According to chef Ramsay, the wow factor are gimmicks that don't make you come back to a restaurant because you only cared about the "pretentious" look of a meal. The WOW factor is in the flavor, because it is flavor that holds the memory. It is flavor & price what make you come back....
wow is shallow, WOW is passion. The kind of passion that will make you want to achieve more, that will make you want to make it an experience rather than a forgettable picture. The kind of passion that will make you experiment over and over, and loose sleep but feel good about it. Ever since architecture imagery has become the greatest medium for the broadcasting of a government or an investor, many architects forget that it IS about the food design.
There are certain experiences that you can never tell in a picture that few buildings/cities can achieve. Everyday, with the need for faster projects, but most importantly, with architecture thinking that to accept its shallowness means to make it superficial, and that it is all good, those experiences become harder to find. I hold those memories as transcendental moments in my life. And those few moments translate into a city having more tourists, an office taking in more commissions, and a tribe building up street cred.
Please stop thinking and executing propaganda [wow], and start to live passionately through design [WOW].
HAVE FUN!!!
