On 09.15. 14, lead partners and principals of four diverse firms, Jamie von Klemperer, FAIA, of Kohn Pedersen Fox/KPF; Sunil Bald of Studio SUMO; Craig Dykers, AIA, MNAL, FRIBA, FRSA, LEED AP, and Elaine Molinar, AIA, MNAL, LEED AP, of Snøhetta; and Kai-Uwe Bergmann, AIA, of BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, gathered to talk about the influences of global and (or, vs.) local in their architecture practices. Moderator, Clifford Pearson, Architectural Record deputy editor, started the program with a reference to Ancient Rome – a point that resurfaced at various points during the evening: while the tools are new and the speed and local engagement is greater, global architecture has been present for millennia.
Many of the speakers began with an interpretation of what it means to be local today. Dykers presented a diagram of his own various nationalities. Although he is German, his parents have relatives from all over Europe, he has lived the longest in Denmark, his first name is Scottish, and his last name, Dutch. He argued that when you look closely (or when you pull back, looking at the globe at large), specificity becomes difficult to identify. This multinationality extends to Snøhetta itself, an office made of 16 different nationalities, with two primary offices in Oslo and New York and a few small offices across the globe. For an international firm such as KPF, with offices in six countries and with largely international projects over the last 10 to 25 years, what is simply local or simply foreign is also difficult to identify. Are KPF architects who live and work in Seoul local, foreign, international, or global architects? Global capitalism blurs these lines. For example, in New York, Michael Kors has offices two floors above KPF, while there is a Michael Kors store down the street from KPF’s temporary Kerry Centre office in Jing An, Shanghai. Continue reading “Glocal | Lobal: Multinational Architecture and Building Locally Across the Globe”
