Alshaabi 1

GLOBALIZATION IN ARCHITECTURE

THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING

HASAN ALSHAABI

COR 330 — GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: ISTANBUL

Throughout 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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Historically, 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.

To the Ottomans, architecture was a tool in which they

communicated their cultural ideologies, and engineering skills

to the rest of the world. For instance, their monumental

imperial mosques dominate Istanbul’s skyline nowadays. They

represent a geopolitical and architectural bridge between both

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.

More 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

seen through the use of Islamic iconography hanging on the

walls referring to God, and the prophet, as well as, beautiful

calligraphy, and nice pottery on both the exterior and interior

walls (Rogers 64-65). As Adam noted, “architecture can be a

mirror to society”, he explains, “[t]his analysis has often been

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technological, but it has also been spiritual, psychological and

even cosmological” (Adam 1). In other words, it is so natural

that architecture reflects both practical and psychological

ideologies of the nation that developed them, which clearly

appears in Ottoman architecture as it manifests both cultural

and religious themes throughout their society.

However, 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

this serious impact explaining, “[r]apid urbanization and

technological advances have resulted in more and more

standardization of built environments, depriving human

habitats of cultural and regional identity” (Eldemery 344).

In 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

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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Ultimately, 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

still mirror nation’s cultural ideologies. At any rate,

globalization will continue to challenge architects to invent

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.

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.

London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Print.

Mansel, Philip. Constantinople: City of the World's Desire

1453-1924. New York: St. Martins Griffin, 1998.

Print.

Rogers, J. M. Sinan: Makers of Islamic Civilization. London:

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