CAIP Mapping

CAIP Mapping

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Shanghai Pentagonal Mart (SPM)


Shanghai Pentagonal Mart (SPM) is located in Nanhui, Shanghai. The site is about 460 acres, and building areas are 480,000 sqm, with 10 professional exhibition halls, 30 exhibition rooms, 800 office units. It aims to build an international distribution harbor.

China Merchants Group:
"The architectural form is with 5 edges and pentagonal circular design. It is similair to Pentagon in the United States. Its image is superb sensational. (建築形態為五邊、五角環形設計,外形酷似美國五角大樓,極具震撼力。)"

The plans of SPM see here.

The interior video sees here.

[source: Real Estate Conch & hao zhai zhi chuang & China Merchants Group]

Reference: Pentagon (Washington, DC)
[source: photography-plus]

Grand Lisboa Casino Hotel, Macau



The Grand Lisboa Casino Hotel with its gold glass curtain wall (top) was designed by the Hong-Kong firm Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man, Architects and Engineers. The casino opened in February, 2007, and the tower (rendering, bottom) is scheduled for completion in 2008.
See also
[source: Archpaper]

Monday, June 25, 2007

Another so-called "World-est" bridge at Hangzhou Bay


Hangzhou Bay sea-crossing bridge now is connected at construction level. It seems that familiar "world-est" compliments appears over all of Chinese main media.

"36km is the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world","the endurance of the bridge is designed for 100 yrs, the is the first time in the world", "1430tons support weight is the heaviest in the world", and some first time of using newly developed technology, blablabla

Also, they never mention the cost of this bridge, it is probably over 15,000,000,000 rmb (1,500,000,000 euro).

[source: sina]

Fang Yuan by C.L.LEE

Fang Yuan (方圆)Tower, literally means Square and Circle Tower, is located in city center of Shenyang, a northen city of China.
The designer is C.L.LEE from Taiwan who is famous for designing TAIPEI 101 Tower. He seems to have design lots of landmark buildings throughout China. Most of them are in secondary Chinese cities like Shenyang.
Since the circle and a square hole is the shape of tranditional Chinese money, some of the comments from public media and non-architecture voice said this is an vulgar architecture representation, and it is not good for appearance of the city, coz some visitors might consider Shenyang as a city of materialism when they see this building.
However, this building was chosen as the top-ten best building of Shenyang by the local government recently.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Second series of the exbihits of 2006 Shanghai International Mosaiculture

'7, Macao -- A City Rich in Cultural Heritage (Macao , China)
"The Historic Centre of Macao was inscribed onto UNESCO's World Heritage List, which included 17 stylish buildings and the Ruins of St. Paul's Church is the key feature of it. The main scene of this design is the Ruin of St. Paul's Church with different kinds of plants exemplify the integration of Chinese and Western cultures in Macao. "------commentary'

[source Watching this world]

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Place, Beijing CBD




The Place, Chinese name 世贸天阶, literally means "Step road to world trade", is a new shopping street located in Beijing CBD. The huge overhead LCD screen designed by Jeremy Railton from Hollywood, is 250m long 30m wide. Woh, it is really Hollywood, the representation of space is now established not for unreal space now but for a real social space just like Vegas. Further, this LCD is not like Vegas one, but uses advanced LED technology, world first one.
Hoho, the question for public is just how much money should we "pay" for its running? There is so much electricty!
[source: abbs]

Shanghai Slaughter House




Shanghai Slaughter House was built in 1930s, one of the three biggest slaughter house at that time, one in the US and another one in England. It was truned to a pharmacy factory and abandoned for some decades. It locates in downtown Shanghai, but it's discovered only recently. The spatial organization is very complicated inside. It will be renovated to a commerical and recreational center like Xintiandi soon.
[source: wwdx]

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Guizhou Museum



Guizhou Museum project is revealed in June 2007, designed by local designer Wu Xinfeng伍新凤.
[source abbs]

trompe l'oeil in Shanghai

A trompe l'oeil (or quatrattura) building facade in Shanghai Jing'an district. The windows are dipicted by computer rendering, most of which are identical, which is very different from hand-painted ones in Western world. Can we call this trompe l'oeil after all?

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Sheraton Hotel, Suzhou, Zhejiang Province


It seems that international hotel service enterprise Sheraton also shows their interests to Chinese style decoration. The funny story is, the planning department of Suzhou forces every investors (surely also architects) to make buildings with white walls and black tiles. Harmonious urban environment? I don't think so.

[source: bendangwuren]

Courthouse in Yuhuan, Zhejiang


This is the Courthouse in the Town Yuhuan, Zhejiang Province, which could be referenced from many neo-classic buildings.
Below is The Arkansas State Capitol Building, built in 1899-1915.

[source abbs and wiki]

Hybrid of the West and the East 中西合璧


A governmental building in a Chinese town (unkown yet).


[source abbs]

Ronchamp in Zhengzhou

reference:
Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France, 1950-1954 (left)
Ronchamp, Zhenghzou, 1994 (right)
Jean Baudrillard should be happy to see this...

5-star Hotel in a Chinese Town

"The Beijing Laffitte Chateau Hotel is located in Beiqijia Town, Changping District along the Wenyu River. The hotel is only 15 kilometers from the Beijing Capital Airport and 10 kilometers north of the Olympic Village. Hotel Laffitte is five-star hotel and is designed for high-class business events and vacations. The chateau complex encompasses 24,000 square-meters and consists of a main building, designed as a castle, flanked by two other castles. A French, Duke-style veins parterre is located at the front of the chateau. A wine culture center is located behind the main castle. The complex is surrounded by a man-made river, trees, lawns, flower gardens and vineyards, for an overall attractive environment. The 10,000 square-meter wine culture plaza, splendid banquet halls and unique dining rooms are excellent places for holding performances, wine parties and variety shows as well as major meetings and weddings." ----The Beijing Laffitte Chateau Hotel
[source bjlaffitte-hotel and daqi]

the Fish Tank

The "fish tank" (also known as water cube) before inflating...

[source abbs]

National Grand Opera House


[source abbs and shanghai daily]

Opening

CAIP (Chinese Archimage Phenomena) aims to documentate architecture image phenomena in contemporary China.