Routine production or symbolic analysis? India and the globalisation of architectural services

Journal of Architecture

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 63-94

  Tombesi, Paolo ^a   Dave, Bharat ^b   Scriver, Peter ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33747110111     PISSN: 13602365     EISSN: 14664410     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/1380236032000068479     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. See: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Selecfed Technical Services Australia, 1992-93, ABS 8676.0
2. S. Draganich, Architectural Office Profile and Financial Benchmarking (Melbourne,Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 1999)
3. S. Draganich, 1998 Profile of the Architectural Profession (Melbourne, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 1998)
4. Productivity Commission, Review of Legislation regulating the Architectural Profession, Report no 13 (Canberra, Auslnfo, 2000)
5. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Census of Service Industries, 1992 (Washington DC, Government Printing Office)
6. The Practice of Architecture: Industry Statistics (Washington DC, The American Institute of Architects, 1996)
7. Fibre optic network connections have not only reached every industrial labour region in the world, but are rapidly expanding in developing countries, where government agencies are being set up to address, specifically, technological barriers to trade. See: Industry Commission Telecommunications, Equipment, Systems and Services, final inquiry report (Canberra, Auslnfo, 1998)
8. The global telecommunication market was expected to expand from a total of $460 billion in 1993 to as much as $1,1 trillion in 2000, largely due to the limited number of telephone lines available in developing countries. China alone was scheduled to add 35.5 million telephone lines between 1993 and 2000, while Vietnam is planning to install 300,000 lines annually, all using fibre-optic technologies. See: B. Parker, Globalisation and business practice (SAGE Publications Ltd., 1998), pp. 557-559
9. P. Dalai, 'Internet use at firms accelerates', AlArchitect (June 2000)
10. PSMJ AIE Automation and Information Technology Survey (Dedham, Massachusetts, Practice Management Associates, 2001 )
11. Zweig White Successful Firms Survey of A/E/P and Environmental Consulting Firms (Natick, Massachusetts, ZweigWhite, 2001)
12. For a more detailed description of the findings, see: P. Tombesi, 'Super Market', Harvard Design Magazine, 17 (2002), pp. 26-31
13. Some examples can be found in: P. Tombesi, 'A true south for design? The new international division of labour in architecture'. Architectural Research Quarterly, 5/2 (2001), pp. 171-180
14. World Architecture. 'World Survey of the Top 300 Architectural Firms', World Architecture 92 (January 2001)
15. World Trade Organisation. Architectural and Engineering Services: Background Note by the Secretariat (Geneva, WTO, 1998)
16. Government of Canada, Canadian Architectural Services: A Consultation Paper in preparation for the World Trade Organisation General Agreement on Trade in Services. (2001)(http:/ /strategic.ic.gc.ca/SSG/sk00034e.html)
17. See: F. Frobel, J. Heinrichs & O. Kreye, The New International Division of Labour, (Cambridge University Press, 1980). The book describes the relocation of manufacturing operations to Third World countries, which gathered momentum in the 1970s and was facilitated by new technologies and better transport. According to its authors, multinationals used the shift to respond to intensified competition in world markets, reduced rates of economic growth and lower profitability. Relocation, however, only affected basic manufacturing processes involving low levels of skill. Thus the new internationalisation of labour is one where some regions of the world specialise in low-paid, routine manufacturing operations while others specialise in the high-value added part of the production process
18. R.B. Reich, The Work of Nations (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1991)
19. The simplification must of course be taken with a grain of salt. There can be no clear-cut distinction between design and design documentation tasks. Yet, it is still possible to separate architectural workers into those who prevalently make decisions and those who prevalently document them. For an expanded discussion, see: Tombesi, P. (1999) 'The Carriage in the Needle: Building Design and Flexible Specialisation Systems,' Journal of Architectural Education 52/3:134-142 (1999)
20. Hillier and Hanson make a similar distinction between what they call 'professional' versus 'procedural' knowledge in bureaucratic organisations, but with a view to the programmatic organisation of architectural space rather than the structure of architectural work that we discuss here. See: B. Hillier and J. Hanson, The Social Logic of Space (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984)
21. Body-shopping and competitive wage advantages have been widely used to generate revenues and promote the inflow of foreign investment. The idea that electronic links and low skill technical employment can contribute to capacity building is certainly the position of the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank. The European Community also has funded projects for drafting education in low-wage areas. G. Augenbroe and S. Lockley, 'CaribCAD: a technology to outsource CAD production work' in R. Amor (ed.), ECPPM 1998 Proceeding: Product and Process Modelling in the Building Industry (Watford, Building Research Establishment, 1998), pp. 29-36
22. G. Augenbroe and S. Lockley, 'Workflow managed remote design collaboration', INCITE 2000: Implementing IT to Obtain a Competetive Advantage in the 21st Century, Hong Kong (www.bre.polyu.edu.hk/crc/ incite2000/Theme3/049. doc)
23. APESMA, Architects Remuneration Survey Report 1998-99 (Melbourne, APESMA Architects Branch, 1998). Interestingly, the salary structure in the Indian software industry presents equivalent differences: in 1995, a project leader was expected to make US$23,000 whereas documentation staff would reach US$8,000. See: R. Heeks, 'Indian software labour: cost breakdown and comparison' (University of Manchester, IDPM, 1999)
24. A.L Saxenian, 'Bangalore: The Silicon Valley of Asia?', Report prepared for the Conference on Indian Economic Prospects: Advancing Policy Reform, Center for Research on Economic Development and Policy Reform, Stanford, May 2000
25. R. Heeks, 'The Uneven profile of Indian Software Exports', Development Informatics Working Paper Series (Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management, October 1998)
26. R. Heeks and B. Nicholson, 'Software Export Success Factors and Strategies in Developing and Transitional Economies', Development Informatics Working Paper Series (Manchester: Institute for Development Policy and Management, 2002)
27. S. O'Riain, 'The Flexible developmental state: Globalisation, information technology and the Celtic Tiger', Paper presented at the 'Global network, information and regional development: The informational region as development strategy' Conference (Santa Cruz, University of California, 1999)
28. By contrast, the broad acceptance of Coxe and Maister's conceptual framework of North-American architectural firms as either strong-idea, strong-service or strong-delivery constructs suggests various possibilities of being professional, all defined by the quality of the service performed rather than its scope. See: W. Coxe; N. Hartung, H. Hochberg. B.J. Lewis, D. Maister, R.F. Mattox, P.A. Piven, Success strategies for Design Professionals - Superpositioning for architecture and engineering firms (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1987)
29. Professional trade literature provides a few good examples of the difference in perception between working as local or global drafters. See for example: D. MacLeod, 'Computer service bureaus: taking up the load', The Canadian Architect (March 1988), p. 41
30. and S. Ross, 'Collaboration by wire', Architectural Record (September 1997), pp. 131-137
31. as opposed to F. Housley Carr and W. Krizan, 'Offshore design soaring?'. Engineering News Record (January 21, 1988), pp. 20-22
32. and R. Korman 'Shifting jobs where pay is low'. Engineering News Record (December 18, 1995), p. 15
33. World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000, 4.11 - Structure of consumption in PPP terms, 4.12 - Relative prices in PPP terms, 3.11 - Urban Environment. (Washington, World Bank, 2000.)
34. Average figures may be misleading, since India's sub regions present major economic differences. The state of Punjab, for example, produces over six times more wealth than the state of Bihar. See: B. Sutcliffe, 100 Ways of Seeing an Unequal World (New York, Zed Books Ltd., 2001)
35. We are indebted to Yatin Pandya and Surya Kakani for their help in collecting this information. From a regional employment perspective, India's local salary scales in absolute dollar value appear to be lower than they are in neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka. See: Tombesi (2001), op. cit
36. APESMA, Architects Remuneration Survey Report 1998/ 99 (Melbourne, APESMA Architects Branch, 1998)
37. The American Institute of Architects, Compensation at U.S. Architecture Firms (Washington, AIA Press, 1999)
38. Brooke International, Asian Property Market Survey (Hong Kong, Brooke International, April 1998)
39. A.O. Krueger and S. Chinoy, 'The Indian economy in global context'. Working paper No. 98, Stanford University, Center for Research on Economic Development and Policy Reform, 2000
40. National Association of Software and Service Companies, 'Internet Survey', January 2001 (http://www. nasscom.org/)
41. R. Heeks, 'The uneven profile of Indian software exports', Paper No.3, Development Informatics Working Paper Series (University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management, 1998)
42. R. Heeks, India's Software Industry: State Policy, Liberalisation and Industrial Development (New Delhi, Sage Publications, 1996)
43. For a detailed discussion of these figures, see: R. Fernandes, A. Arora, J. Asundi, 'Supply and demand for software development in India', Working paper (Carnegie Mellon University, September 2000)
44. A.V. Desai, 'The peril and the promise: Broader implications of the Indian presence in information technologies', Working paper No.70 (Stanford University, Center for Research on Economic Development and Policy reform, October 2000)
45. United States Immigration and Naturalisation Service. Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-IB): October 1999 to February 2000 (2000). The success of skilled Indian workers in emigrating overseas raises the issue of 'brain drain', and its relation to the development of globally marketable skills in low-wage areas
46. N. Evenson, op. cit
47. The present discussion reflects the argument of a forthcoming monograph: P. Scriver, The Scaffolding of Empire: Building and Thinking in the Public Works Department of British India (forthcoming)
48. See also: P. Scriver, Rationalisation, Standardisation, and Control in Design: A cognitive historical study of architectural design and planning in the Public Works Department of British India, 1855-1901 (Delft, Publicatiebureau Bouwkunde, Delft University of Technology, 1994)
49. and P. Scriver, 'Complicity and Contradiction in the Office of the Consulting Architect to the Government of India, 1903-1921', in P. Goad and J. Willis (eds.), Loyalty and Disloyalty in the Architecture of the British Empire and Commonwealth, proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) (Melbourne, 1997)
50. See also J. Lang, M. Desai and M. Desai. Architecture and Independence: The Search for Identity - India 1880-1980 (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997)
51. G.H.R. Tillotson, The Tradition of Indian Architecture: Continuity, Controversy and Change Since 1850, (New Haven and London, Yale, 1989)
52. N. Evenson, The Indian Metropolis: A View Toward The West, (New Haven and London; Yale, 1989)
53. Phillip Davies, Splendours of The Raj: British Architecture in India, 1660 to 1947, (London, John Murray, 1985)
54. S.Gupta, Architecture of the Raj: Western Deccan; 1700-1900 (Delhi, B.R. Publishing Co., 1985)
55. Robert Grant Irving, Indian Summer: Lutyens, Baker, and Imperial Delhi (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1981)
56. Jan Morris, with S. Winchester, Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj (New York, Oxford, 1983)
57. C. Tadgell, The History of Architecture in India; from the dawn of civilisation to the end of the Raj (London, Architecture Design and Technology Press; 1994)
58. For the earlier building norms of the engineers of the colonial Indian PWD system, see Sten Nilsson, European Architecture in India 1750-1850 (London, Faber, 1968)
59. and Anthony D. King, Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power and Environment (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976), which remains the seminal sociological study of the colonial built environment that became synonymous with the designs and planning of the PWD engineers
60. Metcalf, Tillotson, op. cit
61. V. Bhatt and P. Scriver, After the Masters: Contemporary Indian Architecture (Ahmedabad and New York, Mapin, 1990)
62. See also: Jyoti Hosagrahar, 'South Asia: Looking Back, Moving Ahead - History and Modernisation', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 61:3 (September 2002): 355-369
63. and A.G.K. Menon, 'Architecture Education in India in This Time of Globalisation', unpublished keynote speech, Forum II Conference, Gazimagusa, Turkey, 22-24 April, 1998
64. For example: William J.R. Curtis, Balkrishna Doshi: An Architect for India (Ahmedabad and New York, Mapin, 1988)
65. S.K. Sharma, 'Architectural Management: An Essential Environmental Need', Indian Institute of Architects Journal (July/Sept, 1983), pp. 14-17
66. Among the more conspicuous manifestations of this new trend was what one architectural writer has appositely described as the 'Punjabi Baroque' of South Delhi, and 'Marwari Mannerism' of Calcutta's Salt Lake suburban sprawl. See: Bhatia, G. Punjabi Baroque and Other Memories of Architecture (New Delhi, Penguin, 1994)
67. CaribCAD. Cooperative Approach to the Realisation of Internet Based CAD (CaribCAD, The Netherlands, 2000) (http://funredes.org/caribcad/index.html)
68. M. Piore and C. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity (New York, Basic Books, 1984)
69. P. Cadene and M. Holmstrom (eds.), Decentralised production in India: Industrial Districts, Flexible Specialisation and Employment (Sage Publications, 1998)