THE
NAME
GAME
does the NAme of AN
ARchitectURe pRActice mAke A
diffeReNce? some pRActices thAt
hAve choseN Not to follow the
tRAditioNAl NAmiNg RoUte tell
gemma barton theiR ReAsoNs
The architect as a figurehead is a
Renaissance invention. It was then that the
man of letters, as outlined by Alberti in
the middle of the first millennium, began
to lay claim to recognition for his creations,
rather than handing off all credit to his (and
it was only ever ‘his’) patron. Undoubtedly,
the complex reasons behind this include
an increased recognition of the artist, the
rise of humanist philosophy, the faith in
the power, even genius, of the individual
in society. Hence we recognise Brunelleschi,
Palladio, Michaelangelo – the cult of the
individual had begun.
Skipping forward to the industrial
and commercial ages, the 19th to the
20th centuries saw a continuation of the
paternalistic tendency in architectural
identity. This was reflected as architecture
practices expanded from single authors >>
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