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China is pushing forward a draft development plan to construct some 245 new museums in its capital by the year 2035, according to reports coming out of Beijing last weekend. The plan from the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau calls for there to be a total of 460 museums by the end of the... View full entry
Researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab have produced a series of maps visualizing commuting habits across Chinese cities. Titled Potato Project, the study used mobile phone location data from 50 million individuals across 234 cities to understand commuting patterns between a person’s home... View full entry
Earlier this year, Beijing-based practice Crossboundaries redesigned a fully solar powered motorboat by adding tiny-home components making it a slow-moving home on the water. Completed in March 2022 for a Berlin-based client, the project questions the relationships between the notions of... View full entry
Embarking on a new project type for the first time in the history of the practice, Ma Yansong’s MAD Architects recently unveiled photos for a social housing scheme located near Beijing’s central business district called Baiziwan. It is promoted to include some 4000 new housing units... View full entry
Freeski big air opened its Olympic competition Monday at the world’s first permanent, city-based big air facility, a repurposed steel mill on the west side of Beijing that’s made a stunning backdrop for one of the Games’ newest sports. — The Associated Press
The venue is the one-time home of a steel production facility that was shuttered ahead of the 2008 games to create a generally greener picture of the country to Western news outlets. Its former grounds have been transformed into a greenery-laced headquarters for the games’ Organizing Committee... View full entry
Years prior to his departure from his home country, Ai famously consulted on the design of the venue hosting Friday night's opening ceremony: The Beijing National Stadium, or "Bird's Nest."
But the artist distanced himself from the project and criticized China's hosting of the Olympics ahead of the opening ceremony, believing it to be a propaganda tool at odds with what he felt were the oppressive realities of life in the country.
— CNN
Ai Weiwei originally conceived of the stadium as an inspirational structure that carried a message to China and the rest of the world about the potential for democracy within his home country, but the still-in-exile artist now says that the symbolic uses of the building are being warped into an... View full entry
The eyes of the world will soon turn to the new Populous-designed National Speed Skating Oval as the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics prepare to kick off in Beijing. As the only new permanent venue at this year’s games, the 'Ice Ribbon' takes its place in line with the National... View full entry
China’s National Development and Reform Commission has implemented an outright ban on the construction of buildings taller than 500 meters, following mounting safety concerns over the quality of some tall projects. The move is seen as a formal ratification of an in-principle ban on new buildings... View full entry
MAD Architects has completed the YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten in Beijing as a part of a commission in 2017. The project site, covering an area of 9,275 square meters, consisted of an original 18th-century Siheyuan courtyard, an adjacent replica courtyard built in the 1990s, and a... View full entry
Beijing-based architects TEMP have designed the X Museum located in Beijing. Puling from its name, the museum entrance flaunts a giant "X" built from two intersecting H-beams that structurally support an overhanging perforated roof. As one approaches the structure, on both ends of... View full entry
Foster + Partners has released photos of the firm's new Apple Sanlitun retail storefront in Beijing. The store is located within a shopping and entertainment district in China's capital city that was originally home to Apple's first store in China back in 2008. The store was recently... View full entry
In 2019, Hangzhou-based One Take Architects completed the Mandala Pop-up Digital Art Museum, which was a temporary structure showcasing an immersive multi-media exhibition inspired by the Himalayan landscape and arts and culture. The architects envisioned the pop-up museum as a utopian, isolated... View full entry
With the completion of Hutong Bubble 218, MAD Architects made one step forward with their Beijing 2050 proposal, which they introduced during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale. The latest Hutong Bubble project features metallic “bubbles” embedded on the rooftop of a 305-square-meter... View full entry
Beijing's latest, hotly anticipated skyscraper opened to the public today: the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO tower already made a big splash in architectural media long before it was even finished with its 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium (the world's tallest) and spectacular... View full entry
Beijing is seeing the completion of two high-profile, record-setting skyscrapers this fall: while the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO Tower with its 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium (the world's tallest) will open to the public in November, the 1,732-foot supertall CITIC Tower already... View full entry
