.top-header{ transform: scale(0.5); transform-origin: top left; width: 200%; } Unstable Installation Series: Zhang, S. and Zhang, G. (2025) ‘The impact of platform affordance on the representation of iconic architecture: a case study of Markthal across visual social media’, Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARCH-05-2024-0198

Zhang, S. and Zhang, G. (2025) ‘The impact of platform affordance on the representation of iconic architecture: a case study of Markthal across visual social media’, Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARCH-05-2024-0198



Zhang and Zhang demonstrate that architectural representation changes systematically with platform affordance. Using Markthal in Rotterdam across TikTok, Instagram and Google Maps, they combine qualitative coding with computational analysis of text, images and video to show that each platform privileges a different spatial register. TikTok intensifies lived space through dynamic activity and personal experience; Instagram curates perceived space through visual selection; Google Maps foregrounds conceived and perceived space through ratings, reviews and practical feedback. The crucial theoretical move is to treat the platform not as a passive channel but as an intermediary whose technical features participate in producing the architectural object that becomes publicly legible. Methodologically, the study bridges media affordance theory with Lefebvrian spatial categories and multimodal data analysis. Its wider significance lies in urban media studies: architecture increasingly circulates through algorithmic environments that feed back into reputation, visitation, design decisions and public perception. The building’s mediated life becomes part of its operative spatial condition.