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. — DesignBuild Source

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). — ajc.com

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. — dailymail.co.uk

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. — in2eastafrica.net

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. — usa.chinadaily.com.cn

"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." — europe.chinadaily.com.cn

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. — latitude.blogs.nytimes.com

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." — online.wsj.com

“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. — aljazeera.com

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.  — bustler.net

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). — artdaily.org

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. — bbc.co.uk

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. — Wired