on a recent trip to China (actually both times that i went), along major highways and roads, i see many houses and highrises which look very bland and 'fake'.

for example, on a highway going out of shanghai, all along the sides i see 3-4 story houses or mid rise apartments with fairytale castle like designs on its roofs. also the colours of these buildings are very 'fake' like, pale pink, pale blue etc...

it's as if the designers want to copy western 'designs' and they think that disney like castle things look good. also many buildings are built looking like typical american houses, it's sort of annoying me how they are trying to make it look american. this sort of thing takes away culture...
i'm not saying anything bad about america here, i'm purely saying that china should keep with their own architecture which looks nice.

imagine a chinese city where 75+% of buildings look 'chinese. like a modern, skyscraper city but with fulll chinese flavour...
driving along the shanghai expressway with massive skyscrapers with chinese style designs (taipei 101 for eg, or that massive hotel in taipei with the chinese style architecutre - that red massive one, don't know what its called).

An interesting tension here. The idea of worldwide sameness is terrifying.

But I think it's unlikely. Gothic architecture arose in France and spread throughout Europe, with local variations. The result was magnificent architecture in many countries. Similar things can be said about classical revivals, baroque and other styles: they arise in one place, are adopted and modified in a variety of locations. Similarly about 120 years ago western artists adopted African and Asian influences and revolutionized western art.

Why would the Chinese with money want to look like everyone else? Let them build what they want. What is interesting will survive; what isn't will disappear. I don't believe the whole world will look the same; that's just not human nature.

The Chinese often love those kitchy styles. I saw the same thing on my trip trough China. I really like the new modern skyscrapers though, they look awesome. Sometimes with traditional chinese architecture mixed with western architecture. But there are a lot of lowrises that are indeed disney-like. But they like it. The like gold (color) on their buildings as well.

I think if you look beyond architecture, Chinese cities can be unique in their layout, planning, and general form.

If anything, if the world was going in a direction towards looking all the same, I don't believe you would say it is "western" at all. Cities in Asia, in Russia, etc, have their own thing going that looks modern but hardly American or European.

hmm, i'm trying to find some photos but can't see to find any...

i'm also wondering what chinese cities looked like before 'modernization' and all the modern generic buildings have been built. like what they looked like how their own chinese buildings were around. hard to explain... similar to what florence is now - like it was originally.

heres a thread i made before addressing this issue:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1184797&highlight=

for example, on a highway going out of shanghai, all along the sides i see 3-4 story houses or mid rise apartments with fairytale castle like designs on its roofs. also the colours of these buildings are very 'fake' like, pale pink, pale blue etc...



Do you have any pics on disney style buildings like that?

Well, you hardly find any fairytale castle style apartments in America or any other countries, so you can safely say they are Chinese own style!

Well, you hardly find any fairytale castle style apartments in America or any other countries, so you can safely say they are Chinese own style!

These type of fairy tale houses are typical for developing countries. People there think its modern to live in such a thing.

Typical american or european suburbs, on the other hand, look quite conservative. You rarely see shiny blue roofs and all that crap.

These type of fairy tale houses are typical for developing countries. People there think its modern to live in such a thing.

Typical american or european suburbs, on the other hand, look quite conservative. You rarely see shiny blue roofs and all that crap.

yea, thats partly my thought - that the chinese think that it looks modern/western/etc...

i think east asian people see stereotypical 'american' things as a thing to look up to and idolise, thus they try to imitate it not knowing that in america/the western world, that those things are already 'out of date' or u know...
its hard to explain lol

Do you have any pics on disney style buildings like that?

yea i think i might have some, just gotta find through my massive collection of photos

I'm curious to see a picture of what you're talking about. I don't recall seeing these 'castles' on my prior visits to Shanghai and around the countryside in the Yangtze River delta.

HAHA mayby something like this in Zaandam, The Netherlands?
:lol:

http://cubeme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Hotel_Inntel_Zaandam_WAM_Architects_1.jpg

^^ to be honest it almost made me puke when i saw it the first time :lol:

Or mayby this one in poland :D

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_my5OGIJd4kM/Sh50XGGF8bI/AAAAAAAAFeU/M1-xxyHFQZw/s400/crooked_house-003.jpg

That building in the Netherlands is a garish green nightmare!

Love that one in Poland.

Like I said: experiment. The market will soon tell you what sells and what doesn't.

But out of curiosity, did the surrounding properties have any ability to comment on the design for the Zaandam "green monster"? I can't imagine it would be permitted in many US cities.

some old chinese city photos
http://www.nlcd.com.cn/news/UploadFiles_6888/200812/20081204085140603.JPG
http://img.blog.163.com/photo/CZQWdBfZH8hsgNc0ehzUiA==/1457758904384680592.jpg
http://img.bimg.126.net/photo/MD_eqoc4BowdAlDY1en2rA==/1423700432203089877.jpg
http://img.blog.163.com/photo/Xy7kam372GiQoshR3LD_kQ==/2842334314824426779.jpg
http://zuosa.com/photo/mms/00/00/B7/02146880.jpg
http://www.sh.xinhuanet.com/2006-03/02/xinsrc_23010002102146848574.jpg
http://img1.gtimg.com/2010/pics/21274/21274124.jpg

Typical american or european suburbs, on the other hand, look quite conservative. You rarely see shiny blue roofs and all that crap.


That's right, so Chinese have their own "modern" style, different from Western countries.

Just like Western people wearing T-shirts with Chinese characters which they think it's modern but that looks stupid to Chinese people.

I'm curious to see a picture of what you're talking about. I don't recall seeing these 'castles' on my prior visits to Shanghai and around the countryside in the Yangtze River delta.

here are a few i have found in my photos, the full on 'fantasy/disneylike' ones i don't seem to have taken any photos of, but these ones are also what i'm talking about:

here is one that i think we were driving towards shanghai back from either suzhou or hangzhou or wuzhen (forgot). throughout this expressway were buildings like this
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/4909664142_f206530094_b.jpg

this one is a screenshot from a video i took
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4115/4909664192_da9d20a848_b.jpg

this one, if u look on the right, u can see the building im talking about. this one is taken from an apartment in beijing. i know that this is only one random small highrise, but there are countless buildings like these i've seen.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4115/4909067827_5345b7aa84_b.jpg

i was just thinking that imagine those buildings were instead of 'western' sort of design, maybe have chinese design instead. which would be so awesome!

soon i will post some my own photos as well as some i have found on the net about buildings that i think are good that i'm talking about.

Like I said: experiment. The market will soon tell you what sells and what doesn't.

But out of curiosity, did the surrounding properties have any ability to comment on the design for the Zaandam "green monster"? I can't imagine it would be permitted in many US cities.

I don't know, i'm not from The Netherlands but what I do know is that there are a lot of strange buildings and projects over there....

johsam: thanks; Holland is certainly one of the world's great centers for architecture so I would expect lots of interesting work. But I'm curious about how crazy someone can get in historic or other consistent neighborhoods. Maybe Zaandam has particularly liberal rules.

Those pictures look like functional design, probably hiding the water tank. They're just triangles ... not really castles at all.

here are a few i have found in my photos, the full on 'fantasy/disneylike' ones i don't seem to have taken any photos of, but these ones are also what i'm talking about:

here is one that i think we were driving towards shanghai back from either suzhou or hangzhou or wuzhen (forgot). throughout this expressway were buildings like this


hi,the first two pics are hangzhou surburb for sure, suzhou or wuxi has different style.
thanks for pics.

Those pictures look like functional design, probably hiding the water tank. They're just triangles ... not really castles at all.

hmm i think i shouldn't of said 'castle-like' but more non chinese. idk, hard to explain, theres others but unfortunatly i couldn't find any pics

hi,the first two pics are hangzhou surburb for sure, suzhou or wuxi has different style.
thanks for pics.

oh, so the hangzhou suburban style buildings are like this? interesting.
didn't know different city suburbs have their own style of buildings

oh, so the hangzhou suburban style buildings are like this? interesting.
didn't know different city suburbs have their own style of buildings

zhejiang rural villager house
http://www.photo163.com.cn/img/2010_8_21/photo16315645278652.jpg

suzhou wuxi villager house
http://www.hbj.suzhou.gov.cn/060605wx/7.jpg

This same thing is happening in India too...only a heck of a lot worse! It is far cheaper and easier to construct an ugly concrete box and paint it atrociously fluorescent colors than it is to build in vernacular architecture!

This same thing is happening in India too...only a heck of a lot worse! It is far cheaper and easier to construct an ugly concrete box and paint it atrociously fluorescent colors than it is to build in vernacular architecture!

sigh... its really sad to here that. hope they realise and actually put in some 'indian' flavour into the designs.

oliver999, yes that hangzhou photo u posted is exactly like the others ones i saw!
looks like a typical western suburban house.
theres no culture on those buildings!!!

ok, heres what i'm also talking about, i made another thread over in the Cityscapes section on traditional/cultural architectural design elemtents on modern buildings.

i put some photos that i took and from the net of what i mean by what would be really good.

heres the thread

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=62677989#post62677989
^^

:)

I understand the rural areas around Hangzhou look like massive urban sprawl developments but are actually farmer's apartments (check out the lack of roads and tilled fields between the houses). They stretch for hundreds of km, in a dense network across the countryside (check it out on Google Earth). They are the richest farmers in China, each owning a multistoried villa.

If you take the train from HK to Shanghai, you will start to see all this before Hangzhou. At first I thought it was a tacky 1990s pomo development, but then when I realised it was neverending to the horizon, and like the largest city on earth I was pretty amazed. It took me years to work out what I was seeing was actually rural (after a thread here on SSC), and why Hangzhou seemed so much bigger than Shanghai. By high speed train it took over 2 hrs of solid sprawl' to reach Shanghai.

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5977/hangzhou1ca5.jpg


Basically from what Ive gathered the Hangzhou council that built these houses enforced design criteria, each area sectioned up into different 'themes', mirroring the foreign concession era districts of colonial Shanghai. Thus you get steep roofed European style houses (think Germany), then turrets and watchtower styles, then onion domes in Russian style etc. The onion domes were the most amazing I have to say, but Ive never been able to find pictures of them.

I think even when you get tacky single piece of architecture it will still be impressive if its mirrored by thousands of similar buildings for mile after mile.


What I saw were houses like this but multiplied like the first picture, it seemed a forest of watchtowers stretching to the horizon:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2434081024_90135101a5.jpg?v=0 http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2274/2433264457_417397c1ef.jpg

http://k43.pbase.com/o4/48/462648/1/61297382.HangzhouCountrysideScene.jpg http://movingcities.org/wordpress/wp-content/photos/hgh_urban/080211-hgh-urban-0045.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rcgAiIHyXxI/Ru-AJ2dHX_I/AAAAAAAAAmc/07sYwF5DjyA/s1024/Scan10261.JPG

omg spliff fairy, this is EXACTLY what i'm talking about, i just couldn't get the right photos!!!

this is what i saw for miles just these multi story houses.

thanks for the info too! how u know all this? do u live in china?

hmmm yea so they represent the different european concessions... still would be better if it had chinese flavour.

if this was in europe or america or something, like whole suburbs with chinese style buildings, i'm sure there will be complaints saying things like 'theres too much chinese style here' or 'its taking over our european architecture' or something.
but in here, they just built endless amounts of it... idk if they like it or not (the residents) but i just see it as the chinese keep seeing western things 'superior' so they copy many of its elements, whether in architecture/buildings, fashion, style, etc...

it needs it's own! (not saying there isn't) but still!

^^I myself think these houses are ok. Not all old stuff are beautiful, especially the old houses of the poor farmers. Many of the new houses were not even 'designed' since the owners built them by themselves, a floor plan will do the trick. Nowadays villages tend to build massive amounts of silimar looking houses, and such houses are generally designed by construction companies. There is no policy or guidance from the city government for such communities. After all, these are farmers' houses and not for commercial purposes.

If possible I would choose to live in a community shown below, but such houses generally cost much much more than 'un-chinese' houses (you may wanna say 'un-traditional-Chinese' since it is weird to say 'un-Chinese'):

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/2162/03aa0525jpeg.jpg

http://cache.aries.sina.com.cn/nd/citylifehouse//citylife/1b/0f/20090510_7867_1.jpg

http://cache.aries.sina.com.cn/nd/citylifehouse//citylife/1b/0f/20090510_7867_4.jpg

Wow, that last development looks super nice! Only thing I don't like is the lack of sidewalks.

Do you know how much the units cost? Any pictures of the interior?

but i just see it as the chinese keep seeing western things 'superior' so they copy many of its elements, whether in architecture/buildings, fashion, style, etc...

It's not because they are 'superior' but because they are much more cost effective.

From an architectural point me might think it's lame and bland but people love living in these kind of neighborhood. That you see this especially in Shangai is not surprising. Shanghai is slightly different since Shanghai has always had a large European influence on its architecture.

In the new terrotories here in Hong Kong some developments as well in Greek style with columns etc.. In Holland we also have lots of new developments that hark back to the old days. E.g. towns built in the style of old castles, or as old canal towns.

In Beijing I saw a lot more buildings inspired on old Chinese styles.

http://www.chinatravelkey.com/beijing/pic/beijinghotel/front/Beijing-westrailwaystation.jpg

European style is also alot cheaper to build (no sloping roofs, heavy tiles, decorative motifs or roofed enclosure walls), but there is still alot of 'traditional' builds (read: >120 years old style).

btw,

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=660768

^^ it's insane... almost the whole area between hangzou and bejing(1000km!) is developed like this.... It gives me the shivers just looking at it on GE

Something else insane: A small village, huaxi in China constructs the 15th tallest skyscraper in the world...

http://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/skyscraper-built-in-rural-chinese-village-01.jpg
http://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/skyscraper-built-in-rural-chinese-village-01.jpg

^^ oh and in that area around the village, a bunch of new cities with skyscraper downtowns are growing like cabbage, there names aren't even on GE....Ever heard of Zhangjiagang? Me neither, It happends to be a 1.2 million city that didn't existed before 1980 where GE doesn't show the name of...

all the reasons (cost effective, simpler, easier to build etc...), understandable due to large numbers required and 'its china', but yea, just seems not as good.

china should be as china as possible, most buildings immersed with culture and chinese flavour.

another similar note, heres a photo i have on my other thread that shows chinese architecutre implemented on buildings.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4135/4909138655_5831f4dc2c_b.jpg
^^^^^^
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=62677989#post62677989

and that huaxi village thing is insane!! along with that skyscraper, what are those ancient pagoda like things? never herd of this before!

and that huaxi village thing is insane!! along with that skyscraper, what are those ancient pagoda like things? never herd of this before!

Their not even acient... There newly build:ohno:

http://bbs.home.news.cn/upfiles/0403190D.002C

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/holyforums/huaxinew121.jpg

http://www.lvyou114.com/member/4765/sigthphoto/2007-9-8-8-28-1.jpg

http://www.wuxitour.gov.cn/xzztlm/jpxjxxl/%E2%80%9Cxkgl%E2%80%9Djy/images/2009/9/19/EAFAF27B5FC74F5ABB225CC21B488BC0.jpg

built in 1980s-1990s,i've visited these pagoda several times.

Gulangyu has quite the non-chinese architecture. It has a lot of European influence. (iron gates, shutters) It's actually quite a cute little place in China quiet no cars permitted.

Stacy McOwen
http://thecocktaildresses.com

Xian has alot of traditional Chinese style postmodern also:

http://www.edive.ch/Portals/0/xian_nandajie.jpg

http://see.xidian.edu.cn/conference/vspc2008/index.files/21.jpg

http://www.casiam.de/uploads/pics/xian_view_02.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3438/3389203643_856b3ccbca.jpg

http://k.b5z.net/i/u/6046710/i/Xi_an_1_ezr.JPG http://en1.xian-tourism.com/UploadFiles/2006829220558.jpg

Yes, the chinese should appologise for not constructing buildings adapted to some australian's quest for exotism...

xi'an looks very simliar to beijing in a way... idk seems like it to me
thats so great to see the chinese style on the buildings


Yes, the chinese should appologise for not constructing buildings adapted to some australian's quest for exotism...

huh?

xi'an looks very simliar to beijing in a way... idk seems like it to me
thats so great to see the chinese style on the buildings


Xi'An probably has the most history and cultural heritage among all big cities in China. It is unmatchable by any other.

I don't know what you are thinking about, but brutal mixture of traditional and modern together is the worst IMO. If you wanna preserve the traditional architecture, stick to the traditional way. A pagoda on the top of a glassy supertall =ultra ugly.

This is a newly built project which I would consider to be classy:

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_000_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_006_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_005_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_013_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_008_640.jpg

Most newly built temples are nice too.

Suzhou station is also built in the local vernacular:

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/2.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/6.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0722.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0726.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0731.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0732.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0736.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0738.JPG

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/6/30/IMG_0746.JPG

huh?

Well it's quite simple, chinese cities are not built for you (or me), they are built for the people who live within their walls.

As such you are only an outsider whose concern about chinese cities is that they are not exotic enough for him, why should such an opinion be of any relevance? If a chinese person goes to Australia and is deceived because he things that Australian cities should be more like what he saw in desperate housewives (not from Australia, I know), would you care?

Well it's quite simple, chinese cities are not built for you (or me), they are built for the people who live within their walls.

As such you are only an outsider whose concern about chinese cities is that they are not exotic enough for him, why should such an opinion be of any relevance? If a chinese person goes to Australia and is deceived because he things that Australian cities should be more like what he saw in desperate housewives (not from Australia, I know), would you care?

i am chinese though,

true, i know that its built for them and not how one persons 'exotic' opinion should be, but i'm just showing what i think would be great and whta it should be as i'm concerned about the current way of thinking of developers/governments etc... and that they should preserve and continue their own culture more than trying to imitate more western style.

with ur australia desperate housewives reference, i'm saying this about china because china was originally like this before the modern, generic buildings were built. before china was opened up to the world and western things, where would the highrises be designed from? chinese buildings had their own style. not just china, just any culture. if you look at areas around guilin, china (where those beautiful karst landscapes are), you see that many of the buildings scattered around the land are very ugly, bland 70's style blocks. now i'm sure before the engineering/architecture of western buildings were introduced to the old world, china had their own buildings right. so i'm sure around there, there would of been traditional chinese villages, buildings etc...

now if a foreigner does visit australia and is decieved that they think it should look like a scene from desperate housewives, thats different. australian suburbs have always looked like a typical suburb u have in ur head. this is what it's always been like (i know it is slightly different, but the australian style of housing has always been very similar). it wasn't like 100yrs ago their has been aboriginal style housing, then suddenly in the last few decades, australia has decided to building cultureless suburban houses.

http://www.360doc.com/content/10/0828/21/1820434_49509215.shtml
look at this city detail a thousand years ago in a large painting.

Xi'An probably has the most history and cultural heritage among all big cities in China. It is unmatchable by any other.

I don't know what you are thinking about, but brutal mixture of traditional and modern together is the worst IMO. If you wanna preserve the traditional architecture, stick to the traditional way. A pagoda on the top of a glassy supertall =ultra ugly.

This is a newly built project which I would consider to be classy:

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_000_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_006_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_005_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_013_640.jpg

http://pic.qnpic.com:83/r.jsp?fn=//fanjoin/share/2010/7/28/6436353200810141732589109743042661_008_640.jpg

Most newly built temples are nice too.

OMG!!! This is like heaven!!!!!!!!!! so beautiful.....................上有天堂，下有苏杭。

A bridge in Ya'an, Sichuan

http://www.travelblog.org/pix/shim.gif

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_80BbyvYDnzE/SNTXF5qdGGI/AAAAAAAAAUg/I-fdt6Z3eUY/s1600/YaanBridgeDusk.jpg

http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/11510523.jpg

^^now that's just ugly

^^now that's just ugly

It's northern style. :D

It's northern style. :D

wats northern style?