When you tap an Instagram geolocation, the nine most popular posts in that location float to the top. Sometimes, there's an uncanny similarity to these posts: near-identical pictures of smoothie bowls, tiled floors, or neon signs. In part, a place’s popularity on Instagram is a domino effect—one person posts a picture of a mural (Wynwood Walls, anyone?), and then everyone does. But a new Instagram Design Guide from Valé Architects suggests that some design features might be inherently more Instagrammable than others. Valé’s guide is interesting for its quasi-scientific analysis of Instagram aesthetic, but it also has real implications in the architecture world; a building’s popularity on social media (in this case, its Instagramability) can influence its perception in the non-digital world. Here are some of the traits that Valé says make a space successful on Instagram:
Views
Valé’s assessment that Instagrammable buildings take advantage of naturally beautiful surroundings is an extension of architects' desire to connect their building to its environment. As Valé explains, “whether you’re overlooking a rice field, a historic building or the ocean, you’ll need to make sure that the design of your space becomes an extension of the world outside.”
Signage
In the vein of Learning from Las Vegas, Valé suggests embracing the roadside by highlighting a business’ name with a stylized sign. Bonus points for neon.
Pools
According to Valé, pools do well on Instagram because they epitomize a kind of luxury that most people looking at their feed don’t have. Their extravagance—especially when populated by people eating healthy food—is striking. It’s impractical to suggest that every architect include a pool in their design for a building, but the notion that extravagant design is more popular than minimalism on Instagram is notable for its anti-modernist leanings.
Murals
If there’s a surefire way to make a building popular on Instagram, it’s to tile the floors and paint murals on the walls. Incorporate art into the fabric of your building—with attention to the way it complements the rest of the structure—and the likes will come rolling in.
You can download the guide from Valé here.
News via: Valé Architects
