Name: Han Wu 1038456 Tutor: Shyn Cheah

Reading Analysis – Week 2

Network Specifism, Digital Globalisation, and Materialisation somehow all co-

exist in our world today. Some to a certain extent, they exist without us even knowing it.

In the 21st century, I believe these three important topics shaped how people live; As

architects and architecture students, it shaped how the way they approach to design.

Take Digital Globalisation for example. The author argues that people live in a

world now where they are constantly being watched, and personally I believe so too.

Internet and globalisation definitely changed people way of living and being. People now-

a-days posts anything and everything on social media so much so that it has become a

necessity and somehow is already part of their being. “Not a global being, but Being-

Global.”

Many Architects tried to approach a global architecture crisis where all the

“modern” and “international” style all looks the same. Materialisation also plays a big

part of this crisis where the globalisation of cement changed the traditional way of how

people construct. As concrete became a global trend, architecture began to lose its local

identity where international style became something everyone wanted. Critical

Regionalism was emerged because of this. The authors argued that Network Specifism is

the more robust redefinition of Critical Regionalism where through series of network

across the globe, it could provide different outcomes based from where it is practiced. I

think this phenomenon is a great approach to simplify communication and could aid

architects to design better. Through hyper-networking, it can bridge collaboration and

participation through a simple touch of a screen. This way, just like Network Specifism,

the local can becomes relational.