Designing Emerging Markets: A Quantitative History of Architectural Globalisation

Description

This book offers a unique glance into the process of globalisation of the architectural practice during the last three decades through the lenses of innovative methodologies in architectural history based on quantitative data. Focusing on the golden age of globalisation (1990-2019), it investigates the transnational work of more than one thousand architectural firms of different business models from Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific in a broad sample of emerging markets: Mainland China, South-East Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia and Kazakhstan, and Latin America. In the book, different thematic geographies are presented to explore the global scope of the contemporary profession, examine significant projects and the structural conditions behind them, and reveal the debates that such works generated. Understanding the global agency of design firms in emerging markets also becomes a way to study different market conditions, modes of production, and architectural trends comparatively and to highlight the shifts that occurred in the profession over the last few decades. The use of quantitative methodologies produces a novel and updated narrative on contemporary architecture in emerging markets grounded in quantitative data rather than in preassumptions and purely qualitative interpretations. Richly illustrated, this book is further enhanced by an ample set of maps, graphs, and tables to visualise data better. Preface Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 How to Measure Globalisation? 1.2 Contemporary Architecture and Its Geographies 1.3 Beginning with the End: Our Conclusions for a Multi-layer History of Architecture References Part I Gauging Architectural Globalisation 2 Towards a Quantitative Turn: Frontiers of Architectural Historiography 2.1 World History, Globalisation, and Architectural Historiography 2.2 Architectural Historiographies and Globalisation: Still Grasping the Surface? 2.3 Architectural Modes of Production in the Age of Globalisation: Sociology and Ethnography of Practice 2.4 Towards a Quantitative and Cross-Disciplinary Approach: From Serial History to the Digital Humanities 2.5 Gauging 1000+ Architectural Firms: A Representative Sample 2.6 Conclusions References 3 A Globalising Practice: From European Colonialism to the Global Age of Architecture, 1400–1989 3.1 Across Lands and Seas: Colonial Empires and Royal Patronage During the “Long Sixteenth Century” 3.2 Expanding Empires, Expanding Opportunities: Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century 3.3 Cold War, Tropical Modernism, and the Globalisation of Modernism in a Decolonising World: 1945–70s 3.4 The Side of the Oil Crisis from the Middle East Boom to the “End of History:” 1970–90s 3.5 Conclusions References 4 Architecture in Emerging Markets: A “Distant Reading” 4.1 BRICS and Other Emerging Markets: Defining the Scope of This Study 4.2 A Broad, But Still Incomplete, Picture: Globalisation Versus Mondialisation 4.3 The Globalisation of the Architectural Practice: Building in Emerging Markets 4.4 The Aeroplane and the Internet: Towards a 24 h Working day with CAAD 4.5 “Boots on the Ground”: Office Branches 4.6 Successful Export and Unaccomplished Ambitions: Europe Versus the USA Versus the Asia–Pacific 4.7 Conclusions References Part II Architectural Geographies of Globalisation 5 The Skyscraper: Go East, Go High, Go Hybrid 5.1 A Changing Geography, a Changing Typology: Asian and Hybrid 5.2 At the Top (the Largest Number): China 5.3 At the Top (the Tallest): The Middle East 5.4 Unsatisfied Global Aspirations and Regionalist Reactions: South and South-East Asia 5.5 The Oil and Gas Boost: Russia 5.6 A Different Chronology? Latin America 5.7 Innovation, Technology Transfer, and Experimental Conditions: Tall, Anti, and Hyper 5.8 Entangled Debates: The (Un)ethics of the Skyscraper 5.9 Conclusions References 6 Art and Culture: Global Icons for the Starchitects 6.1 The Museum Boom: China 6.2 Emerging Cultural Hubs? Museum Franchises and Cultural Clusters in the Persian Gulf 6.3 Opera and Theatres: China, Again 6.4 Temples of Knowledge in the Age of Information: Libraries 6.5 Marginal Geographies and Import Substitution Architecture: From Africa to Latin America 6.6 Conclusions References 7 Megaevents: Dubious Legacies and Empty Shells 7.1 The Rise of Global China: Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games and Expo 2010 Shanghai 7.2 The Brazilian Bet: Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympic Games 7.3 Beyond Oil? National Monuments and Economic Diversification in Astana 2017 and Dubai 2020 7.4 FIFArchitecture: South Africa 2010, Russia 2018, and Qatar 2022 7.5 Conclusions References 8 Dwelling: New Forms of Housing, New Forms of City 8.1 Supertall Residential: Living the Sky from Australia to New York 8.2 Concrete or Terracotta Dragon? China’s Real Estate 8.3 Signature Housing for an Emerging Middle-Class: A Global Picture 8.4 Villa No More: Housing Communities and the End of Privacy 8.5 New Experiments in Mass Housing: Dwellings for the Well-Off? 8.6 Pieces of a New, Hybrid City: Mixed-Use Developments and Real Estate Developers 8.7 The New Town in the Twenty-First Century: From Shanghai “One City and Nine Towns” to Masdar 8.8 Conclusions References 9 Workplace: The Office and Beyond the Office 9.1 Global Cities and Multinational Companies: The Office is Dead; Long Live the Office 9.2 The Typology of the Office Building and the New City: Low-Versus High-Rise, Monofunctional Versus Mixed-Use 9.3 New Islands of Knowledge Production: Science and Technology Parks 9.4 A New City of Knowledge: Qatar Education City 9.5 From Nation-Building to Market-Competition: The Architecture of Higher Education 9.6 Between Private Demand and Good Intentions: School Architecture 9.7 Room for Machines: Data Centres and Factory Plants 9.8 Healthy and Long Lives: The High-Tech Hospital 9.9 Conclusions References 10 Architecture for Leisure: Living the “Generic City” 10.1 City Gates in Search of Place: Airports and Railway Stations 10.2 Hotel Design and Globalisation: Opening, Diversifying, and Crafting Identities 10.3 Hospitality Design and its Firms: When the Hyper-Local is Hyper-Global 10.4 International Chains, International Architects: China’s Booming Hotel Market 10.5 Spending Time and Money: From the Shopping Mall to the Leisure Centre 10.6 The City of Leisure and History: Theme Parks and Disneyfied Heritage 10.7 Megaboxes Since 1851: Conference and Fair Centres 10.8 Conclusions References Appendix A Emerging Markets: Surveyed Regions Appendix B Surveyed Firms by Country