ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some thoughts about the subject of architectural globalisation and also points to new tendencies, drawn from a critical perspective, which can suggest other ways to design for Gulf cities in the years ahead. It explores three canonical buildings: the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong, designed by Foster & Partners, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Frank Gehry, and the Chinese Central TV Headquarters in Beijing by Rem Koolhaas/OMA. The chapter identifies the five common fallacies of architectural globalisation: the economic fallacy, the homogenisation fallacy, the origination fallacy, the novelty fallacy and the technological fallacy. The most interesting attempt as yet to introduce transformative architectural ideas into the Persian Gulf region comes from an older project, back in the early-1990s, for the Villa Anbar in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. It was the first project designed by Peter Barber, now a leading housing designer in the UK.
