Abstract
My theme is a very broad one. It is the relation between architecture and the changing economic and cultural context in the region of the Pacific Rim. In pursuing this theme I shall make few predictions or prescriptions, though I may venture some future possibilities. On the contrary, I shall offer some good reasons for believing that neither precise predictions nor prescriptions are possible in these changing times, except perhaps to avoid the worst possible outcomes. I shall rather concentrate on those complex factors which, directly or indirectly, are presently shaping the architecture of this vast and increasingly important region.
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Notes
For earlier analyses of the region’s economic strength and potential, see Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Long-Term Prospects for the World Economy (Paris: OECD, 1992); W.T. Coyle, D. Hayes and H. Yamauchi, eds., Agriculture and Trade in the Pacific (London: Belhaven Press, 1992); R. Hodder, The West Pacific Rim ( London: Belhaven Press, 1992 ).
Johan Galtung, untitled paper presentation to Seminar on Appropriate Technology Culture and Lifestyle in Development,Science University of Malaysia (USM), Penang, 3–7 November, 1981.
M. Macintyre, The New Pacific (London: Collins/BBC, 1985). Quotation from address by Z. Suzuki, “The Coming of the Pacific Age,” at the East West Center, Hawaii, 16 June, 1982, as quoted in the Introduction.
W.I. Thompson, Pacific Shift ( San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1985 ).
C. Abel, “A Building for the Pacific Century,” The Architectural Review, Vol. CLXXXIX, No. 1070, 1986, pp. 54–61. For a later interpretation of related themes, see P. Buchanan, “Pacific Rim and Planetary Culture,” The Architectural Review, Vol. CLXXXIX, No. 1134, 1991, pp. 27–32.
For one of the more balanced overviews, see M. Atkinson, `Asian Tiger, Tiger, Burning Not So Bright,“ The Observer,31 August, 1997, Business section, p. 3.
V. Kattoulas, `Asia: Not Stalling, Just Shifting Gears,“ International Herald Tribune, 10–11 May, 1997, p. 13.
Asia’s Population Advantage,“ The Economist,13 September, 1997, p. 90.
S. Harris and G. Klintworth, eds., China as a Great Power ( New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995 ).
The term “slash and burn” derives from the relatively small scale practice of forest clearance by indigenous farmers in the region, who rotate between plots allowing the forest to heal itself in between. The far greater damage done by commercial logging companies is, however, permanent, even without uncontrolled fires: once they are cut down and the remaining stumps are burnt, the slow-growing hardwood trees are usually replaced with more profitable plantations of oil palm, or quick growing softwoods for paper and pulp, destroying the forest ecosystem forever. “Smoky Southeast Asia,” International Herald Tribune,29 September, 1997, p. 8.
A. Higgens, “Smog Makes Asian Tigers Burn Less Bright,” The Guardian, 26 September, 1997, World News, p. 9. Also, “Health Fears Shrouded in Haze,” The Guardian, 27 September, 1997, World News, p. 3. Also, `Asia’s Heart of Darkness,“ The Guardian, 28 September, 1997; Reuters, ”UN Sees Long Fallout from Asia Fires,“ International Herald Tribune, 1 October, 1997, p. 2. Also, M. Hiebert, S. Jaysankaran and J. McBeth, ”Fire in the Sky,“ Far Eastern Economic Review, 9 October, 1997, pp. 74–78.
N. Mawdsley, “Indonesia Aflame,” New Scientist, No. 2105, 25 October, 1997, p. 51.
While Indonesia has laws with which to punish offenders, they have so far not been enforced. J. Gittings, “Forest Fire Smog Chokes SE Asia,” Guardian Weekly, 28 September, 1997, p. 4.
In 1996 the UK — a favorite target for such charges — imported over 200,000 cubic meters of tropical timbers from Indonesia alone. J. Vidal, “Poison Fog Blanket Threatens World Climate,” The Guardian, 27 September, 1997, p. 3.
For this reason the new constitution recently voted for in Thailand, which was forced upon that country’s leadership by the current economic crisis, is of special significance. Displacing the previous preferential system with more democratic and accountable procedures, the new reforms hold out promise of similar measures to come elsewhere in the region. Martin Woollacott, “Crisis That May Force a Change in Those Famous Asian Values,” The Guardian, Comment and Analysis, 30 August, 1997, p. 9; P. Bowring, “Political Ripples in Southeast Asia,” International Herald Tribune, 1 October, 1997, p. 8. Though they may not always be described as such, the West is also not immune from corrupt practices. The so-called “lobbying” of members of the US Congress and government by major corporations and other vested interests, for example, often involving huge sums of money, is regarded as normal politics in the US but would be illegal in Europe. Similar pressures from the oil and automobile lobbies have been blamed for the US government’s reluctance to control those industries’ pollutants. Editorial, “Guzzling to Disaster,” The Guardian, 24 October, 1997, p. 12.
Gross national products (GNPs), even impressive ones like Southeast Asia’s, are macroeconomic measures and often obscure other more contentious factors, such as the distribution of wealth and problems of exclusion, not to mention the quality of the environment. For a wider view of development in the region, see J. Rigg, Southeast Asia ( London: Routledge, 1997 ).
It is a temptation to liken the idea to the technique of “parallel processing,” employed in the construction of supercomputers, which greatly enhances computer power. It is also possible that linking different models of development together may actually result in more effective outcomes, in both economic and cultural terms, than pursuing any single model. Seductive as it is, the analogy is nevertheless a misleading one. Parallel processing involves the linking of many identical computing units, while parallel development refers to the linking together of quite different cultural and economic patterns. More appropriate analogies may be found in the philosophy of critical relativism, which propagates an open but critical attitude toward different “worlds of reality.” C. Abel, “Architectural Language Games,” Chapter 7, Architecture and Identity (Oxford: Architectural Press, 1997), pp. 85–100.
Originally published in C. Abel, “Ecodevelopment, Technology and Regionalism,” Chapter 17, Architecture and Identity ( Oxford: Architectural Press, 1997 ), pp. 204–214.
For a critical analysis of the interrelations between urban and rural development and associated work and economic patterns, see Rigg, 1997.
For a regional example of “green values,” see S.M. Mohamed Idris, For a Sane, Green Future (Penang: Consumer’s Association of Penang, 1990).
Domestic architecture, both traditional and modern, provides clear evidence of an archetypal Pacific House. C. Abel, “Pacific House,” The Architectural Review, Vol. CXCVI, No. 1171, 1994, pp. 50–53.
C. Abel, “Localization Versus Globalization,” Chapter 16, Architecture and Identity ( Oxford: Architectural Press, 1997 ), pp. 194–201.
M. Jacques, “Malaysia Takes a Leap into Future,” Guardian Weekly,6 April, 1997, p. 23; T. Fuller, “Malaysia’s Wired Super Corridor,” International Herald Tribune,15–16 November, 1997, pp. 1 and 6.
A key plank in the Malaysian government’s declared aim to turn itself into a developed country by the year 2020, the Supercorridor appears so far to have escaped any cutbacks. See Fuller, 1997; see also A.S.A. Hamid, ed., Malaysia’s Vision 2020 ( Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications, 1993 ).
Similar prejudices were observed amongst Western architects by the urban theorist Melvin Webber in a seminal essay on urban dispersal. M.M. Webber, “The Urban Place and the Non-place Urban Realm,” in M.M. Webber et al., eds., Explorations into Urban Structure (Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, 1964).
K.S. Tay, Mega-Cities in the Tropics (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989); KL LinearCity (Kuala Lumpur: KL LinearCity SDN BHD, 1996); Architectural Record, “A New Record for Kuala Lumpur? The World’s Longest Complex,” Architectural Record,February 1997, p. 30; see also Chapter 16 in this volume.
For an early critique of the megastructure idea and an argument for urban dispersal, see C. Abel, “Urban Chaos or Self-Organization,” Chapter 2, Architecture and Identity ( Oxford: Architectural Press, 1997 ), pp. 15–26.
K. Yeang, The Tropical Verandah City ( Kuala Lumpur: Asia Publications, 1986 ).
C. Sitte, City Planning According to Artistic Principle (New York: Random House, 1965 ); C. Rowe and F. Koetter, Collage City ( Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1978 ).
T. Radford, “Around the Corner: The 80 mpg Clean Car,” The Guardian,23 October, 1997, p. 3.
For a further discussion, see C. Abel, “Chapter 18. Asian Urban Futures,” in Architecture and Identity, 2nd edn. ( Oxford, Architectural Press, 2000 ).
C. Abel, “Verdant Vertical Living,” The Architectural Review, Vol. CXCVI, No. 1171, 1994, pp. 32–35.
For a detailed account of the architect’s approach, see K. Yeang, The Skyscraper Bioclimatically Considered ( London: Academy Editions, 1996 ).
For a historical overview of the new tower type and its predecessors, see C. Abel, “Prime Objects,” Chapter 15, Architecture and Identity ( Oxford: Architectural Press, 1997 ), pp. 182–193.
Many former colonial attitudes and practices have survived all too well in the way developed nations and multi-national corporations conduct their business with developing nations, and are at least partly to blame for the deteriorating environment. C. Raghavan, Recolonization (Penang: Third World Network, 1990 ). By contrast, both traditional and colonial architecture provides continuing inspiration for contemporary regionalists. C. Abel, Chapters 12–17, Architecture and Identity ( Oxford: Architectural Press, 1997 ).
J. Kirby, P. O’Keefe and L. Timberlake, eds., The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Development ( London: Earthscan, 1995 ).
A report by the US Energy Department suggests that even without green taxes and other measures, research and development costs of new technologies to reduce carbon monoxide to 1990 levels by 2010 would be offset by energy savings alone. M.M. Hamilton, “Technology Can Cut Pollution,” Guardian Weekly,5 October, 1997, p. 16. Other reports suggest that improving environmental practice is good for business as well as for the environment. R. Trapp, “Don’t Let Profits Go Up in Smoke,” The Independent,Section Two, p. 18.
P. Ekins, A New World Order ( London: Routledge, 1992 ).
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Abel, C. (2001). Architecture in the Pacific Century. In: Miao, P. (eds) Public Places in Asia Pacific Cities. The GeoJournal Library, vol 60. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2815-7_11
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