behind
design
CHINA
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE IS ON THE RISE AS CITIES COMPETE
TO – LITERALLY – stand out from the crowd.
The spark of change
there was a time when china’s most famous design and engineering
20
work was the Great wall. these days, the People’s republic has a few
more engineering accomplishments to talk about.
Many of these have sprung up in the past 20 years alone, and there “First of all, China is massive,” says Cheung. “There is a constant
are enough projects in the pipeline to make any engineer or architect demand for buildings and that means a lot of new projects. Until the
lightheaded at the prospect. population stabilises – if it ever does – there will always be a driver for
Case in point: the six-star “Quarry Hotel’’ in Songjiang, the result of new buildings, more so than anywhere in the West.”
a private developer-sponsored international design competition for a At the same time, residential developments in China are getting larger
new hotel project, due to break ground in 2008. and larger. As you approach the eastern seaboard, towards the major cities
“The Quarry Hotel is unique,” says Atkins’ director of urban of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, urbanisation grows increasingly dense.
planning and design in China, KY Cheung. “It sits below ground level, “Five years ago, most of the development was still focused on
butting up against a man-made lake in the bottom of an abandoned those three main cities. In the last few years, there’s been a very strong
quarry. Most big buildings can be spotted a mile away, but you don’t government initiative to develop what are called Tier-2 cities, in the west
know where this one is or what it looks like until you are almost on top and centre of China,” says Paul Rice, director of design with Atkins in
of it. There’s a sense of expectancy and anticipation as you get closer. China. “These cities are enormous by European standards. Places like
Other unique qualities include rooms below water level, and an exit Wuhan and Chongqing are some of the largest cities in the world, with
system that takes you upwards to safety.” 15-20 million people. Developers are following this trend and heading for
The Quarry Hotel is one of a long list of architectural marvels that are these secondary cities to keep up with population demands.”
either designed, planned or in the process of being built across the country. Population considerations are only part of the equation, but they
It is part of a remarkable surge in activity in recent years. But why this push represent a hefty part – at last count, the country’s population topped
for more and more noteworthy, if not groundbreaking, developments? 1.3 billion people, with cities of over a million common across China.
The other part of the equation is old fashioned ambition, pride and
Thinking big healthy competition. It’s the same urge that prompted Paris to construct
While the Beijing Olympics certainly set the stage for audacious building the Eiffel Tower and London to erect Big Ben.
design, and the forthcoming Shanghai Expo in 2010 is encouraging a According to Zhang Hongxing, co-curator of the “China Design
similarly precocious approach to landmark creation, that doesn’t explain Now” exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, as commercial
the general move towards increasingly exceptional structures. development has grown, so has commercial architecture, and at a city
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