Starchitecture(s)

Autour du concept de "starchitecture", ces contributions offrent un regard critique sur des projets architecturaux réalisés dans les années 1990 et 2000, les architectes qui les ont créés ainsi que sur leurs commanditaires et leurs utilisateurs. Elles analysent la fonction iconique de ces réalisations avant-gardistes pour les territoires dans le contexte de la société capitaliste contemporaine.

The 1990-2000s are characterized by a proliferation of iconic projects, in a one-upmanship that has rarely been seen in any other period of the history of architecture, fed simultaneously by local decision-makers, infusion of capital and transnational classes. In this context, global icons of architecture are territorial landmarks that affirm the identity and cultural vitality of an area. "Starchitecture" owes its success to its ability to create the local while mobilizing the global; of "putting a city on the map" while at the same time integrating it into the global networks of the architects who build it, the capital that produces it and the mobile, international tourism or professional classes which consume it.. This book offers a critical analysis of these projects that have shaped the image and identity of contemporary cities. It focuses on the figures of the "starchitects" who produce them, on the local players that sponsor them, on the people who "consume" them. It also examines the new geography that they identify. What do these iconic architectural projects say on the new world geopolitics?.