The End of the Decade of Spectacular Architecture

written by Aleš Vodopivec

‘If you are convinced that we have lived in the best of all possible worlds until now, then you will certainly not be delighted when I tell you that this world has come to its ending.’ When one of the most respected sociologists in the world, Immanuel Wallerstein, used these words to announce the arrival of a long-lasting and painful era of changes in the world system in 1997, a period of various crises and insecurities, the construction of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was completed and this announced the beginning of a decade in which the most lavish and extravagant buildings in the history of architecture emerged.