Architecture and urban form in India's Silicon Valley: A case study of Bangalore

Three contemporary processes, globalization, informatization and urbanization, and the space of information technology are having a dramatic influence on the ways that a majority of the world's populations conducts their lives. The growth of these processes across a wide spectrum of the globe's urban centers is transforming the physical environments of cities. These physical environments form the basis for the everyday life of city residents. The goal of this research is to better understand how globalization and the spread of information technology are shaping the physical space of cities and the role of architecture in that transformation.; This study of Bangalore, India, a primary location of information and communications technology (ICT) development in South-Asia and a key node in the global production and consumption network of ICT, investigates three questions: (1) What physical shape does space at the intersection of globalization and information technology take? (2) How do historically constituted social, political and cultural geographies of the city continue to influence the contemporary physical spaces of globalization and information technology? (3) What role have architects played in constituting these new putative 'global' spaces for the ICT industry in Bangalore?; The research employed archival data, field documentation of ICT facility locations and architecture, and interviews with key actors in four case study areas of the city to explore these questions. Comparing these case study areas the research revealed several important findings: (1) Contrary to Bangalore's image as a city uniformly populated by ICT companies, the city's ICT geography varies widely across space. (2) This spatial differentiation is grounded in the historical circumstances of each case study area's development, the use, although reinterpreted, of 'global' development norms to suit local needs, and the business requirements of a variety of ICT business models. (3) The architect's role in the construction of ICT space appears to have been focused not on any consideration of a wider vision for the city, but rather, and almost without exception, on the creation of the 'global' and 'international' image required by real-estate developers and the ICT corporations, albeit an image informed by the 'local' embeddedness of all actors.