Instagram is built to inspire and fascinate, which makes it an ideal platform to display architecture and engineering feats and quirks. There’s no shortage of amazing visual content in the AEC world to attract both professionals and avid fans. The accounts to check out here weren’t chosen on follower count. Some are well-known with high follower counts; others are not. I chose them because they cover the built environment from diverse stages, perspectives, and motivations.
Clearly, an architecture Instagram account that doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously but does have a purpose. According to the official Cats of Brutalism website, the Instagram account both wants to attract the “cat-loving public” to a discussion on brutalism and to “[juxtapose] brutalist buildings with super-scaled cats as a means of introducing warmth, softness, and whimsy to the often-perceived-as cold, hard, and severe forms of brutalism.”
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It’s an interesting take on a never-ending argument over the value and impact of brutalist architecture. As a Chicagoan, I have a longstanding love-hate relationship with Marina City. Do the cats help? A little bit.
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The account was created by a collection of architecture students and professors at the University of Buffalo. The account takes requests. If you have a brutalist building or cat you want featured, submit your image through their website.
On the other side of the spectrum is the personal Instagram account of Peter Lyden, filled with graceful structures in bucolic settings, close-ups of refined details, and a variety of lush interiors. As president of the ICAA, a nonprofit organization that works to serve as a counterbalance to modernism in architectural education and execution, Lyden posts images reflect the organization’s mission.
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He shares images of historical buildings and interiors, as well as new works by cotemporary architects that combine classical aesthetics with modern technologies. Some of the images posted also include digital renderings, drawings and watercolors of traditional styles.
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This is Lyden’s personal Instagram account. If you want to see another account focused on classical forms, both contemporary and historical, check out the ICAA’s Instagram account.
With nearly 3 million followers, Architecture Hunter is one of the most popular accounts of architecture Instagram. The account was launched by Amanda Ferber when she was an architecture student. She collected photographs on her phone to use as references for her schoolwork. With so many photos a great architecture, she wanted to share with the rest of us and the Architecture Hunter was officially born.
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The photos come from buildings around the world, although there’s definitely a high proportion of buildings from Brazil, Ferber’s home country.
Ferber has spun out the wild success of the Architecture Hunter Instagram account into a digital media startup with a mission to “empower[] architecture & design through the hunt for what needs to be seen by the world.” The Instagram account is run by a team of architecture hunters who hunt out great architecture and produce content to share it with the rest of us.
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The Instagram account is a good mix of exteriors and interiors. Some interior shots are clearly chosen for their architectural interest, while others are beautiful examples of (most often) modern, minimalist interior design.
This niche account hasn’t quite cracked 10,000 followers on Instagram, but it should. The posts cover exactly what the account name says – bridges, bridges, and more bridges. The Instagram home page for the account presents a fascinating kaleidoscope of bridges in a broad range of forms, styles, materials, and conditions. The glamour shots also cover bridges for different types of traffic: auto, train, and pedestrian.
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The account is moderated by OB/Gyn, medical professor, and Jeopardy! champion, LaKedra Pam (@lastnamepam). The account was founded by two other Instagram accounts, @sarafinky and @lakes.77, but Pam has been moderating it since 2015.
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Even if bridges aren’t your thing, check the account out to take in the visual impact of the diversity of design. Bridges may still not be your thing after exploring this account, but it will definitely increase your appreciation of these critical pieces of infrastructure.
The Instagram account is mostly reels of clever engineering design fixing problems. Reels that are addictive to watch over and over. Below are still images from a couple of reels. There are plenty of construction and architectural engineering reels. I mean, who doesn’t love the drama of demolition:
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This account isn’t about the aesthetics but highlighting the entertainment value of innovative engineering. Having said that, you will also find beautiful images of elegant design, such as watching buses navigate the Tianmen Mountain Winding Mountain Road in Hunan Province, China.
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This is the Instagram account for the online learning platform Engineering Discoveries. The website is filled with articles, tutorials, and resources for a host of engineering categories, in addition to civil and architectural engineering.
This smaller engineering account focuses almost entirely on construction, infrastructure, and architecture. On this account, you’ll find images from schematics to construction sites to completed engineered wonders. The moderators also post detail images and reels of construction techniques.
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You’ll also find interesting images of instances when engineering and infrastructure have gone wrong. The account was begun in 2011 by students at Mansoura University in Egypt who wanted to expand the reach of their education outside of class.
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Today, Fantastic Engineers is a full-service civil engineering firm, but still has a student-affiliated group at the university.
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