Shanghai Street View: Architectural Angst 沪经动向：建筑的烦恼
Shanghai and the surrounding Yangtze river delta are becoming home to some of the world’s tallest and most distinctive new skyscrapers as China races to construct new office towers to house the many companies powering its economic boom. But the region is also quickly gaining notoriety for a new generation of glittering towers that often become the subject of local ridicule for their sometimes strange and daring designs. I personally find many of these new designs interesting and even appealing, adding individuality to emerging urban skylines that might otherwise look homogenous and lacking in individuality. But many locals feel differently.
The latest architectural brouhaha has broken out in the city of Huzhou, located in nearby Zhejiang province about 140 kilometers from Shanghai. Web surfers in the city have recently launched a campaign of ridicule at a self-proclaimed seven-star hotel resort under construction on the shores of the famously scenic Taihu Lake. The resort, which looks like a partially submerged tire, is coming under fire for its resemblance to a toilet seat, in the view of many netizens.
Not surprisingly the hotel’s future operator, the globally renowned Sheraton, has quite a different view, calling its new 321-room resort “stunning” on its website. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as we all know, and I personally tend to side more with Sheraton in thinking this new architectural landmark looks more eye-pleasing than the outhouse metaphors imply.
This latest case of architectural ridicule in the Yangtze delta is hardly new, and follows an even noisier recent racket over a cutting-edge skyscraper under construction in the city of Suzhou, known more for its gardens and maze of canals than its modern architecture. In that case, Web surfers have determined the building, formally called Gate of the Orient, looks more like a pair of bluejeans, leading them to dub it with the colorful name of “Big Pants”.
It’s only natural that the Yangtze delta should be at the epicenter of this wave of architectural debate, since the region is one of China’s most populous and also one of its wealthiest. What’s more, the region’s tradition of strong western influence means that many developers want to show off their overseas vision by competing with other distinctively sharped landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and Eiffel Tower, which have often come to stand as key symbols of their host cities.
Anyone who knows or has visited Shanghai will know that the city was a pioneer of controversial buildings in China with its signature Oriental Pearl Tower, whose construction began in the Lujiazui district across the Huangpu River from the Bund back in 1990. Opinions vary about the structure, which looks like a concrete tripod with 3 magenta-colored balls at its various points; but nearly everyone agrees the tower has become a symbol of Shanghai’s new financial district and an indelible part of the city’s new skyline.
More recently, Shanghai architecture was also the subject of controversy around 2005 when planning was underway for the Shanghai World Financial Center, which was built by a Japanese developer and has been China’s tallest building since its completion in 2009. In that case, debate erupted after people complained that a large round hole in the top of the building’s original design looked like the Rising Sun on the Japanese flag, somehow implying a new Japanese dominance over the city it once occupied during World War II. The building’s design was ultimately changed, and now the formerly circular hole has become a square, leading foreigners city to say the building resembles a massive bottle opener.
I suspect that all of this fun at the expense of major new landmarks is at least partly due to the Chinese penchant for likening every form in nature to a real-world object, much the way that westerners often do with cloud shapes. Anyone who has ever traveled to a major Chinese scenic spot will know what I mean, with nearly any major rock, mountain, cave or other large formation inevitably likened to a turtle, elephant or some other familiar object.
At the end of the day, all the name calling really is just another form of fun, and I doubt that developers will change their ways due to a few jokes about their buildings. More importantly, these distinctive new buildings should assist many of China’s emerging cities in their search for new identities, as they try to diversify beyond their historical roots and develop a newer sense of how they will shape and be shaped by China in the 21st century and beyond.
