In recent years there has been an emerging trend in many
European cities of constructing large-scale and prestigious
architectural projects as strategies for economic development.
The expectation is that a project with a good reputation will spur
an attractive image of the city and provide it with a source of
prestige (De Frantz 2005; Kaika 2010; Doucet et al. 2011; Smith
& von Krogh Strand 2011). Such projects are often referred to as
flagship buildings and are very closely linked to the process
of place branding. Place branding concerns attempts to generate
local economic growth through the strategic adaptation of
marketing techniques in cities and regions with the aim of
improving their attractiveness (Syssner 2012). Flagship buildings
are identified as strategic instruments used in place branding
(Ashworth 2009).
By constructing eye-catching architectural projects, it has been
suggested that cities can create economic “catalysts” that stimulate
investments and consumption in the local area and help to
build a place brand (Bianchini et al 1992; Kavaratzis & Ashworth
2005). Increasingly, local governments around the world are also
trying to reproduce other places’ flagship projects that have been
identified as “best practice” and successful for place branding,
such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Ockman 2004;
Grodach 2010; Smith & von Krogh Strand 2011) and the Turning
Torso skyscraper in Malmö (Ek 2007; Mukhtar-Landgren 2009).
In the place-branding literature the “copy-cat” process is
often promoted as a good strategic policy for urban development.
It is argued that every place can create a uniqueness that
can be promoted through branding, thereby differentiating a city
from other cities and creating positive perceptions of it in the
mind of the “place consumer” (Dinnie 2004; 2011; Kavaratzis
& Ashworth 2005; Jansson & Power 2006; Ashworth 2009).
However, it is also argued that copying successful place