ABSTRACT
Architecture is usually seen in futuristic terms: novel buildings are understood to probe and project an unforeseen reality, and architectural quality is directly associated with its degree of novelty and uniqueness. Modernity at large has been dominated by this futuristic bias. Yet the appreciation of newness has probably never been as obsessive as in today’s cult of spectacular architectural imagery. In our globalized world, newness is not only an aesthetic and artistic value, it is a strategic necessity of the culture of consumption and, consequently, an inseparable ingredient of our surreal materialist culture.
