Archinect - News

Why Is China Stealing Cities, Towns, and Buildings?

2013-05-20T17:37:00-04:00

A lot of Chinese people look up to the West as an ideal, so the construction of these towns could be seen as a way of accelerating their progress; a quick way of achieving through emulation.

China's 'ghost mall'

2013-05-14T20:15:00-04:00

The New South China Mall was once promoted as the world's biggest mall, but it's now pretty much deserted.

China's latest erection, victim of state-controlled censorship

2013-05-06T15:02:00-04:00

The shape of the new headquarters of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's main propaganda machine, has sparked heated discussion online for looking a bit too phallic. Most photos posted on Sina Weibo, the mainland's most popular microblogging site, were removed by censors, and attempts to search for " People's Daily building" in Chinese were met with a message that read: "According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, search results cannot be displayed."

Editor's Picks #313

2013-04-30T11:21:00-04:00

SDR complained "The Saratoga Community Center is ‘traditional’ ? Really ? Brickwork with masonry or ceramic trim is no longer a viable architectural material ? What'll be declared dead, next -- the rectangle ?...I don't defend the example above as a work of architecture. I know nothing about it. But it's a surprising contender for 'traditional'--- isn't it ?)".

News
Christopher Gray reviewed John Hill’s book A Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture, reflected on the current revival of traditional architecture in the United States, and asked Mr. Hill if he has "a bias against the neo-traditional movement?”.

SDR complained "The Saratoga Community Center is ‘traditional’ ? Really ? Brickwork with masonry or ceramic trim is no longer a viable architectural material ? What'll be declared dead, next -- the rectangle ?...I don't defend the example above as a work of architecture. I know nothing about it. But it's a surprising contender for 'traditional'--- isn't it ?)".

observant summarized Mr. Gray’s argument "Ok, so the world is getting tired of peeling Gehry's buildings and the odd cowlicks in Morphosis's buildings, and we're headed back to another swat at post-modern, except that this one is Prairie School revival. I would not have been able to deduce that very easily. It's really watered down. And if the people in the...

The Condition of Chinese Architecture; Elaboration of a critical approach

2013-04-24T18:58:00-04:00

As it was Manhattan in New York nearly a century ago, China turns into a new stage in world architecture.

The facts and figures behind Asian urban growth compared to Europe are incredible: it is five times faster, what took 100 years to happen in Europe has taken place here in just 20; it is also 8 times bigger, 23 cities in China have populations of over 5 million whereas there are only 3 in the whole of Europe, and all this concerns an overall population that is twice as big, 731 million in Europe compared to 1,342 million in China. At the moment, the urban population is bigger than the rural population, accounting for 51% of the total. It is estimated that this will rise to 83% in 2035, when the process will eventually stabilize. The urban population requires services and infrastructures that call for a design approach based around big numbers.

The physical appearance of Chinese cities is strongly influenced by demolition: “Only 10% of historical buildings in China ha...

Archinect Blogger extraordinaire, Freda Weng Chu, shares news of her architecture exhibition in Macau

2013-03-25T20:15:00-04:00

I had my first architecture exhibition early this year in Macau, China and it was the greatest experience I have ever had... The exhibition was divided into 2 halls; the primary hall included all my Graduate school work in Washington University in St. Louis - concept sketches, technical drawings, renderings and physical models. The secondary hall contained concept sketches and all my traveling / study abroad experiences in Barcelona, Spain, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Argentina and a lot more!

Poor-Quality Chinese Concrete Could Lead to Skyscraper Collapses

2013-03-21T18:53:00-04:00

The Ping’an Finance Center is planned to top out at 660m, making it not only China’s tallest building but the second-tallest building in the world after the Burj Dubai. 80m has been built so far, but construction has been halted in the wake of the revelation from Shenzhen’s Housing and Construction Bureau that substandard sea sand concrete had been used in its construction.

Shanghai, Future City

2013-02-18T20:30:00-05:00

There is only so far the gap between the migrant workers and the local Shanghainese they serve can grow before the foundations of the city buckle — and only so many well-educated, English-speaking, computer-literate, world-traveling young people the city can welcome before they demand change. Modernity is about more than fast trains and tall buildings. Despite the authorities’ strict controls, some among Shanghai’s millions have surely figured this out.

In just two decades Shanghai has been transformed from "mothballed relic" of Maoism to one of the world's largest and most dynamic cities, complete with the fastest train on earth and more high-rise buildings than Manhattan.

In an excerpt on Places from the new book A History of Future Cities, Daniel Brook recounts the city's fast-forward and often ruthless reinvention — and describes what has become an enduring dilemma in Reform-era China. For all its new energy, he writes, "the new Shanghai has yet to live up to the city’s historic promise — to sort out what it means to be Chinese and modern."

Ai Weiwei is featured on CBS News

2013-01-28T14:12:00-05:00

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has faced censorship and imprisonment by China's government. Rita Braver reports on a U.S. exhibit of the dissident's creations.

Outside The Box Idea To Tackle China’s Population Problem

2013-01-17T14:02:00-05:00

In an innovative response to the current property squeeze in China, a Beijing architectural and a design firm have combined creative forces to develop a portable house and garden on the back of a tricycle. The Tricycle House and Garden is a sustainable mobile home with its design and construction inspired by the shape and movement of an accordion. The playful designed is also being described as the “adult cardboard box fort box.”

The People’s Architecture Office (PAO) and People’s Industrial Design Office (PIDO) in Beijing developed the clever modular home as a single-person dwelling for those who wish to live in the city but simply cannot afford it due to increasing property prices.

Growing an Architecture Firm in Beijing: The Making of The Titan

2013-01-10T11:33:00-05:00

BAM recently participated in a competition in China for a 100m tall monument and 350m long pedestrian bridge that crosses an offshoot of the Yangzte River in Nanjing's new CBD district named HeXi. Unlike competitions in Western countries, this one wasn't about who would win or lose, or who would be paid or not paid, but it was about collecting as many ideas as possible. Is China doing something smart hoarding all of this design intellectual property?

NPR talks to McGill professor about China's architectural knock-off of Zaha's Wangjing Soho

2013-01-04T13:07:00-05:00

China is also the land of the knock-off: knock-off designer handbags, knock-off blockbuster movies on DVDs, etc. But now, it seems the knock-off has gone off the charts in terms of proportion: entire buildings.

As we have previously mentioned, Zaha Hadid is the latest victim of piracy in China, with a upcoming copy of her Wangjing Soho complex... scheduled to be completed before the original. NPR explores this issue with McGill architecture prof Avi Friedman.

Zaha Hadid vs. didaH ahaZ

2012-12-29T00:47:00-05:00

Star architect Zaha Hadid is currently building several projects across China. One of them, however, is being constructed twice. Pirates are the process of copying one of her provocative designs, and the race is on to see who can finish first.

Does she have anything to say to thousands of architecture students who copy her designs every semester?

FUKSAS wins Chengdu Tianfu Cultural and Performance Centre competition

2012-12-20T14:12:00-05:00

Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas have won the international competition for the construction of the first cultural center in the city of Chengdu. This city is the capital of Sichuan province and was hit by a terrible earthquake in 2008.

Studio Fuksas has other projects still going on in China and precisely in Shenzhen: the Guosen Tower and the Terminal 3 of the Bao'an International Airport that will be completed by next summer. Besides these projects Studio FUKSAS is preparing to realize this new one in the People’s Republic of China whose worth is 1 billion and 200 million yuan (150 million euro). The cultural complex consists of four buildings of elliptical shape with a spiral structure. The design concept is inspired by ancient symbol of the city of Chengdu (a circle with a sun with rays spiral) and demonstrates the willingness of the Chinese community to look at the future, focusing on art and culture.

The project of Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas was conceived as a ...

Isolated Tombstone Stands Among Chinese Skyscrapers

2012-12-12T14:01:00-05:00

In a bizarre dispute, a skyscraper has been built around a tombstone in the city of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province in China. Building developers bought a cemetery with an eye to building a series of skyscrapers on the land. Prior to construction, locals were paid to relocate the graves, yet one family refused the proposed terms, forcing developers to build around the landmass.

Lone Chinese home destroyed; farmer accepts deal

2012-12-03T11:32:00-05:00

Authorities have demolished a five-story home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road and had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation. Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai told The Associated Press the house was bulldozed Saturday after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan ($41,000).

Previously: Chinese Highway builds around "Nail House" protesting development

Chinese man spends whole life savings building very own 'Noah's Ark' over fears of impending apocalypse

2012-11-28T17:20:00-05:00

The vessel, which has cost him ¥1million (£100,000), measures 21.2m long, 15.5m wide, 5.6m high and displaces about 140 tons of water. Lu, from Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, admits it's not much to look at, but is confident it will serve its purpose.

Chinese Highway builds around "Nail House" protesting development

2012-11-25T13:00:00-05:00

Luo Baogen and his wife are the lone holdouts from a neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the main thoroughfare heading to a newly built railway station on the outskirts of the city of Wenling in Zhejiang province. "Nail house" families occasionally have resorted to violence. Some homeowners have set themselves on fire in protests. Often, they keep 24-hour vigils because developers will shy away from bulldozing homes when people are inside.

A skyline all their own

2012-11-20T17:01:00-05:00

A new breed of Chinese architects like Li Hu seeks inspiration from inside themselves. [...] Conventional wisdom says that "futuristic", modern and massive architecture is making Beijing into an international metropolis. However, Chinese architect Li Hu says the capital city needs architects who have their own attitudes.

Architecture is 'about solving living problems'

2012-11-09T12:44:00-05:00

"The cities are often designed based on an architects' ideal understanding of what a modern or a sustainable city should be like, but it is the people living in it that eventually make it modern or sustainable," he says. "How these former farmers adapt to living in a modern city environment is what we still need to wait and find out."

Architecture in China: Big, Bold and Shoddy

2012-11-06T12:56:00-05:00

The people of Beijing seem excited about how their city is being shaped. And so they should be. Architecture in China today is bold and unapologetic. But it embodies China’s rapid growth in less positive ways, too. Although the industry is buoyant these days, its long-term benefits for the people who live here are questionable. Too often, form trumps function.

Also see: Zaha Hadid opens Galaxy SoHo in Beijing

Wang Shu named an "Innovator of the Year" by the WSJ

2012-10-25T20:07:00-04:00

When Wang Shu won the prize, he was in LA, about to give a lecture at UCLA. Architect Neil Denari, a professor at the school and Wang's host, was with him that afternoon. "His cell phone was just buzzing," Denari says. "Chinese journalists at three in the morning calling him and calling him." The news was leaked a day before the official announcement was made. "He didn't look like a guy who was thinking, This is what I've been waiting for, to be world famous! He looked a little bemused."

AS+GG Designs Master Plan for Great City, a Sustainable Satellite City in China

2012-10-24T16:57:00-04:00

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is pleased to announce that it has completed a master plan for Chengdu Tianfu District Great City, a self-sustaining, environmentally sensitive 1.3-square-kilometer satellite city scheduled to begin construction this fall on an approximately 3-square-kilometer site outside Chengdu, China.

One of the first projects of its kind to be proposed or completed in China, Great City—developed by Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co., Ltd.—is envisioned as a prototype or model city to be replicated in other locations throughout the country. The development is intended to respond to the problem of overburdened infrastructure in many of China’s major urban centers without contributing to the high energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with suburban sprawl.

When completed in about eight years, Great City will be home to about 30,000 families totaling 80,000 people, many of whom will also have opportunities to work within the development. The dist...

Phoenix rising as Beijing builds

2012-10-18T17:49:00-04:00

“China is evolving into a construction superpower,” says Fang Zhenning, a scholar who lectures at the architecture school of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The country is expected to account for one-fifth of worldwide building by the year 2020, Fang says. In the battle to build ever-faster, some architects have resorted to digitally cloning designs that can be replicated time after time.

Guangzhou International Finance Center Wins 2012 RIBA Lubetkin Prize

2012-10-15T15:43:00-04:00

Guangzhou International Finance Center in China by London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won the RIBA 2012 Lubetkin Prize for the best new international building. Now in its sixth year, the RIBA Lubetkin Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new building outside the European Union.

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art examines one of China's most important architectural pioneers

2012-10-09T18:52:00-04:00

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art is presenting a comprehensive retrospective including over 6 installations, 40 models and 270 drawings charting the seminal, cross-disciplinary work of Yung Ho Chang and his practice Feichang Jianzhu (FCJZ).

Ai Weiwei to lose design firm licence

2012-10-02T19:28:00-04:00

He said it was impossible to re-register his Fake Cultural Development firm because officials had confiscated relevant documents. The move follows his failed bid last week to challenge a tax evasion fine imposed on the firm.

Broad Sustainable Building - the McDonald’s of the sustainable building industry

2012-09-25T10:53:00-04:00

So far, Broad has built 16 structures in China, plus another in Cancun....The company is in the process of franchising this technology to partners in India, Brazil, and Russia. What it’s selling is the world’s first standardized skyscraper, and with it, Zhang aims to turn Broad into the McDonald’s of the sustainable building industry.

Photo by Noah Sheldon

Lauren Hilgers traveled to Hunan, China where she had a chance to interview Zhang Yue, founder and chairman of Broad Sustainable Building. Broad gained internet "fame" earlier this week by erecting a 30-story building built in 15 days, using prefabricated and modular construction techniques. His latest plan is to construct a 220-story skyscraper using the same techniques.

Shanghai Satellite Scam

2012-09-11T12:27:00-04:00

Recently MovingCities went scanning the thematically and sketchy styled satellite towns [a Dutch, Nordic, Italian, Spanish, British, German, Canadian and even Chinese one] dotting the periphery of Shanghai. The text, published earlier in Bauwelt, can now be read online. A few extracts:

Where in western cultures signs of historicism – Las Vegas, Disneyland, Amsterdam – are support by ideas of ideology, tourism or preservation, in developing, or even redeveloping, cultures similar signs of historicism are oftentimes understood from economical, real-estate or consumer perspectives.

The first thing one notices upon entering these guarded territories, is how small they are. Yes, they are walkable and varied in form, street section and amount of public space. They are definitely no districts, almost not even towns, and even in the case of Holland Village just a square and a street. They are stretches of land, tucked away in-between other real-estate development.

Nordic Town is alr...

Yangtze River Turns Red and Turns Up a Mystery

2012-09-07T18:32:00-04:00

The red began appearing in the Yangtze, the longest and largest river in China and the third longest river in the world, yesterday near the city of Chongquing, where the Yangtze connects to the Jialin River... and officials have no idea why.