Brandscapes: Architecture in the Experience Economy - Hardcover

Klingmann, Anna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262113031 ISBN 13: 9780262113038

Publisher: Mit Pr, 2007

Synopsis

In the twenty-first century, we must learn to look at cities not as skylines but as brandscapes and at buildings not as objects but as advertisements and destinations. In the experience economy, experience itself has become the product: we're no longer consuming objects but sensations, even lifestyles. In the new environment of brandscapes, buildings are not about where we work and live but who we imagine ourselves to be. In Brandscapes, Anna Klingmann looks critically at the controversial practice of branding by examining its benefits, and considering the damage it may do. Klingmann argues that architecture can use the concepts and methods of branding--not as a quick-and-easy selling tool for architects but as a strategic tool for economic and cultural transformation. Branding in architecture means the expression of identity, whether of an enterprise or a city; New York, Bilbao, and Shanghai have used architecture to enhance their images, generate economic growth, and elevate their positions in the global village. Klingmann looks at different kinds of brandscaping today, from Disneyland, Las Vegas, and Times Square--prototypes and case studies in branding--to Prada's superstar-architect-designed shopping epicenters and the banalities of Niketown.But beyond outlining the status quo, Klingmann also alerts us to the dangers of brandscapes. By favoring the creation of signature buildings over more comprehensive urban interventions and by severing their identity from the complexity of the social fabric, Klingmann argues, today's brandscapes have, in many cases, resulted in a culture of the copy. As experiences become more and more commodified, and the global landscape progressively more homogenized, it falls to architects to infuse an ever more aseptic landscape with meaningful transformations. How can architects use branding as a means to differentiate places from the inside out--and not, as current development practices seem to dictate, from the outside in?When architecture brings together ecology, economics, and social well-being to help people and places regain self-sufficiency, writes Klingmann, it can be a catalyst for cultural and economic transformation.

About this title

About the Authors

Anna Klingmann is the founder and principal of KLINGMANN, an agency for architecture and brand building in New York.

Anna Klingmann, an architect and critic, is the founder and principal of KL!NGMANN, an agency for architecture and brand building in New York. Her work has been published in AD Magazine, Daidalos, Architectural Record, Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, and other periodicals.

Reviews

The principle behind this book is that buildings aren't just buildings, but rather iconic symbols that reflect who we are as people, cities and economies-in that sense, they represent a "brand" of sorts. Carrying that logic several steps short of its logical conclusion, architect and writer Klingmann looks at the "brandscapes" that cityscapes have become: "As a strategic tool for eliciting a relevant experience, architecture has an immediate impact on social relations and economic transactions... What counts in a building is not so much how it looks but how it comes to life for people." The problem with these and other statements throughout is that they come off as either vague or self-evident (perhaps as a result of her immersion in the subject-she's the founder of a New York agency "for architecture and brand building"). There is no doubt that Klingmann has passion and knowledge to spare, and that the general idea behind the book is valid, but esoteric, faux-academic writing ("The equation of Experience = Drama + Diversity + Detail can be discerned in the Parthenon almost as clearly as it can in contemporary commercial structures") too often substitutes for well-developed argument and clear-headed analysis. 100 illus.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262113031
• ISBN 13: 9780262113038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364