Alshaabi 1
GLOBALIZATION IN ARCHITECTURE
THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING
HASAN ALSHAABI
COR 330 — GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: ISTANBUL
T​hroughout history, the development of architectural
techniques and ideologies have evolved dramatically on a
global scale. Not surprisingly, nations have used their
architectural designs effectively to express their technical and
structural skills. Additionally, architecture may also be used as
a lens to understand societies: socially, economically, and
politically; we can use architecture to better analyze nation’s
spiritual, psychological, and religious ideologies. However,
recent architectural projects started to experience some sort of
international “standardization” due to the impacts of
globalization, and technological advances. Consequently, the
ultimate question then arises as to what extent could
architecture still represent cultural themes and ideologies
within a nation rather than just copying universal designs?
And how cultural, political, and conceptual factors may play a
fundamental role in shaping and forming nation's architecture
within the context of globalization and modernization?
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Middle eastern cultures and western cultures. Many historians
have noted that Ottoman architecture throughout their
religious institutes, especially, their interior designs are very
crucial to understand their culture due to its practical
architectural significance as they were mostly intended and
carefully well-planned to provide a large and flat interior
space expanding the main hall (prayer hall) within the mosque
in order to increase its capacity to hold more people.
H​istorically, the development of the Ottoman architecture, for
example, has become one of the most influential architectural
elements of modern architecture, particularly, throughout the
fascinating work of the greatest Ottoman architect, Mimar
Sinan who spent more than 75 years of his life
developing/mastering architectural designs and engineering. In
fact, the influence of Ottoman architecture was so
conceptually deep on the world to the point where we could
now identify some buildings as landmarks of Ottomans just
based on their architectural style.
M​ore importantly, the aesthetics in their interior decoration is
yet another important factor to understand their culture in
terms of religious and spiritual themes. Not surprisingly, like
christian churches, and Jewish synagogues, Islamic mosques
also ensure a sense of holiness, and quietness through their
layout of the interior decorations. They tend to design them
around their religious and cultural ideologies, which could be
T​o the Ottomans, architecture was a tool in which they
seen through the use of Islamic iconography hanging on the
communicated their cultural ideologies, and engineering skills
walls referring to God, and the prophet, as well as, beautiful
to the rest of the world. For instance, their monumental
calligraphy, and nice pottery on both the exterior and interior
imperial mosques dominate Istanbul’s skyline nowadays. They
walls (​Rogers 64-65​). As A
​ dam noted, “architecture can be a
represent a geopolitical and architectural bridge between both
mirror to society”, he explains, “[t]his analysis has often been
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technological, but it has also been spiritual, psychological and
this serious impact explaining, ​“[r]apid urbanization and
even cosmological” (Adam 1). In other words, it is so natural
technological advances have resulted in more and more
that architecture reflects both practical and psychological
standardization of built environments, depriving human
ideologies of the nation that developed them, which clearly
habitats of cultural and regional identity” (Eldemery 344).
appears in Ottoman architecture as it manifests both cultural
and religious themes throughout their society.
I​n that sense, globalization in architecture is the process, or
series of processes, by which all aspects of architectural
design and engineering are modernized/standardized on a
H​owever, there is a crucial element that needs to be factored
in when considering the foundation and development of
nation’s architecture, which is the fact that architecture is also
bounded by its nation’s policies in terms of socio-politics, and
economics as Adam stated: “we can understand architecture as
a natural reflection of what is current socially, politically and
economically” (Adam 1). As new scientific applications keep
rising up along with technological breakthroughs, our
conceptual understanding of architecture is also evolving. For
example, unlike the Ottoman period, we rarely see massive
constructions on religious bases nowadays, but rather
skyscrapers, technological laboratories, and huge business
institutes — even within fairly known religious countries in
the Middle East. This drastic change is not necessarily new,
but rather recently exploited by some implications of
globalization. Interestingly​, architecture seems to be taking a
sharp turn towards more “standardization” or what some
critics like to call “modernization” of architectural designs and
techniques both conceptually and practically. Eldemery noted
massive global scale by technological innovations (Adam).
Thereafter, Eldemery explained: “[g]lobalization is now an
unstoppable historical process led by technological change and
involving the dissemination of science and new technologies”
(Eldemery 344). ​Consequently, that leads to a bigger issue in
which modernization of new architectural projects may strip
off “place identity” in modern architectural works. ​Eldemery
further explained the concept of ​place identity​ as “​the
collective sense of cultural identification with a particular
building and its design features. This concept considers the
debate around decisions with regard to buildings and the
sources of architectural elements used in the design project or
building” ​(Eldemery 346-347). Thus, ​removing that unique
element, which remarkably helps visitors distinguish national
origins just based on architectural styling and engineering,
may leave us into a completely new world where all societies
seek slightly different iterations of the same conceptual
architectural framework.
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Sources:
Adam, Robert. J. "Globalization and Architecture." ​Semantic
Scholar​ (2008): 1-7.
<​https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d2fa/bf5da34c7efb
3e3aa8e98808d7b902032cb0.pdf​>.
Eldemery, Ibrahim Mostafa. "Globalization Challenges in
Architecture." ​Journal of Architectural and Planning
Research​ 26.4 (2009): 343-54.
<​http://japr.homestead.com/eldemery.pdf​>.
Goodwin, Godfrey. A History of Ottoman Architecture.
U​ltimately, architects, in today’s world, often relate
architectural plans to practical analysis based on society’s
needs and future technological plans. Nonetheless, many
theorists, still do believe that modernized architecture could
London: Thames & Hudson​, 2003. Print.
Mansel, Philip. Constantinople: City of the World's Desire
1453-1924. ​New York: St. Martins Griffin​, 1998.
Print.
still mirror nation’s cultural ideologies. At any rate,
Rogers, J. M. Sinan: Makers of Islamic Civilization. ​London:
globalization will continue to ​challenge architects to invent
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new ways in which they may represent their nation’s
traditional themes through the lens of architecture. As
Eldemery lastly noted, ​“In the world of architecture, the
struggle between globalization and anti-globalizing forces will
continue, as it has for centuries. Even a hundred years from
now, countries such as Egypt, Italy, and France will still retain
their traditional architectural allure and will still be worth
visiting, regardless of which force prevails” (Eldemery 351).
However, how would the world look like in a couple centuries
from now? Perhaps, traditional architectural themes would
only be retained through ancient still-standing constructional
masterpieces, whereas new architectural works may take a
different approach in terms of designs moving towards hybrid
architectural theme throughout the world.
I.B. Tauris​, 2006. Print.
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