Iconostasis
In her graduation project "Iconostasis", Iris Furtuna investigates how sacred architectural principles such as verticality, rhythm, light, and material expression can be introduced into contemporary iconic buildings to counter their often egocentric and disconnected nature. Her research-led approach draws from religious architecture not to revive its spiritual function, but to understand how atmosphere, symbolism, and spatial harmony can generate deep emotional connections in secular environments.
The project is composed of two parts: a full-scale folly that serves as a physical laboratory for testing these principles through form, light, and material honesty, and a small conceptual case study redesign of the Burj Khalifa, in which sacred strategies are applied to reimagine public experience and access at the base of the world’s tallest tower.
Iris’s work questions the dominance of spectacle and globalized aesthetics in architecture and proposes an alternative future where iconic buildings are not monuments to ambition, but frameworks for collective experience and local identity. Moving forward, she plans to carry these ideas into more practical, everyday architectural contexts.
