In his book “Architecture as a global system”, Peter Raisbeck identifies 4 categories of architects in our current global system: scavengers, tribes, warlords and megafirms.
Arguably, architecture is at an end because of the commodification of the services that architects provide. But the effect of neoliberal policies and market competition is more insidious than that. I think that this global system has also come to condition the very types of practices that operate within it. In the late 20th Century the heroic architect of the 20s morphed into the star architect of the late 90s and the early 2000s. But I think we also have some new practice types.
Since the 1980s the architectural profession across the world has been driven by globalisation. The factors shaping this globalisation include neo-liberal economics, digital transformation and the rise of social media against the background of the profession’s entrenched labour practices. In describing architecture as a global system, this book outlines how globalisation has shaped architecture and explores the degree to which architecture remains a distinct field of knowledge.
The book identifies four categories of architects in this global system:
-
- Scavengers
- Personal networks. Scavengers are small firms and probably the hardest thing that you’ll ever do in life is to run a small architectural practice. Scavenger firms are driven in many ways by a survivalist mentality. These firms survive by finding, gathering together, and utilizing piecemeal resources of knowledge. And they don’t often have within their practices elaborate or systematized knowledge systems. Scavengers are the vast majority of architects, the most architects across the globe are small firms up to nine people. Depending which country you’re in it’s usually somewhere around 65-75% of all practices.
-
- Tribes
- Community networks. Tribes are firms that are focused on their networks and generally bottom up in the way that they create design knowledge. They are collaborative and community oriented.
-
- Warlords
- Traditional architectural canon and narratives from architecture school. These firms are exemplified by the so-called star architects. They dominate national and global systems. These firms create a knowledge ecosystem around themselves that is dominated by a single style, aesthetic, ideology, or person. Legacy in the canon of architecture.
-
- Megafirms
- Revenue and profit. These are large multidisciplinary networked firms that work within the global system and often across borders. In these firms, architectural design and integrating knowledge through systems and governance are key operational tasks. These firms create highly specialised design knowledge and integerate this knowledge into their systems. Primary aim is new markets and revenue segments.
Those particular categories come out of an institutional logics framework which examines the professional norms, practices and ecosystems of knowledge within architecture. The emphasis in the book is very much in terms of examining architecture as knowledge production.
Dr Peter Raisbeck is an Architect, Design Teacher and Researcher. He teaches Design, Design Activism and Architectural Practice at the Melbourne School of Design. His work explores architecture’s intersection with global finance, new technologies, procurement, design activism, politics, and architectural history.
To read excerpt please visit https://books.emeraldinsight.com/resources/pdfs/chapters/9781838676568-TYPE23-NR2.pdf.
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Global-System-Scavengers-Megafirms/dp/1838676562.
