08/01/2026
Watching architecture reduced to a recognizable image has become increasingly hard to ignore. The recent imitation of the Golden Bridge is not just a question of taste—it is a reflection of how architecture is often treated today: as spectacle rather than space, as content rather than a place to inhabit.
Gaston Bachelard reminds us that space is first lived, not measured. A bridge, a house, a room—these gain meaning through intimacy, memory, and imagination. They grow from their surroundings and invite us to dwell, to reflect, to dream. When designs are copied cheaply, stripped of context, they stop being architecture. They become props for photos, fleeting moments of attention, empty shells of what they were meant to be.
This is a pattern I see everywhere. Buildings are judged not by how they shelter or shape memory, but by how “instagrammable” they are. Spaces chase visibility rather than meaning. They dazzle the eye, but they cannot touch the imagination. Architecture becomes interchangeable, hollow, and quickly forgotten.
The irony is that we already have the materials to create meaningful architecture—our landscapes, our culture, our vernacular traditions. They carry centuries of spatial intelligence. Yet the pressure to replicate what is visible elsewhere teaches the opposite: that originality is optional, that depth is expendable.
As an architect, this feels deeply troubling. Architecture is not neutral. Every space we build carries a responsibility: to the people who inhabit it, to the land it occupies, and to the memory it can hold. To reduce it to an image is to forget that responsibility. To copy it cheaply is to erase the imagination that makes a place alive.
Perhaps the most radical act today is restraint. To design spaces that may never go viral but will be remembered by those who inhabit them. Spaces that allow meaning to emerge slowly, patiently, and quietly. Spaces that are felt before they are seen, and linger long after the photograph is gone.
Architecture is not a backdrop. It is a home for imagination, memory, and life. Treating it otherwise is not progress—it is amnesia.
Photos (for context):
Left – Golden Bridge, Da Nang, Vietnam (indochinatour.com)
Right – Glass walkway under construction, La Trinidad (La Trinidad Tourism page)
