Abstract
Who receives canonical status in architecture, and why? This study looks at how Slovakia’s postwar architectural canon took shape, comparing the 2020 documentary series Ikony with three decades of coverage in Projekt, the country’s main architectural periodical between 1959 and 1989. A “visibility audit” of mentions, authored articles, and featured buildings shows that quality alone rarely decided who got noticed. Personal proximity to Projekt’s editorial board proved significant, as did generational gatekeeping and the marginalisation of women. Ikony is not a neutral observer of this history; it carries much of the old hierarchy forward, even as it begins to rework it.