Architecture tells a story of the elite. The skyscrapers in New York allude to flourishing business and trade. Versailles’ absurd grandeur indicates superfluous resources and wealth. A postmodern mosque in Iraq signifies the strength and power of a ruler.

In the “Edifice Complex” Sudjic highlights the power of architecture: the immense power of the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11, the overanalyzed symbolism of the construction of a modernistic middle eastern mosque; the lavishness of buildings and museums that portray wealth and power like the Louvre. Sudjic presents majestic places of worship, palaces of riches, and community spaces of ever-growing symbolism.

This grandiose architecture that is built and analyzed throughout time tends to lean towards a history of the small upper class. The hundreds of thousands of New Yorker’s struggling to afford basic food and shelter are not seen in the iconic Empire State Building. The violent massacres during the French Revolution due to the dissatisfaction of the hungry French people cannot be seen in the gold lined walls of the Sun King’s palace. The plight of the Iraqi people in a war torn country, with an instable leader could not be seen in the vigor of Hussein’s mosque.

The rich hold most money and power in the world, and therefore, shape much of the construction and vision of governments, religions, and culture. The symbolism of architecture extends beyond the wealthy that create it. Many middle class families in America take out huge mortgages on large homes to exhibit wealth. Extra rooms come to signify extra power. Families have large homes and small bank accounts.

Numerous lower class families have homes that are less stable, and less likely to remain standing or to be documented through time. This may lead to a misshapen view of history and/or society when looking at architecture as a lens to see the world. While architecture made by the rich can signify some important events, needs, or desires of a given time, largely excluding the architecture of the middle and lower class leaves out the majority of the people and skews the vision one has of the past.