Eye Was There: From The World Trade Center to the Freedom Tower

Year 2007, Issue: 25, 31 - 43, 01.04.2007

Devrim Kılıçer Yarangümeli

Abstract

Architecture, as one of the most powerful and familiar forms of visual communication, occupies a major place in visual culture. American architect Daniel Libeskind, who is the winner of the master plan for rebuilding Ground Zero, clarifies the point when he says: “I believe that design and architecture are the foremost communicators of all—they tell a story. Without them, there would be no history, no reference about where we are, where we have been and where we are going; not only as individuals but as a society” Libeskind, “News” . Furthermore, Walter Benjamin in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” holds architecture above any other art form arguing that many other art forms have developed and perished in time, but not architecture 239 . Benjamin underlines that the human need for shelter is lasting; therefore, the art of creating spaces, architecture has never been idle 240 . He writes that “[architecture’s] claim to being a living force has significance in every attempt to comprehend the relationship of the masses to art” 240 .

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