Starchitect Rankings

To determine relative popularity and brand value of starchitects, we use the STAR™ (v0.2) model developed by an architectural data team from MIT.

1
Zaha Hadid
382.6
2400000
true
1950
42
39
800000
1
Norman Foster
65.0
85000
true
1935
50
45
700000
1
Le Corbusier
55.5
253000
true*
1887
50
17
-
1
Renzo Piano
53.9
103000
true
1937
50
23
115000
1
Bjarke Ingels
52.5
88000
false
1974
13
25
1000000
1
Frank Lloyd Wright
52.5
256000
true*
1867
50
15
-
1
Frank Gehry
51.0
138000
true
1929
50
11
100000
1
Rem Koolhaas
47.2
59000
true
1944
20
46
500000
1
Oscar Niemeyer
45.8
85000
true
1907
50
4
-
1
I.M. Pei
43.9
14000
true
1917
50
9
-
1
Mies van der Rohe
43.4
107000
true*
1886
42
10
-
1
Philip Johnson
42.2
29000
true
1906
50
2
-
1
Tadao Ando
41.6
82000
true
1941
30
8
-
1
Jean Nouvel
38.2
48000
true
1945
30
14
270000
1
Antoni Gaudí
36.2
289000
true*
1852
25
5
-
1
Richard Meier
32.7
33000
true
1934
19
26
150000
1
Santiago Calatrava
32.4
56000
false
1951
45
6
5000
1
Louis Kahn
31.2
51000
true*
1901
20
11
-
1
César Pelli
31.1
10000
false
1926
50
1
-
1
Shigeru Ban
30.5
34000
true
1957
10
14
-
1
Toyo Ito
27.4
29000
true
1941
10
13
-
1
Richard Rogers
26.9
29000
true
1933
25
4
43000
1
Michael Graves
25.4
21000
true
1934
25
3
4000
1
Rafael Moneo
25.3
15000
true
1937
15
4
-
1
Daniel Libeskind
25.1
41000
false
1946
25
17
180000
1
Peter Zumthor
24.2
52000
true
1943
4
4
-
1
Álvaro Siza
23.9
29000
true
1933
10
4
-
1
Alejandro Aravena
22.9
26000
true
1967
0
5
-
1
Robert Venturi
22.5
22000
true
1925
11
1
-
1
Aldo Rossi
20.9
26000
true
1931
6
2
-
1
Thom Mayne
19.4
18000
true
1944
6
10
100000

Emerging Practioners

Name
Monthly Searches
Thomas Heatherwick
15k
David Adjaye
15k
Jeanne Gang
15k
Ole Scheeren
15k
Francine Houben
15k
Michael Maltzan
15k

Top Academics

Name
Monthly Searches
Thomas Heatherwick
15k
David Adjaye
15k
Jeanne Gang
15k
Ole Scheeren
15k
Francine Houben
15k
Michael Maltzan
15k

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What is the value of reputation?

Developed by the data team at Monograph, the STAR™ system looks at a series of variables to determine the relative popularity and value of an architect's brand. 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.

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. Also we are 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.

Changelog

  • 0.2 - ArchDaily project data included
  • 0.1 - Initial dataset
// Link to animate JS // Animate the bars