By Andrew Seale
Yahoo.ca, Feb 26, 2016
(Image: The 33-storey Guangzhou Circle. Photo: Yahoo)
The Chinese government’s recently announced a ban on “weird” architecture, gated communities and illegal structures like makeshift housing raising a few questions about what these building’s really mean.
The directive, from the State Council, calls on urban architecture that is “suitable, economic, green and pleasing to the eye” versus the “oversized, xenocentric, weird” buildings which have been erected in recent years like the China Central Television headquarters in Beijing which has become colloquially known as the “Big Trousers” for its pants-like design.
While much of the global attention the ban has received has focused on the peculiarity of the directive, Patrick Condon, chair of urban design and professor of landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture says the pushback highlights a rising global trend, one that we’re even starting to see at home in Canada over the past couple of years. Read more…