Emojis in Architecture

Thinking Face Emoji!

Yes, that would be you, if you happened to be touring Amersfoort, Netherlands, and came across this building that uses emojis instead of gargoyles or faces of kings on its façade.

From pictures of theater masks in old Roman mosaics and wall paintings to Renaissance puttito primitive grotesques, there is an extended tradition of using faces in architecture. However, using an emoji in the building façade was bound to stir the architectural industry.

Attika Architekten’s signature architect Changiz Tehrani was taken on board to engineer a millennial-targeted development, with top floor apartments accompanied by shops on the ground floor. Although the construction – which faces a leafy square – finished in 2016, only recently the photos surfaced and took the digital world by a storm courtesy Mr. Tehrani’s post-modern novelty.

The Dutch architect started his ground breaking project by selecting 22 unique emojis from a pool of 1000+ available in the messaging app WhatsApp. He revealed in a recent interview that Emojis would be one of the most distinguishable icons of the 21st millennia. That is why instead of using gargoyles or heads of kings he decided to decoratively cast 22 of them in his now viral building design.The faces intersperse bands of concrete that run along the building’s facade, laughing, winking and blowing kisses.

 

However, Tehrani’s newness was bound to irk the traditionalists who are already labeling it the death of classy architecture. The emoji architect counters the criticism by saying that in a couple of decades when you will look at this building, you will instantly recall the year 2017. Moreover, kids and teenagers across the square love the building and cannot stop clicking selfies in front of it.

Filed under: Headlines by Wendy Jackson
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