In what could be considered the modern-day equivalent of gargoyles, architect Changiz Tehrani of Dutch firm Attika Architekten has added ornamental emojis to the facade of a Vathorst apartment building.
According to Wired, he pulled all 22 emojis, all faces, straight from the WhatsApp messaging app:
He selected only faces emojis, for their expressiveness and consistency. “They are really strong, recognizable shapes,” he says. “You recognize them immediately.”
Some architects aren't happy with Tehrani's design choices though. New York Institute of Technology architectural history and theory professor Sean Khorsandi is one of them. He told Wired,
“We’re using copious materials, and we’re taking up land. There is a responsibility that goes along with that. If everything is a joke; reduced to this disposable ‘I like it in the moment’ fad, that’s a dangerous attitude to have.”
photos by Bart van Hoek, Attika Architekten
