arcVision has chosen the places of knowledge, symbols of rationality in themselves, to review how the world arena is expanding in the globalization era.
Places of Knowledge
US investor Warren Buffett, aka the Oracle of Omaha, has staked everything on the risk assessment skills of Ajit Jain, the head of Berkshire Hathaway’s reinsurance business. Raghuram Rajan is the economic counselor of the International Monetary Fund. And the senior posts of the world’s top banks are occupied today by executives who share the same country of origin with Jain and Rajan: India, the former British colony that is now setting the pace on the international markets with operations like the take-over of Arcelor by Lakshmi Mittal, the world’s top steel producer, or the growth plans announced in the automobiles industry by Ratan Tata. India Everywhere was one of the themes on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos at the beginning of the year, and a recent report on individual wealth published by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini consecrates the Indian subcontinent, which has so successfully focused on developing excellence in knowledge, as one of the leaders of world growth: with an increase of 19.3%, India is one of the countries where high net worth individuals have made the greatest progress. Considering that Indians account for 20% of the world population aged under 24 and given the country’s commitment to education and knowledge, India is clearly a potential candidate for the cradle of knowledge in the global world.
As “The World is Flat” author Thomas L. Friedman points out, in the global planet many barriers have fallen and intellectual ability is overthrowing the typical values of the industrial society. Brain power, especially higher education in science and technology, is leading us into a transition where India and China are gaining the upper hand even over the USA. The two Asian countries are on the eve of a period of very low salaries combined with outstanding intellectual expertise, a mixture that could cause a revolutionary shift in world balances. Only when the intellectual migration associated with the knowledge process has been completed will a new equilibrium gradually be established. If, like Ján Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, we schematize knowledge as a triangle whose vertices are research (creation of knowledge), education (diffusion of knowledge) and innovation (application of knowledge), a leading role is played by universities and their relationship with business. This is an area where Europe still lacks a common path toward excellence, despite plans for a European Institute of Technology to compete on a global scale. As Saroj Kumar Poddar, President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, observes in this issue of arcVision, the main drivers of the knowledge economy are Science and Technology. And here, once it had gained its independence, India has been building up an impressive store of resources. Similar views are reflected in a recent survey by Deloitte, which concludes that India will strengthen its leadership in service delocalization thanks to greater supplies of university technology graduates and widespread knowledge of English. India’s cultural and educational system fosters excellence, says Ashanka Sen, a software analyst for the Fineco Bank: the seven Indian Institutes of Technology and six Indian Institutes of Management are flanked by another twenty or so centers of excellence in science, engineering and medicine. Moreover, education spending between 1983 and 2003 increased, in India’s main cities at least, from 2.1 to 6.3% of percapita spending. In other words, the scene is set for a global challenge for the centers of knowledge in today’s “flat world”. And universities will provide the competition ground for talent in the analysis of Roberto Verganti, Director of the Alta Scuola Politecnica—the School for talents of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino—especially when it comes to closer and more fruitful co-operation with industry.
The architecture section of this issue looks at the head offices of some of the world’s most exciting industrial groups. With competitive growth strategies based not only on expansion and reduction of costs but also on highly knowledge-intensive activities such as R&D, transnational corporations are reassessing their corporate buildings, as confirmation of the new approach. The latest concepts in industrial architecture no longer design production labs but highly complex buildings, whose forms and functions create new cities of knowledge. These places, perfect emblems of rationality, present a skilful combination of form and function, a careful balance between signifier and signified.
