World Architecture Survey


The World Architecture Survey was conducted in 2010 by Vanity Fair, to determine the most important works of contemporary architecture. 52 leading architects, teachers, and critics, including several Pritzker Prize winners and deans of major architecture schools were asked for their opinion.
The survey asked two questions:
  1. What are the five most important buildings, bridges, or monuments constructed since 1980?
  2. What is the greatest work of architecture thus far in the 21st century?
While the range of responses was very broad, more than half of the experts surveyed named the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry as one of the most important works since 1980. The Beijing National Stadium in Beijing by Herzog and de Meuron was the building most often cited, by seven respondents, as the most significant structure of the 21st century so far. Counted by architect, works by Frank Gehry received the most votes, followed by those of Rem Koolhaas. The result of the survey led Vanity Fair to label Gehry as "the most important architect of our age".

Results

Most important works since 1980

The respondents named a total of 132 different structures when asked to indicate the five most important buildings, monuments, and bridges completed since 1980. The top 21 were:
  1. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain by Frank Gehry
  2. Menil Collection in Houston, Texas by Renzo Piano
  3. Thermal Baths of Vals in Vals, Switzerland by Peter Zumthor
  4. Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC) Building in Hong Kong by Norman [Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank|Norman Foster]
  5. Tied :
  6. :Seattle Central Library in Seattle by Rem Koolhaas
  7. :Sendai Mediatheque in Sendai, Japan by Toyo Ito
  8. :Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany by James Stirling
  9. :Church of the Light in Osaka, Japan by Tadao Ando
  10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. by Maya Lin
  11. Tied :
  12. :Millau Viaduct in France by Norman Foster
  13. :Jewish Museum, Berlin in Berlin by Daniel Libeskind
  14. Tied :
  15. :Lloyd’s Building in London by Richard Rogers
  16. :Beijing National Stadium in Beijing by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron
  17. :CCTV Building in Beijing by Rem Koolhaas
  18. :Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal by Rem Koolhaas
  19. :Cartier Foundation in Paris by Jean Nouvel
  20. :BMW Welt in Munich by COOP Himmelblau
  21. :Addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Missouri by Steven Holl
  22. :Cooper Union building in New York by Thom Mayne
  23. :Parc de la Villette in Paris by Bernard Tschumi
  24. :Yokohama International Passenger Terminal at Ōsanbashi Pier in Yokohama, Japan by Foreign Office Architects
  25. Saint-Pierre church, Firminy in Firminy, France by Le Corbusier

Most significant work of the 21st century

The buildings most often named as the greatest work of architecture thus far in the 21st century were:
  1. Beijing National Stadium by Herzog and de Meuron
  2. Saint-Pierre, Firminy by Le Corbusier
  3. Seattle Central Library by Rem Koolhaas
  4. CCTV Headquarters by Rem Koolhaas
  5. Tied with one vote each: Sendai Mediatheque, Millau Viaduct, Casa da Musica, Cartier Foundation, BMW Welt

Criticism

Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Blair Kamin criticized the "self-aggrandizing" survey for not including any green buildings. In response, Lance Hosey of Architect magazine conducted an alternate survey of leading green building experts and found that no buildings appeared on both lists, suggesting that standards of "good design" and "green design" are misaligned. Commentators also noted that several of the architects surveyed "perhaps took the magazine’s title a little too seriously" and voted for their own buildings.

Participants

The following people replied to the survey: