1.4 billion copycats! Oh, my god! I guess that United Nations unable to help Mr. Xi on this issue.
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Time for a few Chrysler Buildings, I'd say
Interesting the comments on this article. I happen to like 'weird' architecture, but that's just my taste. If one follows all the hand-wringing over the 'monstrous' erections to blatant greed and ego on billionaire's row (aka W 57th), one would come away thinking that the paragons of social justice and banishers of evil, noxious shadows from Central Park would simply love to have Xi Jinping leading their crusade.
Why China would do weird things like this is hard to understand. It has many fine things of its own to point to. JGAIA-
Perhaps something could be done in terms of the "weird", offensive-to-the-eye mega-sized buildings being built in many US cities too?
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Oh no! No more Chinese buildings with a hole for the dragon to fly through?
THAT is weird (banning it)
THAT is weird (banning it)
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When was it ever deemed good to quash creativity and originality? I for one like some of what China has to offer its citizens and visitors alike. While some of the architecture is just blatant ripoffs, some of it is appealing. Whatever China does, I hope it's not Brutalist
I'm so surprised by the conservative bent in the comments I'm reading about design and architecture here. Innovation, whether it be design or technology, is typically met with resistance and suspicion, but then it become seamlessly integrated into society with the passage of time. That's what progress is. What's our design legacy going to be if we close ourselves off to "weird?" More neoclassical buildings? More replicas of Eiffel Towers? Sigh.
Hooray for Comrade Xi. They wouldn't allow it in Boston's Back Bay or on the Upper East Side. Why should they allow it in China? The "weird" style, particularly from Zaha Hadid but also others, is derivative of the Russian Constructivist movement, 100 years ago, but China takes it to a whole new level.
Odd architecture is very fitting to a totalitarian regime like China's.
Architecture anywhere should consider those who live nearby. JGAIA
The keywords in this article are "the Communist Party’s Central Committee says no to architecture that is 'oversized, xenocentric, weird' and devoid of cultural tradition." This sort of control in large parts of the world, particularly in the United States, would not be at all well received. However, it does not seem to provoke much of a response in China. The government gets what it wants and will deal, harshly sometimes. with those who oppose it.
There are numerous articles in recent editions of the New York Times where China is trying to control large parts of the South China Sea, influence journalists, and otherwise control things. This should be a warning to the rest of the world that China must be contained. If China can get to the point where it sets the rules for the rest of the world, very few of us will be very happy living in that world.
There are numerous articles in recent editions of the New York Times where China is trying to control large parts of the South China Sea, influence journalists, and otherwise control things. This should be a warning to the rest of the world that China must be contained. If China can get to the point where it sets the rules for the rest of the world, very few of us will be very happy living in that world.
Xi's restrictions on architecture is disappointing. Shanghai is perhaps the most vibrant city in the world, even if a bit showy.
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We we could use a little of that. Selfish architecture where a star architect cares only about a visual splash instead of harmonizing with the local fabric is rampant in NYC.
Can we say overstepping one's bounds? Combine that with this morning's story of what the Chinese media needs to present to the citizens of China and what do we have? More reasons for United States business to bring production back into the United States. I for one am very tired of the Chinese solution.
One supposes that the average Chinese person would infinitely prefer a government policy that dealt aggressively with its toxic air quality instead...
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Don't know if it's really president Xi's place to comment but I am glad the someone in authority is finally and publicly speaking up about the atrocities that constitute a lot of recent Chinese architecture. I saw many bad examples in my years in China, but my hands-down favorite building to hate is the Guangzhou Opera House. Though the interior and acoustics were much praised in many places, including the New York Times, I don't think any of the critics ever took a look at the outside. The pictures don't do it justice. It looks like a gigantic beached guppy with a really bad hangover.
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The Opera House looks more like a downed UFO, what a hideous piece of architecture.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who suffered from melancholia, expressed the sentiment – “how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me the workings of this world. It is an unweeded garden and things rank and gross in nature possess it merely”
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Will Mr. Xi kindly extend his influence to here in the US and our Federal Government, which is immune to local building codes and provisions when it erects structures?
The result? Horrors such as the Federal Building that has been foisted upon the City of San Francisco.
Google "Federal Building San Francisco" and look at "Images"
This monstrous concatenation of disparate elements, along with its flying saucer landing platform of a roof, looks like it was conceived of leftover parts in a Mechanics' nightmare.
What an eyesore! And located across the street from the Federal Appeals Court, one of the most beautiful, classically proportioned buildings we have - ruining the neighborhood.
What committee of the clueless and tasteless approved this?
The result? Horrors such as the Federal Building that has been foisted upon the City of San Francisco.
Google "Federal Building San Francisco" and look at "Images"
This monstrous concatenation of disparate elements, along with its flying saucer landing platform of a roof, looks like it was conceived of leftover parts in a Mechanics' nightmare.
What an eyesore! And located across the street from the Federal Appeals Court, one of the most beautiful, classically proportioned buildings we have - ruining the neighborhood.
What committee of the clueless and tasteless approved this?
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I did as you suggested and googled the SFO Federal building - and I agree with you. A monstrosity indeed - hideous in its deformity. I can only guess designed by failed Architecture-101 students. Even Frank Lloyd Wright's urging that
“... an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines” won't suffice here!
“... an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines” won't suffice here!
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The MLK Statue by sculptor Lei Yixin, is in my opinion hideous and does not capture the essence of this great man. What no American Sculptures in the US to do him justice?
I am appalled that there are statements of support for Xi Jinping. If the US federal govt. outlawed all experimental architecture, we would only have "federal buildings" and most citizens would be up in arms at the central government's attack on creativity.
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What about weird clothes? I trust women won't be allowed to wear pink blankets outside of the house.
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What are those, crushed velvet twins in faux Paris?
Patterned terry uniforms of some sort?
Say it ain't so... but, it could be Vegas, no?
Patterned terry uniforms of some sort?
Say it ain't so... but, it could be Vegas, no?
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It is cold over here and many building are unheated. What there are wearing is very common in the winter in China; padded clothing with a long tradition.
Are were you just trying to be cute?
Are were you just trying to be cute?
Those are grandmother clothes in China. It's possible even in China to find a more stylish way to keep warm at any age.
Just 8 years ago, China hosted dazzling Olympics in startlingly innovative venues - the "Bird's Nest," the "Water Cube." What happened?
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Anything dazzling or startling is surely "weird," especially if the architects were not ethnic Han and loyal to the Party. So we'll all be lucky if they're not torn down to make room for "roads opened to traffic with one goal being to ease congestion."
A conservative and plain box, such as the towers of the World Trade Center (1972-2001), has proved to be just as offensive to many. (Average New Yorkers said they must be leftover packing cartons from delivering the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, and decried the way they filled the sky. But after 10-20 years, most people here got to like 'em -- they did add a lot to their neighborhood, which proceeded to thrive.)
So, Nette, you're right to ask "what happened?"!
A conservative and plain box, such as the towers of the World Trade Center (1972-2001), has proved to be just as offensive to many. (Average New Yorkers said they must be leftover packing cartons from delivering the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings, and decried the way they filled the sky. But after 10-20 years, most people here got to like 'em -- they did add a lot to their neighborhood, which proceeded to thrive.)
So, Nette, you're right to ask "what happened?"!
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Xi Jinping wants to control this and that, reminds me of another fellow in North Korea.
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The Chinese government is, in my view, competely correct in attempting to enforce the culture of his own country; no longer seems respectful a nation which is not able to project its talents and plans. Thus, to accompany a growing economy with a diverse architectural expression is the best pathway to consolidate and firm the importace of China to human legacy.
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I couldn't disagree more with the idea that all architecture must be indigenous.
Brazil would have to destroy all its cities, since all their architecture is based on centuries of European styles as opposed to native Brazilian structures. All of Washington DC - including its grand Pierre L'Enfant avenue scheme - would go; "Georgian" and "Neoclassical" architecture are way too French and Greek for an American capital. Nothing but pyramids and ziggurats for the Middle East, and a mega-yurt for the huge and busy Mongolian stock market.
I suspect that what the objectors *really* abhor is anything new, as opposed to imitative or generic. But what will be the time-tested, revered mainstream in the next century are the most creative and successful brand-new inventions of this century. Maybe not the Trousers but the Birds Nest; who knows? The Eiffel Tower was widely despised as an obscenely naked and splay-legged machine, but is loved and admired now. Check again in 100 years, Mr. Xi, and see what you think then!
Brazil would have to destroy all its cities, since all their architecture is based on centuries of European styles as opposed to native Brazilian structures. All of Washington DC - including its grand Pierre L'Enfant avenue scheme - would go; "Georgian" and "Neoclassical" architecture are way too French and Greek for an American capital. Nothing but pyramids and ziggurats for the Middle East, and a mega-yurt for the huge and busy Mongolian stock market.
I suspect that what the objectors *really* abhor is anything new, as opposed to imitative or generic. But what will be the time-tested, revered mainstream in the next century are the most creative and successful brand-new inventions of this century. Maybe not the Trousers but the Birds Nest; who knows? The Eiffel Tower was widely despised as an obscenely naked and splay-legged machine, but is loved and admired now. Check again in 100 years, Mr. Xi, and see what you think then!
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Good things can never last forever.
The photo of the CCTH sculpture shows that the ubiquitous urban haze of pollution will doubtless (a) render many buildings invisible unless the viewer is next to them and (b) erode the facades into rusty flakes in a few years.
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On an even hazier day, the CCTV building is invisible from the photographer's vantage point.
While not an old fogey, (old yes, fogey no) I have no kind thoughts about "The imposing China Central Television headquarters towering over Beijing." It might be innovative, but it is also ungainly and ugly. Does it "work" as an office and production building? How do the people like it who spend their days inside the building? What do The People think of it?
Gated communities OF COURSE have no place in the "People's Republic". But then, toxic air pollution, endemic corruption, and such don't either--but there they are.
Gated communities OF COURSE have no place in the "People's Republic". But then, toxic air pollution, endemic corruption, and such don't either--but there they are.
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"in 1978, only 18 percent of China’s population lived in towns or cities. Now, more than 56 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion people are urbanites."
China's development has their own issues, which Westerners never faced and couldn't understand, at least for the time being. We have a lot to learn to earn a right to critique on them.
China's development has their own issues, which Westerners never faced and couldn't understand, at least for the time being. We have a lot to learn to earn a right to critique on them.
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