Archinect - News

China is once again cracking down on vanity architecture

2021-10-27T16:20:00-04:00

Without special approval, cities with populations of less than 3 million must not build skyscrapers taller than 150 metres (492.13 ft), and cities with larger populations must not construct buildings higher than 250 metres, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on Tuesday.

China had previously imposed a ban on “oversized, xenocentric, and weird" architecture, including many copycat-type structure’s like the faux Eiffel Tower in the suburbs of Hangzhou. The previous ban set a limit of 500 meters. Violators of the rule “will be held accountable for life” according to the state’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

No more Duplitecture: China cracks down on copycat architecture and supertall skyscrapers

2020-05-15T18:13:00-04:00

A government statement says "plagiarising, imitating, and copycatting" designs is prohibited in new public facilities. The statement says buildings "reveal a city's culture" - and that "large, foreign, and weird" designs should be limited. The guidelines also clamp down on new skyscrapers - limiting them, in general, to a maximum of 500 metres.

A new government directive released jointly by China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and National Development and Reform Commission seeks to halt the further spread of Western-inspired copycat architecture, a common appearance in many Chinese cities.

Duplitecture definition from Archinect's Lexicon

Construction of new tall buildings, especially skyscrapers over 500 meters, will also be significantly limited.

The announcement follows a prominent 2016 directive that hoped to ban "oversized, xenocentric, weird" architecture and President Xi Jinping’s criticism of "weird architecture" in 2014.

Previously:

China's extreme "duplitecture" photographed next to its Paris equivalent

2018-01-11T18:02:00-05:00

Photographer Francois Prost's recent photo series, Paris Syndrome, reveals just how far China's "duplitecture" went in the city of Tianducheng. Pairing images of China's replica city with its Paris equivalent—side by side it can be initially unclear which is the original.

Tianducheng features its own 100m high Eiffel tower, a haussmanian style neighborhood and a Versailles garden inspired park. The Paris copy was built 11 years ago and deemed a ghost town until just last year when the population rose to 30,000. Now Tianducheng is in many ways just another suburb with middle class people going about their daily lives.

Have you spotted which is the real Paris? All images on the left are of Tianducheng and all on the right are of Paris.

This duplitecture goes way further than simply copying a famous structure as an attraction; this is an entire city designed to have real people live in it. Dig further into the oddities and ideas around this phenomena in CityLab's article.

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Couple sues neighbors over a house renovated to look like theirs

2017-10-05T14:10:00-04:00

Jason and Jodi Chapnik, who live in a multi-million dollar home on Strathearn Rd., filed a lawsuit against their neighbours for remodeling a nearby property on Vesta Dr. to look “strikingly similar” to their house.

The couple sued their neighbors for $2.5 million—$1.5 million in damages, $20,000 in statutory copyright damages, $1 million in punitive damages, and a mandatory injunction on the defendant to change the design of the home. The lawsuit was filed against their neighbor Barbara Ann Kirshenblatt, her builder husband and architect brother-in-law for copyright infringement in federal court, as well as the real estate agent who profited from the house’s recent sale and the anonymous contractors who worked on the house.

The plaintiffs argued that the flipped house decreased the value of their home, which is one of the most well-known and admired houses in the neighborhood due to its unique architecture. Kirshenblatt, on the other hand, denies copying the look stating that the renovation is inspired by Tudor stone cottages, a style of stonework that is common to the trade and not protectable by copyright.

The involved homes are located in Toronto's Forest Hill neighborhood, one of the cit...

Should architecture strive for originality? Can it ever achieve it?

2015-11-23T20:03:00-05:00

...the [Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act] is a [comparatively] recent development. Architecture shares certain myths with art that influence its commercial value, such as that of the singular author and singular work, but these are also relatively recent: Renaissance architects believed the peak of civilisation existed in antiquity, and so imitated ancient ruins. The commercial and social value of “new” and “novel” and even “original” are, arguably, products of modernity.

Duplitecture and the Downfall of Rep. Aaron Schock

2015-03-20T15:05:00-04:00

Many and baroque have been the scandals that have toppled Illinois politicians. Rod Blagojevich, the most recent governor to be sent to prison, is behind bars for trying to sell the remaining years of Barack Obama’s Senate term. But Aaron Schock, who announced his resignation on March 17th as Republican congressman for the state’s 18th district, is the first to be felled by an over-talkative interior designer.

'Rep. Aaron Schock of Illinois's 18th Congressional district is probably better known for showing off his abs on the cover of Men's Health (see below) than for any actual legislating. At 33, Schock holds the title of the third-youngest US representative, at least until the end of this month when he will resign.

Already a controversial figure for his (perhaps too) media-friendly presence, the muscular young politician became embroiled in a veritable firestorm after an unfortunate, chance encounter between his interior decorator and a Washington Post reporter.

"Bright red walls. A gold-colored wall sconce with black candles. A Federal-style bull’s-eye mirror with an eagle perched on top. And this is just the Illinois Republican’s outer office," describes Ben Terris in a recent article for the Post. When Terris ran into the woman responsible for the ornate décor, she told him, “It’s actually based off of the red room in ‘Downton Abbey,’" the popular British show that depicts the waning y...

The Secret Service wants to build a fake White House

2015-03-18T18:19:00-04:00

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to give him money to build a detailed replica of the White House to aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is the location of a 500-acre Secret Service training site in the verdant terrain of southern Maryland.

File this one under duplitecture (noun: an intentional, functioning copy of a pre-existing, and often familiar, piece of architecture).

After garnering criticism following a series of – erm – security lapses (here's a timeline), the Secret Service has requested $8 million to construct a duplicate White House in order to train their agents to better protect the real one (and its rather important occupants). According to Mr. Clancy, “It’s important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams."

No word on if the fake White House will offer DUI classes...

Incidentally, this isn't the first duplitecture White House. In their Fake for Real series, NextNature posted about a replica version of the famous residence built by the Chinese entrepreneur Huang Qiaoling. Apparently, he wanted to be able meet business associates in the "Oval Office."

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Archinect's Lexicon: "Duplitecture"

2014-11-21T14:28:00-05:00

duplitecture [d(y)o͞oplətek(t)SHər], noun: an intentional, functioning copy of a pre-existing, and often familiar, piece of architecture. For example, "Hangzhou's replication of Venice takes duplitecture to the city-level." This definition is Archinect's own wording.

A few examples in China, the site of the term's inspiration, include an Eiffel Tower in Hangzhou and Shanghai's "Thames Town" (images here). Ranging from single structures to entire communities, duplitecture is distinguished from mere models or miniatures (as are common in theme parks or historical institutions) by its use – duplitecture is not decorative or merely artistic.

The term was coined by Bianca Bosker in her 2013 book, Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China. She points out that while China is notorious for knocking off intellectual property (in the case of consumer technology and fashion as well as duplitecture), copying isn't considered bad in and of itself. In Chinese aesthetic tradition,...