Before the internet and social media, architecture projects and the work of architects were viewed and documented differently. Similar to other professions like the culinary arts and fashion, the public's understanding and exposure to these industries has changed as new technologies have proliferated. The public's experience of the built environment, for example, is no longer reliant on physically visiting a space. Instead, anyone at any time can see iconic architectural feats in the palm of their hand. 

For architects, this accessibility can be a good thing, as it enables their projects to travel faster and, even, into the hands of potential clients. However, how are design professionals shaping their work in response to the influx and demand for online sharing? How have architects adapted their designs and marketing models to satisfy online platforms like Instagram and Twitter? Have architects and designers succumbed to "Instagrammable Architecture" and finding ways to "design Instagrammable moments?"

In a recent piece for Forbes, Brooklyn-based architect, Sergio Mannino writes a reflective article discussing architecture's current relation to the digital realms of online searching, scrolling, and linking. 

"Today, you can find hundreds of images of [Le Corbusier’s Cite’ de Refuge] on Instagram and an astonishing 11,900,000 pages on Google," Mannino explains. "Social media demands consistent updates of projects, and this requires many, many more photos and much more content overall, not just the 5 or 10 images that architects used to take just a few years back." 

Of course, Mannino isn't the first (or last) to discuss social media's "invisible hold" on architecture and designers. In 2018, Oliver Wainwright also discussed how famed architects "fell under the Instagram spell" in The Guardian, to name one of many recent examples. 

Every architect, Mannino explains, is familiar with the Bilbao effect, and its effect on the future of architectural experience. "It was clear proof that modern architecture could be not only a building, but a show, and a show brings people, popularity, tourists and of course profits to the city," Mannino explains. 

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Today, architectural concepts register for the general public through images taken by everyday people. Architecture's "viewership" has changed. Noted architecture and design critic Alexandra Lange expressed her thoughts on the this topic for the New York Times this September. With her exceptionally poignant headline "Is Instagram Ruining Architecture?" Lange shares her own experiences with the app and what it has done for the works of many architects. 

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"Architects have always designed spaces to be seen in specific ways: It is only now that everyone has the ability to stop and take the perfect shot." she explains, adding, "There are Instagram-famous places that are deep and Instagram-famous places that are shallow."

To be sure, discussion of architects "embracing the idea of designing for Instagram" has been a popular and contentious question in design circles for years. Yet, rather than asking if architects should embrace Instagram, perhaps, the real question is if social media is providing the public with a way to take ownership, and perhaps pride, over the built environment in a way that wasn't available before?