank Gehry bending over backwards to design bathrooms and garages for the influential.
There is a psychological parallel between making a mark on the landscape with a building and the exercise of political power. Both depend on the imposition of will. Certainly, reducing an entire city to the scale of a doll's house in an architectural model has an inherent appeal for those who regard the individual as of no account. Architecture feeds the egos of the susceptible. They grow more and more dependent on it to the point where architecture becomes an end in itself, seducing its addicts as they build on an ever-larger scale.
Posted by amy at June 4, 2005 10:27 AM