Territory and Globalization

My travels began with a concept as opposed to a place. I discovered the term deterritorialization when stumbling upon the work of Eduardo Arroyo on the Levene House, located in Madrid Spain. This building fit to its surroundings allowing it to be formed with the environment as opposed to clearing space for the building. This led me to follow the concept of deterritorialization which was developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.

I found an example of the cycle of deterritorialization and reterritorialization within history. During the Spanish Colonization of the America's in the late 15th century and through the 16th century, the Spanish would come in and deterritorialize the current culture by removing important structures and figures. Then reterritorialize by establishing their own culture where the original use to exist. This transitioned into the concept of globalization leading to discussion on how it has changed since the Spanish Colonization.

I began in Dubai with the Burj Khalfia. It is an example of Dubai's personal triumph yet at the same time a testament to what we as humans have accomplished thus far. It places Dubai as a player in the global market and allows it to reach out to all other places on the globe.

In light of my discoveries, I asked myself, in today's world do we define our territory or is a set of lines and boundaries defined by law or geography, or is it that territory is without definition? Can we simply accept architecture for what it is or do we automatically come up with ideas of how it should be based on our own knowledge of the culture and environment the architecture exists in?