A 1959 Ford Times illustration.

In her 2007 book Brandscapes, Anna Klingman argues that architecture is now a key player in the “experience economy,” where experiences are the main commodities being bought and sold. Like myriad other cultural critics who have argued for the acknowledgement of new orders of capitalism (see: the “attention economy” among others), Klingman notes the development of a value system based on non-tangible goods.

Klingman’s ideas are dead-on, especially with regards to how lifestyle brands are using architecture as marketing. John Hill pointed out this Volkswagen ad featuring OMA’s Seattle Public Library back in 2005, while other bloggers have listed a number of other examples of car companies shooting their ads in front of notable buildings. Keep reading.

A VW ad featuring OMA’s Seattle Public Library, via Archive of Affinities.

A Buick in front of David Chipperfield’s World Cup Building in Valencia, via Donny Silberman.

The value exchange depicted in the ads is obvious (drive this car, it will take you remarkable places), but what’s really fascinating is how and why car companies choose certain architectural backdrops.  As they flail to gain a tangible foothold against the rising currents of popular opinion (there must be a better way to get around than a gassy two-ton mass of metal that costs $60,000 and is demonstrably bad for the world), car companies seem to be abandoning design and style as a selling point, in contrast to the golden days of Detroit when the design of your car was an stylistic extension of your personality. Hill notes that today, “cars look increasingly like each other” while architects push the boundaries of formal expression. So a Buick may look more and more like an Audi, but throwing it in front of David Chipperfield’s  World Cup Building depicts an experience-based identity for an identity-less car. Meanwhile, VW chooses a populist icon: the Seattle Public Library.

Of course, Klingman’s ideas about architecture as a marketing tool echo the ideas of older generations of architects, like many pre-War modernists who argued that their buildings went beyond “architecture” and broached the category of “mass media” in general. And even during the “golden age” of the auto industry, the house you lived in was considered an important piece of the lifestyle pie (™). In fact, back in 1959, Ford used the prefab designs of Rudy Hermes in a series of ads drawing by Charlie Harper to present their new line of cars. Hermes’ technologically advanced (and highly standardized) homes are shown set against caves, hot springs, and rocky cliffs – Ford’s way of telling the consumer that mass manufactured objects can be part of a groovy, individualized lifestyle, man.

Anyways, take a look at the fairly great Ford ads below. Tensioned four story spheres hang tensioned over sinkholes, Miesian glass boxes glow inside of caves… The denizens of this wild, futuristic past would probably disappointed with the state of the world today, considering we still can’t design a fair way to distribute tickets to see a band that was practically around in their day (give or take a decade).

Let’s not forget who put a car in front of their building first: Le Corbusier’s Casa Weissen.

A Buick in front of David Chipperfield’s World Cup Building in Valencia, via Donny Silberman.

A Chrysler sedan front of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1952 Palmer House, via Donny Silberman.

A Chrysler in front of Mies van der Rohe’s 1958 Lafayette Park development in Detroit, via Donny Silberman.

Images of Rudy Hermes painted by Charlie Harper, published in Dwell and Cincinnati Modern.

by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

posted in Uncategorized

tagged auto industry, cars, charlie harper, ford times, futurism, illustration, prefab, rudy hermes

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