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Emoji building in the Netherlands

2017-05-03

Changiz Tehrani, who works for the firm Attika Architekten, decorated a new mid-rise building in the Dutch city of Amersfoort with 22 cast-concrete emojis. The faces punctuate bands of concrete that run along the building’s main facade, winking, laughing, and blowing kisses.

Tehrani told he wanted a style of ornament that would speak of its time. “In classical architecture they used heads of the king or whatever, and they put that on the facade,” he said. “So we were thinking, what can we use as an ornament so when you look at this building in 10 or 20 years you can say ‘hey this is from that year!’”

Architect Changiz Tehrani poses with one of the emojis before it was installed