39 MAG NN08200 40946 2004-03-15 LUCIANA MELCHERTSAGUA S PRESAS Transnational Buildings inLoca l Environments Promotoren: Prof. dr. ir. A.P.J. Mol Hoogleraar Milieubeleid, Wageningen Universiteit Prof. dr. ir. G. Spaargaren Hoogleraar Milieubeleid, Wageningen Universiteit Promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. I.S.A. Baud Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. ir. C.A.J. Duijvestein Technische Universiteit Delft Prof. dr. ir. C. Leeuwis Wageningen Universiteit Dr. J.L.F. Hagelaar Wageningen Universiteit Dit onderzoek isuitgevoer d binnen de WIMEK onderzoekschool. Transnational Buildings inLoca l Environments LUCIANA MELCHERT SAGUAS PRESAS Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor op gezag van de rector magnificus van Wageningen Universiteit Prof. dr. ir. L. Speelman in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 30 maart 2004 des namiddags om vier in de Aula. Luciana Melchert Saguas Presas Transnational Buildings in Local Environments / Wageningen: Wageningen Uni­ versity PhD-Thesis Wageningen University ISBN 90-5808-991-6 © Copyright Luciana Melchert Saguas Presas, 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re­ trieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior permis­ sion of the author. Preface and Acknowledgments The office building is the most intriguing type of building in the contemporary world. It synthesises the current post-industrial era of late modernity; an era that has introduced a new, globally interconnected social system based on information technology. The office building displays the power of the modern corporation while centralising the command-and-control activities of the globalised economy. It is an internationally oriented commodity present in almost every nation; a visible symbol of local economic wealth, social, technological and economic progress, which rules - and yet transcends - the skyline of the contemporary global city. More than a local structure, the office building is now a transnational building, part of a broader socio-spatial matrix where key cities now meet. Probably few other building types depict so clearly what Castells calls a 'node and hub' of the network society, i.e. the crossroads between the highly dynamic world of global economic exchanges, governed by worldwide information-based flows, and local realities and (environmental) problems, governed by the dynamics of the place. My aim with this study is to explore how the transnational building may turn into a green build­ ing. Several individuals and organisations provided generous financial and intel­ lectual support without which this study would have not been completed. I would like in the first place to express my deep gratitude to Wageningen University's En­ vironmental Policy Group as well as to Wageningen University and Research Cen­ tre (WUR) and Wageningen University Institute for Environment and Climate Re- TRANSNATIONAL BUILDINGS IN LOCAL ENVIRONMENTS search (WIMEK) for enabling this research and its field studies financially. I am more than indebted to my promoters Professor Arthur Mol and Professor Gert Spaargaren for their time, encouragement, critiques, and inspiring exchanges that indeed built up the foundation for the material presented in this study. Professor Mol, thank you for inviting me to your Group to start the study; Professor Spaarga­ ren, thank you for telling me when to end it. Looking now at the completed re­ search, Ihonestl y do not know where their ideas finish and where mine begin. This research has also benefited enormously from the support of the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies in Rotterdam, particularly at its be­ ginning. I am mostly grateful for Ir. Jaap de Vries for providing me the opportunity to collaborate in the setting up of a course on sustainable building at the Institute, as well as for helping me to overcome a number of obstacles along the way. Dr. Okke Braadbaart also played a central part in the materialisation of this study and I would like to express my deep gratitude for his encouragement to continue and conclude it. I also gained greatly from - and am most thankful for - the guidance and insightful comments provided by Professor Isa Baud during my stay at the In­ stitute. Many thanks are of course due to the persons interviewed for the research (listed in Appendix 1),wh o provided the information that forms the empirical body of this work. Many of these interviews were indeed inspiring to me. Iwoul d like to note Architect Roemer van Toorn, Professor Peter Schmid, Architect Max van Huut, and Dr. Juriaan van Meel (in the Netherlands); Architect Jorge Wilheim and Architect Renato Siqueira (in Brazil); and Architect Zhaohui Wu, Architect Cui Kai, and Ms Patricia Lamberts (in China) for their special attention in receiving me for interviews. Thanks are also due to Dr. Song Yehao for revising and providing helpful comments on my chapter on Beijing. Since the start of this research Ihav e been living in four countries, travelling between cities in different continents. A number of friends and colleagues have been really important in all these crossings, of whom Iwoul d like to mention a few: Zhang Lei, Peter Ho, Kris van Koppen, Susan Martens, Bas van Vliet, Corry Rothuizen, and Dick Legger (in Wageningen); Ronald Boon, Ester van Steekelen- burg, Ed Frank, Marijk Huysman, and Mingshun Zhang (in Rotterdam); Fabio Zeppelinni, Ana Flora Murano, Anand Hemnani, Maria Alice Zerlotti, Maria Caro­ lina Duva, Eliana Biscaia, Icaro Cunha, and Clarice Vaz (in Sào Paulo); Claude and Marianne Podeur (in Paris); the Ambassador Afonso and Lucy de Ouro Preto, Yu Ji, Yi Liu, Feng Yencheng, and Du Pengfei (in Beijing). Finally, and it goes without saying, my family deserves most thanks for mo­ tivating me in this (long) project. I am most grateful to my father José Roberto, my mother Lucia, and especially to my sister Roberta, for their support and understand­ ing for my absence, for their sharing with me difficulties andjoys . I would like to dedicate this work to them and also to Michel for helping me, for his good ideas - and for so many good times. Bangkok, January 2004. Propositions 1. More than a local structure, the office building transcends the city's skyline interconnecting urban spaces via information flows. "This thesis" 2. Transnational buildings as nodal points between global flows and local in­ frastructures can trigger the ecological modernisation of the urban environ­ ment. "This thesis" 3. If "architecture is a technique determined by social problems" (Oscar Nie- meyer, Brazilian architect) and "ecological problems are growing social problems" (Ecological Modernisation Theory) it follows that ecological problems shall more and more dictate the development of architecture. 4. One bee makes no honey; one grain makes no rice soup. A single tree makes noforest; one string makes no music. (Chinese proverb) Local environmental politics in combination with global environment management strategies may turn isolated green building examples into worldwide sustainable urban infrastructures. 5. By internationalising Ecological Modernisation Theory through scholarship programmes directed especially at developing country researchers, Dutch academics and policy makers are diffusing worldwide the Dutch pragma­ tism to tackle environmental problems. Universities are also transnational spaces, hubs of globalisation where ideas evolve. Exchanges among transnational students and researchers should al­ ways be fostered worldwide - not only for the development of science today but also for achieving socialjustic e among nations tomorrow. These propositions belong to the dissertation "Transnational Buildings in Local Environments", defended by Luciana Melchert Saguas Presas on March 30th 2004 at 16:00 hours in the Auditorium of Wageningen University. Contents List of figures, tables, and charts v Abbreviations vii 1 Introduction 1 Transnational buildings in local environments 2 Central research question 4 The organisation of the enquiry 6 2 Globalisation and the Environmental Transformation of Major Cities 9 Globalisation and modernity 10 Social transformation and restructuring 12 Globalisation and urban space 20 Transnational spaces and local environments 29 Conclusions 33 3 The Environmental Restructuring of Urban Office Buildings 35 Historical overview 36 Ecological building techniques 41 Innovations in governmental policies 50 Innovations in corporate policies 55 Conclusions 59 4 Ecological Modernisation Theory and Transnational Buildings 61 TRANSNATIONAL BUILDINGS IN LOCAL ENVIRONMENTS From limits to growth to ecological modernisation 62 Premises of ecological modernisation theory 67 The globalisation of ecological modernisation theory 71 Ecological modernisation theory and transnational office buildings 74 5 Analysing the Greening of Transnational Office Buildings 81 The interplay of local-global actors in transnational urban spaces 82 A qualitative, explorative case study research 86 6 Amsterdam 95 Characteristics of the place 96 Local management of environmental flows 103 Global management of environmental flows 109 Conclusions 129 7 Säo Paulo 131 Characteristics of the place 132 Local management of environmental flows 140 Global management of environmental flows 148 Conclusions 159 8 Beijing 163 Characteristics of the place 164 Local management of environmental flows 173 Global management of environmental flows 179 Conclusions 186 9 The Environmental Glocalisation ofOffic e Buildings 189 The environmental restructuring