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ARCHITECTURE IN BRANDING AND OVERBRANDING PROCESS. HOW GLOBALIZATION INFLUENCED ARCHITECTURE QUALITY
Abstract
Globalization is unification. In the field of architecture and in the social structure alike, the globalization leads to a blending of economies and cultures that produces uniformly branded public space as a response to universal assumptions of integration and correlation. While branding consists in creating a recognizable and outstanding image a strong contradiction exists between both of these approaches. As a result, regional architecture is disappearing, while the growth in significance of international architecture is leading to homogenization of architectural expression and meaning. Architecture is used as a visual device to support the marketing strategies of most modern entrepreneurs. As expected cities as well – like any other product on free market – are being branded and sold. The aspiration to continuously increase the competitiveness of public space exists simultaneously with the desire to reach the largest possible group of future consumers, which is favorable to the unification of global cities. In the result most of the main public spaces are over-branded with commonplace and banal marketing communication which covers the real identity of the urban structure of a place. The research are concentrated on analyzing the changes in architectural structure and the economic effects of the European metropolises within the last decade. One of the results indicates the over-branding as a consequence of the globalization. The phenomenon of the over-branding of cities' public spaces contributes to a decrease in their competitiveness in the global - as well as - the local perspective. To maximize the choice possibility means to minimize the individuality of the public space in any city. With time over-branding might even precipitate the degradation of the city. What will happen to the city image after the era of globalization? Branding the city to expose its authenticity and uniqueness seems to be an attractive alternative to globalization as a process that imposes uniformity of image for the global metropolis. Maybe the easiest way to brand an image that city inhabitants can identify with, is to favor the architectural solutions that shows the essence of a place as derived from tradition? And how this new meaning of a †local style' will strongly influence the quality of a contemporary architecture?
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