Joshua Taylor
What makes an icon? On the design and disposition of Sydney’s architecture
'The thesis of the following essay struck home,' writes Ben Etherington. 'Particularly, that the Barangaroo casino is an icon of an unregulated market that is parasitic in its very form on the icons of the past created by public investment. I think of it every time I look at the building, which, unfortunately, is unavoidable!'
'The Australian ugliness is not the absence of beauty; it’s only partly an aesthetic question. It is the lack of strong design principles, the Featurist impulse to distract and dazzle rather than develop cohesive responses to the competing functional, economic and aesthetic demands we make of architecture, responses that should service the current needs and future aspirations of users. How could such a significant redevelopment of public land be so skewed to the interests of one party?'