The dominant medium in contemporary communication networks is the image. The superiority of visual properties to all others is one of the fundamental traits of western civilization. The creation of the western visual man begins with the introduction of the phonetic alphabet and is reinforced with the invention of photography.
 The capacity of images to mould environments, standards and behaviors connects them directly to the perception and to the production of architecture. The methods by which images are used in contemporary architecture are formed more clearly during the Modern Movement. This is essentialy the first movement in the history of art which is based more on photographic documents than on personal experience, drawings or conventional books. Already in the practices of modernist architects, the mechanism which Guy Debord calls the “spectacle” begins to operate. The spectacle is the mechanism which controls images and is responsible for their incessant flow. It is not simply a collection of images, but a social relationship among people mediated by images.
 The operation of the spectacle's mechanisms is confirmed in contemporary architecture where conditions rooted in the Modern Movement have set in. Images have colonized reality and interact with the perception and production of architecture within two frameworks: the material, three-dimensional space of the city and two-dimensional enviromnents, usually architectural publications and exhibitions. These images share the same attributes and jointly affect the perception of the architect and, by extension, architectural design.
 With a common reference point in the images presented in publications and exhibitions relating to architecture, a kind of architectural system has developed which obeys its own rules and reinforces the convictions of architects. In order to exist within such a system, architects must follow the trends of the “community” but must also develop a distinct, recognizable identity of their own. Under these circumstances, the concept of identity known until now is transformed. At the same time, the continuous consumption of images leads to the exercise of sight and its domination over the other senses.
Most well-known architects renounce the use of images, while at the same time taking care to produce extremely processed images both of their work and of themselves. In general they use methods of representation such as photography, sketches, text and drawings in the framework of an iconoclastic attitude.
 During the process of design, two approaches to the spectacular are observed, having correspondences to the history of modern art. The first emphasizes unmediated personal experience while the second focuses on material – tactile qualities of surfaces.