An in-depth symposium in New York discussed the vexed question of authenticity in architecture through the lens of copyright law

The Meiquan 22nd Century building in China’s southwest Chongqing, which strongly resembles a building by Zaha Hadid.
The Meiquan 22nd Century building in China’s southwest Chongqing, which strongly resembles a building by Zaha Hadid. © STR/AFP/Getty Images

There was one lawyer in the audience of Law x Copy, a symposium held at the Center for Architecture as part of Un/Fair Use, an exhibition on architecture and copyright law earlier this month – and she left before the Q&A.

To be fair, the proceedings did run long. But perhaps she also sensed that the panel of architects, historians and preservationists, led by MIT architecture professor Ana Miljački, who co-organized the event with architect Sarah Hirschman and the American Institute for Architect’s Carlos Solis-Keyser, were less concerned with how architecture is legislated than with law as a set of conditions with the potential to shape design in practice.

Law, in this case, refers to the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act (AWCPA), an amendment to the copyright act passed by Congress in 1990 establishing the protection of works of architecture “embodied in any tangible medium of expression”, including buildings, plans and drawings.

Compared with copyright for art or literature, the AWCPA is a recent development. Architecture shares certain myths with art that influence its commercial value, such as that of the singular author and singular work, but these are also relatively recent: Renaissance architects believed the peak of civilisation existed in antiquity, and so imitated ancient ruins. The commercial and social value of “new” and “novel” and even “original” are, arguably, products of modernity.

Save for a few prominent examples – Zaha Hadid versus the “pirates” of Chongqing; a former Yale student versus David Childs – the case history of the AWCPA is largely uncinematic. Instead of detailing its definitions and applications, panelists approached the law almost thematically, as analogous to other types of parameters that can animate or hinder design. The consensus seemed to be that it was OK to invoke the statute a little abstractly, if doing so helped to illuminate broader questions of authenticity, authorship and influence.

As Miljački pointed out in her opening address, the etymological root of “influence” is “influenza”, suggesting influence can be something that happens to you, a process of permeation, rather than a flagrant and willful act of rip-off.

....