David Harvey's book The Condition of Post Modernity (1986) describes the social, cultural and psychological effects of the postmodern age. His main theme is time/space compression. He says that our perception of time and space has been drastically altered by things like affordable air travel, immigration, satellite technology and the rise of global corporations. The world has become a "global village". This means that events in one place have immediate effects around the world.
Different cultures have been brought into closer contact with each other. Multiculturalism is an aspect of globalization. Harvey sees this situation as chaotic and disorientating. People are moving around the world, sharing cultures so that our ideas of race and nationality are changing. He fears that we are losing our identity. Others think it enriches us and allows marginalized voices to be heard.
What implications does this have for architecture and design? The critic Frédéric Migayrou concluded that: "Architects are coming to the fore within a new international coherence that is thoroughly transcultural and hybrid." There are two basic responses. On one hand there has been a spread of uniform, homogeneous architecture around the world that stamps out local culture. On the other hand, there is a reaction against this. Some architects are trying to resist globalization and emphasize local character.
A major factor is the rise of global corporations and financial institutions that dominate the world economy. These are some of the most powerful institutions in the world. For example, the headquarters of the Honk Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Hong Kong was designed by Norman Foster, a British architect . The fact that a British architect was commissioned by an Asian corporation is itself an example of cross-cultural exchange. It has a steel exoskeleton that supports the structure - it celebrates technology and engineering by exposing all the functional and structural elements. The components of the building were manufactured all over the world - the structural steel came from Britain; the aluminum cladding came from the USA.
The HSBC tower was the most expensive building ever built at the time. It's built on a megalomaniacal scale that asserts the power of the HSBC Corporation. The structural form is deliberately muscular and macho. HSBC calls itself the world's local bank, which is a very friendly, disingenuous way of saying that it dominates the global market. The bank was founded in 1865 by Thomas Sutherland, a Scot, to finance British trade in the Far East. Therefore, a global corporation like this actually began as a remnant of the British Empire. Globalization can be seen as a new form of imperialism. The HSBC logo is derived from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's 19th century house flag, which itself is based on the Scottish flag, with the diagonal cross.
Some people see globalization primarily as an economic phenomenon. National economies all over the world are becoming linked together because of international trade. Countries are becoming more and more dependent on each other. Globalization is undeniably a capitalist process. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union symbolized the failure of Communist and the victory of capitalism. Left wing critics of globalization define it as a global economic system dominated by international institutions that are more powerful than any individual national government, so they can't be controlled by democratic processes. But it's more than just economics. There has been a huge increase in social and cultural exchange across national borders.
