Imaging buildings and building images: from De Kiefhoek to Hageneiland and beyond

The prompt circulation of images and representations of buildings has not only expanded the audience for architecture, but has also become a critical tool which – quite beyond the architect's reach – is more influential than the ideas, concepts and buildings they represent. Images have become such an important element that they are not only the primary medium through which most architectural works first engage an audience, but their circulation has come to precede the act of building. The mass dissemination of architectural imagery has enabled a consumption of architecture which has not only transformed buildings into culture, but also ensured a significant displacement in architectural reception. While in prior years the dissemination of images took place after the built object, recently, the diffusion of imagery not only precedes the building, but also conditions its reception.