Summer twenty-sixteen has come and gone but the memories are still very much vivid and unforgettable. China was nothing what I expected it to be. Before my trip to China, I always imagined this country being very conservative, cultural mostly but architecturally too. I see China, I can see its cultural values but I don’t see that same values in its modern architecture. Modern architecture in China is very different to their traditional architecture and that says a lot about the country. I believe that China has great intend to continue to build great cities like it already has but they can be even better. This country has gone a little too far with its “weird” architecture, as the president from China says it is. I understand why he thinks that way of his country’s modern architecture. The country does not have well or if any restrictions on architecture design, they need to be regulated to have some sort of common ground to where China will be going into.
In China, I was surprised at their environment and way of living, this led me to further understand them and where they come from. My visions and expectations from China were mostly a lot of ancient Chinese architecture everywhere, not exactly contemporary architecture part. Today, in the twenty-first century, that is not the case. China is a fast growing country with billions of people living in it with its population only increasing. This country has progressed so much these past few decades with its new modern architecture and this is only the beginning, the country is still moving forward to this day.
I was very nervous coming to China, a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language. I knew I would have trouble speaking to the locals because many do not speak English. But although we spoke different languages, what we experience may not be so different and have similar thoughts to the modern architecture in China. China has developed some of the biggest and most modern cities in the world like Beijing and Shanghai. These cities have remarkable buildings that many cannot seem to grasp onto and almost seem unreal that they were build, still standing and even exist. It is like a whole new world of architecture. It is all worth seeing in person because honestly it’s all quite incredible. The country will only continue to expand with more and more people moving into cities. There will be a high demand for more buildings, more architecture, and that is a little frightening if there are no regulations. Only recently, the president of China had made a statement where he no longer wants any more “weird” buildings in his country. Coming from America, somewhere where there aren’t many big cool architectural projects, this didn’t sound too insane. Although the country is growing, I think architects are getting carried away with their own conceptual projects.
Within my first hours of landing in China, I felt like I have seen it all but that was not the case as I later learned in my trip. We drove on highway to school passing by green farms slowly progressing into the city of Beijing. It was all overwhelming. Getting further into the city I saw all of these cool-looking buildings that looked almost like they came straight out of Rhino into real life. I was surprised how many of them were standing before me, this was mostly because I wasn’t sure if they were actually physically safe. A lot of buildings in the U.S. never turn out as amazing as the original concept of design due to building codes and safety regulations. I felt almost nervous for walking into buildings in China because the architecture seemed too good to be true. Little did I know the closer I walked into a building, the more real it got because I saw more mistakes, not it all buildings of course but sure in a great number of them.
Later that night walked several miles all over the center of Beijing, sweating like crazy. My feet were hurting and I could feel my clothes wet from my sweat. We visited the National Centre for Performing Arts, the Chinese people called this “The Egg Building,” because that is what it looked like to them. The Chinese had nicknames to many famous contemporary buildings all over China and this was just a form to interpret what a building literally looked like to them. Many of these locals do not have a background in architecture and do not understand the concept of every architectural design they see. I think that is normal for these iconic buildings to have nicknames but if all of them are this way then we should all question where the architecture of the city is really going towards. Will it be a city of nickname buildings or not.
Many of these new modern architectural buildings look more of a conceptual project than something that would be real someday. I wondered how long it would take to have something like this be built back home in the U.S. and came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t, nothing this “crazy” would be built unless it was Frank Gehry. China hasn’t exactly set some architectural design standards which is why the architecture is considered “weird”. Anyone who has traveled or are designers know that pictures of a place are only a tiny bit of what a person actually experiences for themselves. I am glad to have had the great opportunity to study abroad and experience China and some of its modern cities. Visiting these buildings and sites in person helped me understand so much more than what any pictures could have done.
The new modern architecture is bold but maybe it’s that is too much. I don’t think architects are considering what they are destroying and leaving behind in China. China is a conservative country still, it’s ancient architecture should be respected and preserved. Many hutongs, traditional Chinese homes, have already been torn down to make poor-quality high-rise buildings that only last about 10-years before they get torn back down. If traditional architecture is being destroyed to create something new, they should at least be for something better and longer lasting.
When I went to visit Beijing National Stadium (a.k.a Birds Nest) I was so excited to see it. As I’m walking towards the stadium, getting closer, getting a clearer view, I can see the construction and detailing of the building. As I stood there in front of the stadium I was amazed that this building was real but disappointed at its quality. I thought this was just poor, the quality and it deserved to be better for the sake of the amazing conceptual design it was intended to be. I almost wished I never did walk any closer to it so I wouldn’t have to see the reality of it. Construction in China is another problem that architecture if facing. The finishes aren’t great which is essential to the design of a building. I could see metal sheets that surrounded the façade of the building that weren’t smooth like how the architecture is intended to be. Some corners didn’t meet other corners and everything just looked off, and this may have been a result of rapid-cheap construction. But is it all really worth it?
I sat down in front of the stadium on the grass just looking at it and I remembered back to when I was walking on the street near campus watching these men working on stairs in the street. These men didn’t look like professional construction workers, they looked like people that were only hired daily to get the job done and that would be the end of it. They weren’t wearing any protection and only used few tools to build. It clicked right then and it finally made sense to me. China didn’t have good or if any construction regulations which would explain why the men working on the side of the street didn’t look “legit” or didn’t seem like they had any previous constructing experience. To build a city as big as Beijing, there needs to be regulations of what one can and cannot do for the safety of the public. The U.S. has a lot of regulations and for this reason it also does not have many amazing architecture, but at least it’s safe. China, on the other hand, has gone a little wild with building a playground of architecture that may not have been constructed as safely but at least it was built and looks great from afar.
There is a design and safety issue in China that needs attention and should be resolved as soon as possible. I believe that China has good intentions to having amazing architecture in its growing cities, but what’s it worth if it may fall over in a few years because it wasn’t constructed well. Or why even build such a marvelous building if the details won’t come out right. Details and finishes are what matter to have a building look like how the architect designed it to be. Details may not always match to what the architect originally chad in mind but many times they do come very close, but that doesn’t look like it’s happening in China. The building will just look like a rip-off without the finishing details. Rapid construction all over Beijing has been happening and it needs to slow down for the sake of the country and safety of the people. I walk down the street and can see a building that wasn’t constructed well because of the finishes of the building. Sometimes it’ something as small as the off spacing between tiles or as big as looking up at a high-rise apartment that doesn’t look quite straight or welding of two metal sheets that is noticeably off. Small or big mistakes, they should not be there. Other times it may not even be the construction that is off in a building, it might be the design itself that looks funky to begin with. I once read an article where it talks about how Chinese point to something and try to imitate it but try to have it almost be “original” by doing it their own way. This is true for many of their products today. Everything is made it China, China can imitate anything and sometimes it looks okay but other times they will look like copies of an original. China needs to take a step back to evaluate what they are doing, where they are going and what they should do next.
Several famous architects around the world such as Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, MAD Architects and many more came to China to build their conceptual designs. Of course, this all sounds incredible, the whole idea of having a lot of cool-looking new buildings in one place. It all truly sounds amazing but you would have to see it to believe it as well, right? But when I stood right in front of many of these famous buildings, I would’ve wanted to have some sort of idea to what I thought China’s architecture will be going into but that was not the case. As I looked at all of these buildings, I could not get a clear vision for the Chinese future. Of course no one really plans the future but one can imagine, but I had trouble imagining where this would end up in. I also wanted to be able to admire the details, not find mistakes in them. China will continue to grow, that I can guarantee, but I hope they realize where they are going before they start to knock down more buildings and build new ones.
I think right now the architects building in China are lost and do not have a common language. Everyone is thinking their own ideas and want to be original. Original is a good thing but architects today have gone a bit too far to try to be that and should instead communicate with each other to create some sort of common grounds. Some of the more well-known architects like Zaha Haid and Frank Gehry are extremists in my opinion. They both are successful in their own ways but now they have created a new culture, one for only themselves that no one can join them. They have signature details in their works that defines them from other architects, this is good but could be bad also, a lot would be expected from them and they will have to “woo” their audience with something “original” always now. Their work will not be able to be copied easily which is a good thing and will be iconic but is that necessarily what the Chinese locals want in their communities? Many locals might not even care for the design of architecture and will end up using the building spaces for a different purpose than what it was originally intended to. This happens all over the world, not just in China but yes China is one of the places that is more obviously seen, misuse of architecture and space.
China is still growing and will need more buildings, better quality buildings that will last longer than 10-years. Before China lets more architects into their country, they need to set some design regulations so they themselves will know how China will look like in the future. Right now the country is lost in this new modern architecture, there are too many experiments going on. People translate and interpret ideas differently which is why there is a need for some sort of common grounds among architects in China. Buildings have function, and I think the Chinese are having trouble connecting to what the function really is. If the public cannot understand or figure it out then they will create their own purpose for it, I know I would do the same. It can all still change; it is not too late for China to have a certain image they want to show to the world. China can still move forward and have a certain filter to their architecture but they must work on that first.
I was very nervous coming to China, a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language. I knew I would have trouble speaking to the locals because many do not speak English. But although we spoke different languages, what we experience may not be so different and have similar thoughts to the modern architecture in China. China has developed some of the biggest and most modern cities in the world like Beijing and Shanghai. These cities have remarkable buildings that many cannot seem to grasp onto and almost seem unreal that they were build, still standing and even exist. It is like a whole new world of architecture. It is all worth seeing in person because honestly it’s all quite incredible. The country will only continue to expand with more and more people moving into cities. There will be a high demand for more buildings, more architecture, and that is a little frightening if there are no regulations. Only recently, the president of China had made a statement where he no longer wants any more “weird” buildings in his country. Coming from America, somewhere where there aren’t many big cool architectural projects, this didn’t sound too insane. Although the country is growing, I think architects are getting carried away with their own conceptual projects.
Within my first hours of landing in China, I felt like I have seen it all but that was not the case as I later learned in my trip. We drove on highway to school passing by green farms slowly progressing into the city of Beijing. It was all overwhelming. Getting further into the city I saw all of these cool-looking buildings that looked almost like they came straight out of Rhino into real life. I was surprised how many of them were standing before me, this was mostly because I wasn’t sure if they were actually physically safe. A lot of buildings in the U.S. never turn out as amazing as the original concept of design due to building codes and safety regulations. I felt almost nervous for walking into buildings in China because the architecture seemed too good to be true. Little did I know the closer I walked into a building, the more real it got because I saw more mistakes, not it all buildings of course but sure in a great number of them.
Later that night walked several miles all over the center of Beijing, sweating like crazy. My feet were hurting and I could feel my clothes wet from my sweat. We visited the National Centre for Performing Arts, the Chinese people called this “The Egg Building,” because that is what it looked like to them. The Chinese had nicknames to many famous contemporary buildings all over China and this was just a form to interpret what a building literally looked like to them. Many of these locals do not have a background in architecture and do not understand the concept of every architectural design they see. I think that is normal for these iconic buildings to have nicknames but if all of them are this way then we should all question where the architecture of the city is really going towards. Will it be a city of nickname buildings or not.
Many of these new modern architectural buildings look more of a conceptual project than something that would be real someday. I wondered how long it would take to have something like this be built back home in the U.S. and came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t, nothing this “crazy” would be built unless it was Frank Gehry. China hasn’t exactly set some architectural design standards which is why the architecture is considered “weird”. Anyone who has traveled or are designers know that pictures of a place are only a tiny bit of what a person actually experiences for themselves. I am glad to have had the great opportunity to study abroad and experience China and some of its modern cities. Visiting these buildings and sites in person helped me understand so much more than what any pictures could have done.
The new modern architecture is bold but maybe it’s that is too much. I don’t think architects are considering what they are destroying and leaving behind in China. China is a conservative country still, it’s ancient architecture should be respected and preserved. Many hutongs, traditional Chinese homes, have already been torn down to make poor-quality high-rise buildings that only last about 10-years before they get torn back down. If traditional architecture is being destroyed to create something new, they should at least be for something better and longer lasting.
When I went to visit Beijing National Stadium (a.k.a Birds Nest) I was so excited to see it. As I’m walking towards the stadium, getting closer, getting a clearer view, I can see the construction and detailing of the building. As I stood there in front of the stadium I was amazed that this building was real but disappointed at its quality. I thought this was just poor, the quality and it deserved to be better for the sake of the amazing conceptual design it was intended to be. I almost wished I never did walk any closer to it so I wouldn’t have to see the reality of it. Construction in China is another problem that architecture if facing. The finishes aren’t great which is essential to the design of a building. I could see metal sheets that surrounded the façade of the building that weren’t smooth like how the architecture is intended to be. Some corners didn’t meet other corners and everything just looked off, and this may have been a result of rapid-cheap construction. But is it all really worth it?
I sat down in front of the stadium on the grass just looking at it and I remembered back to when I was walking on the street near campus watching these men working on stairs in the street. These men didn’t look like professional construction workers, they looked like people that were only hired daily to get the job done and that would be the end of it. They weren’t wearing any protection and only used few tools to build. It clicked right then and it finally made sense to me. China didn’t have good or if any construction regulations which would explain why the men working on the side of the street didn’t look “legit” or didn’t seem like they had any previous constructing experience. To build a city as big as Beijing, there needs to be regulations of what one can and cannot do for the safety of the public. The U.S. has a lot of regulations and for this reason it also does not have many amazing architecture, but at least it’s safe. China, on the other hand, has gone a little wild with building a playground of architecture that may not have been constructed as safely but at least it was built and looks great from afar.
There is a design and safety issue in China that needs attention and should be resolved as soon as possible. I believe that China has good intentions to having amazing architecture in its growing cities, but what’s it worth if it may fall over in a few years because it wasn’t constructed well. Or why even build such a marvelous building if the details won’t come out right. Details and finishes are what matter to have a building look like how the architect designed it to be. Details may not always match to what the architect originally chad in mind but many times they do come very close, but that doesn’t look like it’s happening in China. The building will just look like a rip-off without the finishing details. Rapid construction all over Beijing has been happening and it needs to slow down for the sake of the country and safety of the people. I walk down the street and can see a building that wasn’t constructed well because of the finishes of the building. Sometimes it’ something as small as the off spacing between tiles or as big as looking up at a high-rise apartment that doesn’t look quite straight or welding of two metal sheets that is noticeably off. Small or big mistakes, they should not be there. Other times it may not even be the construction that is off in a building, it might be the design itself that looks funky to begin with. I once read an article where it talks about how Chinese point to something and try to imitate it but try to have it almost be “original” by doing it their own way. This is true for many of their products today. Everything is made it China, China can imitate anything and sometimes it looks okay but other times they will look like copies of an original. China needs to take a step back to evaluate what they are doing, where they are going and what they should do next.
Several famous architects around the world such as Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, MAD Architects and many more came to China to build their conceptual designs. Of course, this all sounds incredible, the whole idea of having a lot of cool-looking new buildings in one place. It all truly sounds amazing but you would have to see it to believe it as well, right? But when I stood right in front of many of these famous buildings, I would’ve wanted to have some sort of idea to what I thought China’s architecture will be going into but that was not the case. As I looked at all of these buildings, I could not get a clear vision for the Chinese future. Of course no one really plans the future but one can imagine, but I had trouble imagining where this would end up in. I also wanted to be able to admire the details, not find mistakes in them. China will continue to grow, that I can guarantee, but I hope they realize where they are going before they start to knock down more buildings and build new ones.
I think right now the architects building in China are lost and do not have a common language. Everyone is thinking their own ideas and want to be original. Original is a good thing but architects today have gone a bit too far to try to be that and should instead communicate with each other to create some sort of common grounds. Some of the more well-known architects like Zaha Haid and Frank Gehry are extremists in my opinion. They both are successful in their own ways but now they have created a new culture, one for only themselves that no one can join them. They have signature details in their works that defines them from other architects, this is good but could be bad also, a lot would be expected from them and they will have to “woo” their audience with something “original” always now. Their work will not be able to be copied easily which is a good thing and will be iconic but is that necessarily what the Chinese locals want in their communities? Many locals might not even care for the design of architecture and will end up using the building spaces for a different purpose than what it was originally intended to. This happens all over the world, not just in China but yes China is one of the places that is more obviously seen, misuse of architecture and space.
China is still growing and will need more buildings, better quality buildings that will last longer than 10-years. Before China lets more architects into their country, they need to set some design regulations so they themselves will know how China will look like in the future. Right now the country is lost in this new modern architecture, there are too many experiments going on. People translate and interpret ideas differently which is why there is a need for some sort of common grounds among architects in China. Buildings have function, and I think the Chinese are having trouble connecting to what the function really is. If the public cannot understand or figure it out then they will create their own purpose for it, I know I would do the same. It can all still change; it is not too late for China to have a certain image they want to show to the world. China can still move forward and have a certain filter to their architecture but they must work on that first.