Tarazona-Vento, A. orcid.org/0000-0003-1792-670X and Atkinson, R. (2024) Commanding heights: the role of wealthy 'starchitects' in city remaking. City, 28 (3-4). pp. 419-436. ISSN 1360-4813
Abstract
Censuses of the world’s super-rich now include among their ranks several architects whose personal financial position stems from their status as influential ‘starchitects’. We discuss the economic, political and social forces that concentrate fortunes in the hands of a professional elite who are increasingly also members of a global wealth elite. The rise of such starchitects exemplifies how capital flows are generative of subsidiary but important classes of professional agents who have accumulated significant fortunes as a result of city (re)making. Thus a select few in this field possess the kind of ‘money power’ that is generative of a capacity to direct changes in the built environment. Courted by city administrations and super-rich clients starchitects are increasingly charged with delivering symbolic projects that reinforce expansionary circulations of capital. We develop a concept sketch of how a global cadre of starchitects and their practices are fundamentally aligned with the shift of many cities to plan star-driven vehicles in order to capture capital. We discuss three elements that are crucial in determining the agency of starchitects: first, economic and political constraints or opportunities; second, normative conditions within industry and city institutional contexts; and, third, the important role of professional and power networks.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | Iconic architecture; star-architect; architectural mega project; wealth elite; super-rich; financialisation of city life |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jun 2024 15:10 |
Last Modified: | 20 Nov 2024 16:07 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13604813.2024.2362502 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:213001 |
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Licence: CC-BY 4.0
Filename: Commanding heights the role of wealthy starchitects in city remaking.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0