Tag: copyright | ArchDaily

Architectural Authorship in the Age of the Collective Practices

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

This article is part of our new Opinion section, a format for argument-driven essays on critical questions shaping our field.

Cover Me Softly: Beta 2024 Explores Architecture as an Act of Copying, Imitating, or Stealing

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 04:00:00 +0000

The 2024 Beta Architecture Biennial, in Timișoara, Romania, marks the tenth anniversary of this influential event. Curated by Oana Stănescu, this year's biennial, titled "cover me softly," explores the nuanced relationship between originality and influence, challenging conventional notions of copying, imitation, and appropriation. In addition to the Beta Awards, aiming to highlight significant contributions to architecture from across Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, the main exhibition offers a distinctive interpretation of recurring themes of the architectural field.

Copyrights for Architectural Imagery in the AI Era

Paula Cano — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 08:30:00 +0000

Architecture is a referential discipline. From ziggurats, machines for living, to contemporary biophilic high-rises designs, it is impossible to know whether ideas are genuinely novel or whether they have been conceptualized before. Artificial intelligence has ignited the conversation on intellectual property (IP) even more. As millions generate unique graphic work by typing keywords, controversies have arisen, specifically concerning protecting creative work and the Copyright of architects in their creations. Therefore, understanding the scope of what is protected helps determine whether licenses are sufficient, whether trademark registration's long road is worth it; or perhaps a graphic piece cannot be protected and belongs to the public domain.

Copycat: Why Is Copying a Style Bad for Cities?

Marília Matoso — Sun, 15 May 2022 07:30:00 +0000

CopyCat is the act of emulating something that's already been created and using it in a different context. Copycats can exist in music, arts and design; but they are not exactly a design inspiration or a style reference, but rather a literal copy with almost no modification of the original work.

Can Building Codes be Copyrighted?

Eric Baldwin — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Startup UpCodes has created a free, searchable database of building codes, and the company is at the center of a lawsuit by the International Codes Council. The ICC writes the most widely used building codes in the United States, and they claim they have copyright over the codes and require a license fee for their use. UpCodes argues it is covered by the fair use doctrine, which permits some use of copyrighted material, but the ICC alleges its copyright and ability to raise revenue is being infringed upon. Central to the lawsuit is the question of whether the law can be copyrighted.

Architect Sues SOM for Stealing One World Trade Center Design

AD Editorial Team — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 16:00:00 +0000

Architect Jeehoon Park has filed a lawsuit against Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), claiming the design of New York City’s One World Trade Center was stolen from a project he developed as a graduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999.

Freedom of Panorama: The Internet Copyright Law that Should Have Architects Up in Arms

Rory Stott — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 10:30:00 +0000

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Sweden ruled against Wikimedia Sverige in a landmark case over “Freedom of Panorama,” a ruling which The Wikimedia Foundation has “respectfully disagreed with” in a blog post. The Swedish Supreme Court’s ruling, in short, states that Wikimedia Sverige is not entitled to host photographs of copyrighted works of art on its website Offentligkonst.se, which provides maps, descriptions and images of artworks placed in public spaces in Sweden.

Exhibition: Un/Fair Use

Rene Submissions — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Un/fair Use is an exhibition of research and proposals related to copying and copyright in architecture.

Appropriation is as much a part of architecture as the expectation of novelty, and so it is at the very core of the discipline. Architecture advances via comment, criticism, parody, and innovation, forms of appropriation that fall under the umbrella of fair use. But what about when appropriation is deemed unfair? Where and how are the lines drawn around permissible use? Un/fair Use probes that legal boundary.

In Un/fair Use, models of common, and therefore uncopyrightable, tropes and formal themes are juxtaposed with those protected under the Architecture Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990.

Want to Work Internationally? Here's What You Need to Know About Copyright

Dario Goodwin — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:30:00 +0000

Ideas are precious, precious things. A good one can upend a movement or make a career and they are, of course, worth a great deal. Architects live in a competitive globalized world, and in the race to succeed, defining who owns ideas is becoming increasingly important in an architect's professional life. ArchDaily has previously explained the essential points of architectural copyright and explored the complexities of legal judgments, but what if you want to work internationally? It's a much more complex issue than "China will let people copy what they want" or "Belgians will sue you" and if you want to work outside your home country then it's essential you understand the variables.

Wilkinson Eyre Claim Plagiarism At 2015 Milan Expo Site

James Taylor-Foster — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It seems as though the complex case of architectural copyright has been a major talking point of 2014. As the year begins to draw to a close, a fresh tension has risen between two European offices. British practice Wilkinson Eyre have claimed that a central structure at the site of the 2015 Milan Expo is direct plagiarism of their Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay project in Singapore, completed in 2012. According to an article in The Telegraph, the 'Tree of Life' will "form the centre-piece of the Italian pavilion" in Milan.

What Makes a Copy-Cat a Copy-Cat? The Complex Case of Architectural Copyright

Mitch Tuchman — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 01:00:00 +0000

When an eminent jurist asks, “What does a copyright of an architectural work truly protect?” you may be certain the question is not rhetorical. The U.S. Copyright Act does provide protection from infringement for architectural works, but it does so in terms so ambiguous that a judge might wonder, as did federal district court judge James Lawrence King in a case he decided earlier this year, whether broadly applicable standards for determining infringement even exist. Finding “the usual analysis … too vague and the language misleading,” King blazed a trail of his own in Sieger Suarez Architectural Partnership v. Arquitectonica International Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19140, proposing detailed guideposts for future courts to follow.

Why China's Copy-Cats Are Good For Architecture

Vanessa Quirk — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When we see another Eiffel Tower, idyllic English village, or, most recently, a Zaha Hadid shopping mall, copied in China, our first reaction is to scoff. Heartily. To suggest that it is - once again - evidence of China’s knock-off culture, its disregard for uniqueness, its staggering lack of innovation.

The 10 Things You Must Know About Architectural Copyrights

Jeffrey M. Reichard — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:00:00 +0000

With all the recent controversy over Zaha Hadid's "copycats" in China, we decided it would be wise to get a better understanding of the often murky world of architectural copyright. In that effort, we've decided to re-print an article by Attorney Jeffrey M. Reichard, who practices construction and intellectual property law with Nexsen Pruet in Greensboro, NC, and knows a thing or two (or ten!) about the subject. The article was originally published as a Construction Law Alert for clients of his firm.