Word.ws English Dictionary

duck architecture

duck architecture noun: a style of novelty building where the structure's shape is the direct representation of its function.

duck architecture: a style of novelty building where the structure's shape is the direct representation of its function
Image: Photograph by Mike Peel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

duck architecture (uncountable)

  1. A style of novelty building where the structure's shape is the direct representation of its function.
    • Longaberger’s basket building still stands ... The towering edifice of Surrealist proportions is a testament to duck architecture at its most direct—and a reminder to would-be and expert architects everywhere to dream big.2019 January 10, Alexxa Gotthardt, “The Quirky, Endearing Tradition of “Duck” Architecture”, in artsy.net
    • ... eye-catching buildings sprang up along the roadside, competing for the attention ... And it turns out – they have their own bona fide architectural genre and it’s called Duck architecture!2020 November 9, Messy Nessy, “An Ode to what they call “Duck Architecture””, in Cabinet of Curiosities

Origin of duck architecture

From duck + architecture. The term was coined by architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in 1968; inspired by the original "Big Duck" building in Long Island, New York, built in 1931 to sell ducks and duck eggs.

Questions about duck architecture

What does duck architecture mean?
Duck architecture means a style of novelty building where the structure's shape is the direct representation of its function.
What part of speech is duck architecture?
Duck architecture is a noun.

Words near duck architecture in the dictionary

  1. duck ague
  2. duck and cover
  3. duck and dive
  4. duck ant
  5. duck ants
  6. duck architecture
  7. duck arsed
  8. duck building
  9. duck buildings
  10. duck butter
  11. duck call

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duck architecture (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “duck architecture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duck_architecture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.