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It is not rare for a civilisation to abruptly falter, give way and fold into a new one. This insight seems obvious in the territories of the former Soviet Union — a universe transformed into a memory overnight. [...] that a city turned ruin continues to be inhabited, that the collapsing buildings and boulevards stained by a thousand footsteps, after the apocalypse, host new forms of human life, new memories. Harbin, in the far north-east of China, used to be a very Russian metropolis. — calvertjournal.com
China’s visible impact on urban development in Africa is substantial. One need only take a virtual bird’s-eye tour on Google Earth to catch a glimpse of some of the most impressive changes brought to Africa by Chinese constructors, developers and designers. Not far from the Angolan capital of Luanda lies arguably one of the most impressive examples: Kilamba New City. A massive housing development designed to accommodate 500,000 people [...]. — gowestproject.com
The Chinese government issued proposals on Wednesday to break down barriers that a nationwide household registration system has long imposed between rural and urban residents and among regions, reinforcing inequality, breeding discontent and hampering economic growth.
Yet even as officials promoted easier urbanization [...], they said changes to the system [...] must be gradual and must protect big cities like Beijing.
— nytimes.com
China has announced plans to ban the use of coal in its smog-plagued capital by the end of 2020, as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities.
Beijing's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website on Monday, saying the city would instead prioritize electricity and natural gas for heating.
The Chinese central government recently listed environmental protection as one of the top criteria by which leaders will be judged.
— Al Jazeera
Heavy rains on Monday complicated rescue efforts in south China’s mountainous Yunnan province, where a major earthquake Sunday killed at least 398 people and injured more than 2,000 others [...] The magnitude 6.1 quake flattened or damaged more than 10,000 homes and other structures, again raising questions about China’s building standards and ability to respond to natural disasters. — Miami Herald
The tragic news from the Yunnan province is bringing back memories of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, as well as the public scandal that emerged over allegedly faulty construction of schools by corrupt officials. View full entry
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... View full entry
China plans to extend by 2020 a railroad on the high trans-Himalayan plateau of Tibet to the borders of India, Bhutan and Nepal, according to a report in People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party [...]
The planned lengthening was criticized by Tibet advocates who said it would bring too many ethnic Han migrants to Lhasa and other Tibetan areas.
— NY Times
As money has piled up in recent decades, Chinese are turning to culture and the country is in a museum-building boom. Last year one museum was built every day on average, though the rush has since “slowed” to about one every three days, says Cathy Giangrande, co-author with Miriam Clifford and Antony White of the “Chinese Museums Association Guide,” an updated version of their 2009 book “China: Museums.” — NY Times
“Our Chinese clients have their sights set on London, and they know what they want,” says Keith Griffiths, the Welsh-born chairman of Aedas, who presides over the 1,400-strong practice from its Hong Kong headquarters. “They are used to high rise, high density, truly mixed-use developments – having everything on one site, so you can live, work and play without ever leaving the building. We think that's the way London needs to densify.” — theguardian.com
The skyline of Yujiapu in the Chinese city of Tianjin looks more like an expensive, abandoned movie set than it does “China’s new Manhattan,” as the financial district was once billed. A patina of dust covers the glass doors of the 47 office buildings and hotels that still sit empty, and in come cases unfinished. — qz.com
Chinese diplomats on Wednesday said Congress’ decision to rename the street in front of Beijing’s embassy in the U.S. capital after a Chinese dissident is "really absurd" [...] On Tuesday the House Appropriations Committee voted to rename the street outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to “Liu Xiaobo Plaza” — after a Chinese dissident who received the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia and is currently serving an 11-year prison term for subverting the government’s authority. — Al Jazeera
This is not the first time that place-naming – or toponymy – has provoked a political dispute. Actually, it's pretty likely that as long as people have been naming places, other people have been getting upset about it. For example, as immortalized by Jimmy Kennedy in the classic song, Istanbul... View full entry
Imagined with bright pink and green lights, standing more than 150m taller than the Burj Khalifa and emerging from an island in a lake in central China, these plans for Wuhan’s Phoenix Towers seem a world away from grey old London.
Yet the ambitious design revealed this week has been put forward by the British architectural firm Chetwoods, and owes much of its inspiration to an award-winning project for a new, greener London Bridge.
— independent.co.uk
It remains to be seen if Wuhan's Phoenix Towers will enjoy a smoother run to completion than Hunan's failed Sky City project — once proposed as the world's tallest building. View full entry
In the latest Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) Annual Awards, Aedas was no doubt victorious once again with two preservation/renewal projects: "Art Community": Revitalisation Project in Wan Chai, Hong Kong and Center 66 in Wuxi, China. As the highest architectural awards program in Hong Kong, the HKIA Awards recognizes outstanding architecture designed by HKIA members. — bustler.net
Aedas once again won the highest honor, Medal of the Year, in addition to the Special Architectural Award in Heritage + Adaptive Reuse for the Revitalisation Project.Here's a glimpse of the project, which preserved and revived an early 20th-century shophouse building into a public space for arts... View full entry
Suzhou is like many Chinese cities. It has a historic core, including nine Unesco world heritage sites, as well as many beautiful gardens, waterways and temples. [...]
But Suzhou has also embarked on another fascinating project: urban mimicry. From Venetian-style “water town” districts to Dutch-style suburban living, Suzhou hosts what journalist Bianca Bosker calls “original copies”: simulations of western landmarks. The city is fast becoming China’s city of clones.
— theguardian.com
Previously:Colossal Bavarian Castle Set To Open In Dalian, ChinaChinese secretly copy Austrian town View full entry
In an effort to remediate a large patch of heavily contaminated soil in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, engineers managed to unleash a smell so pungent that, last week, owners of the site took a new tactic: a giant tent to contain it all. [...]
Though the 20,000-square-meter polyester tent contains an area roughly the size of three football fields and rises 36 meters near downtown, it only covers less than half of the contaminated area.
— motherboard.vice.com
Previously: Giant bubbles could be 'built over Beijing parks to save residents from smog danger' View full entry
