Investigating icons

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Steven Miller.

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FXFOWLE's 6th Crossing Bridge. (FXFOWLE Architects)

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James Law's DNA Tower in Dubai. (James Law Cybertecture)

Steven Miller, managing director of FXFOWLE International, in Dubai, encourages architects and clients to pay more attention to context and less to building the region's next 'icon'.

What role do iconic buildings play in today's urban areas?

Iconic architecture is the mark of a city. When you really get down to it, architecture is the physical history of a city. Historically speaking, Paris has the Eiffel Tower, New York has the Empire State Building and London has Big Ben, but now, contemporary architecture has created its own icons.

For example, the city of Bilbao, Spain became something because of a museum-and not the collection within the [Guggenheim] museum but because of the architectural icon that is the building.

This is beginning to happen in Dubai as well. Forty years ago, it was the original Trade Centre, then it was Emirates Towers, then later it was the Burj Al Arab and now it's going to be the Burj Dubai. Architecture is the mark of a city.

Having said that, is it possible for a city to have too many icons?

Can a city have too many icons? How many historic, iconic elements are in Rome or Venice? They're usually tiny little buildings but if you go up and down the Grand Canal, one's more spectacular than the other. So, I don't think so. But it all comes down to the context of who is referring to it and how it is perceived.

What happens is that the superlative icon needs to be that much greater. Is a building an icon because Boris Becker puts his face on it? No.

Every new building in Dubai promises to be 'iconic'. Who determines what is iconic?

A building becomes an icon after being judged in the context of where it's located, but it also has to be judged by people who have a sense of value in architecture. The Burj Dubai will be an icon because it is reaching heights and its constructability is very unique. It's not an icon just because it's in Dubai or because it will be the world's tallest building. It's an icon because it is what it is.

Take Burj Al Arab, while I think it's a ridiculous piece of architecture, it's a wonderful piece of architectural engineering. We don't think of Atkins as an architecture firm. It's a civil engineering firm that develops structures and sells architecture because they're in the market.

If I'm a rich client looking to build something spectacular, do I have to go to a star architect to get it?

Iconicism doesn't just happen because a certain developer did it or even because that developer used a particular architect. Anybody will say, ‘If it's Frank Gehry, it's got to be iconic' and that's not necessarily so. I mean, honestly, he's done some awful buildings.

I wrote an article about his [Dancing Towers] in Prague, where I said the building should be taken down because it's so awful on the skyline. But, most of his stuff is spectacular.

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