In celebratory June-July 2014 issue of Mark magazine #50, MovingCities published ‘Reality Check Shanghai‘ revisiting three Shanghainese buildings previously published and applauded in Mark: the Himalayas Centre by Arata Isozaki, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo site and the Giant Interactive Group’s headquarters by Morphosis. What has become of them?

Excerpt from ‘Reality Check Shanghai‘:

" Making architecture in China is not easy; occupying it is even more difficult. In recent years, amazing stories have appeared in various media about China’s shoddy construction culture, copycat designs, empty icons, and building projects apparently doomed to remain unfinished forever. [...] The area where once the European, Asian and American pavilions were located is in a serious state of disrepair. The French pavilion seems to be under (re)construction, the skin of EMBT’s Spanish pavilion has been removed, some of the Portuguese pavilion’s cork has disappeared, and a few of my favourites – pavilions representing the UK, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Finland, Germany and Switzerland – have vanished into thin air. As I walk, a taxi driver stops to ask whether I want to see the Italian pavilion. [...] My last stop is in the suburbs of Shanghai 上海, where Morphosis realized a project for online-games operator Giant Interactive Group. This time around, I get the official tour and am informed that a staff of 1,000 works here, in what seems to be a well-functioning office space pulsating with creativity. ‘The shape of the building is like a dragon,’ I’m told. ‘It matches the feel of a computer game.’ "