The Architecture of Excess: Image Fabrication between Spectacle and Anaesthesia

Abstract: This thesis explores the interplay between the architectural image and its collective meaning in the contemporary society. It starts from a wonder around the capacity of architectural project The Cloud towers, created by the widely known architectural company MVRDV, to ignite fervent reactions caused by its resemblance to the image of the World Trade Centre Towers exploding. While questioning the detachment of architectural image from content, the first part of this thesis discusses the changes brought into the image-meaning relation in the spectacle society in postmodernism, using concepts as simulacra and anaesthesia as key vectors. In the second part of the thesis, the architectural simulacrum is explored through the cases of Dubai as urbanscape and The Jewish Museum Berlin as monument. The final part of the thesis concludes while using the case study of The Cloud project, and hints towards the ambivalence of image-content detachment and the possibility of architectural images to become social commentaries.