Monograph recently released a data-driven starchitect ranking to show how popular famous architects are. Created by digital product designer Moe Amaya and Monograph's data team, the project utilizes the STAR system ranking algorithm to determine the relative popularity and value of an architect's brand.
As the team at Monograph states, "Whether you're a client looking to bring on a talented architect or a student building your education, the value of a starchitect's brand in business and academia has been fairly opaque. The Starchitect ranking system is the beginnings of a data-centric take on architectural brand value." According to the team's ranking, Zaha Hadid tops the list, followed by Norman Foster, Le Corbusier, and Bjarke Ingels.
STAR™ variables
- Monthly Searches - We gather Google global keyword search volume from Ahefs, the most active internet crawler outside of Google.
- Born - To normalize the natural constraint of age, we have a logarithmic multiplier applied to the search volume. As an example, Bjarke Ingels at a spry 45 years old, earns a 2.4x multiplier for his age.
- Pritzker - Being awarded the Pritzker gives an architect a flat 10 points.
- Notable projects - Projects considered for this variable are based on Google Search's knowledge graph which is capped at 50 projects.
- ArchDaily project data - The ArchDaily team is generously supporting the Starchitect project by providing data about project location and categories.
- Instagram - As a visual discipline, we use Instagram follower count as a proxy for visual search volume.
Notable missing variables include books and their impact and project impact. The team is also only ranking single "named" architects as opposed to teams like SANAA, MVRDV, Herzog de Meuron, and Snøhetta. Future versions of the algorithm will take these variables and offices into account.
News via Monograph
