Chinese Archimage Phenomena

Frank Wright's Fallingwater , Pennsylvania , USA Fallingwater in Shanghai Fallingwater in Beijing [via abbs ]

This is the new released Macao Pavilion for 2010 Shanghai World EXPO, titled “Moon Rabbit Lantern”, by Carlos Marreiros. The iconic building is to represent the Rabbit year (1999) when Macao was returned to China. [via abbs and expo2010china ]

As the Olympics approaches, I always found more and more interesting things by regular Chinese. Here is another story. Some farmers in Shuangxi, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, made a bamboo Bird's Nest of the scale 1:20, which took them half a month and spent almost a thousand pieces of Mao zhu, the local bamboo. [via pclady ] Also, a friend of mine recommends a bar at Fuxing Park, downtown Shanghai, which has a kind of Water Cube façade, esp. at night. [Courtesy of CAIP]

Previously, CAIP introduce the tempo l'oeil in Shanghai. The facade of the abandoned building is covered by printed windows, which can be considered as a parody of architecture. In fact, obviously, no one cares about architecture and its representation. The only theme of the abandoned building is supposed to be propoganda of politics since it is just next to the secret political conference place - Ma Le villa on Shanxi Rd of Shanghai and it is a good eye-catched place both from ground or from the inner ring highway. As expected, the facade is now changed into 海宝(Haibao, literally means baby of the sea), the mascot of EXPO2010 in only one night. [via expo2010china ]

He Jingtang, China Pavilion, Shanghai EXPO 2010 China Pavilion of Shanghai EXPO 2010 was released a while ago, titled "Crown of the East", designed by a senior Chinese architect He Jingtang , but now there are some interesting discussions about it on abbs, the world biggest architectural forum, of course in China. The main issue is about: Where is the idea from? Is it representative of China after all? Many posters dig out the Japanese pavilion for EXPO '92, Sevilla, Spain , designed Tadao Ando . So, where are the both inspired from? Is His inspiration from Ando? Or is Ando's from Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) in China? What we are interested in that no matter the architect He or the debaters on abbs, swamped in opticality again. Todao Ando, Japanese pavilion for EXPO '92, Sevilla, Spain [via abbs ] Comment by Yan known as ID Bendangwuren on ABBS The competition of the pavilion undoubtly results in a typical Chinese way. As a citizen, maybe we could just think thi...

It is a keyboard like building in Shanghai. It looks like a professional technician school, in digital media technology. address：上海市董恒甫职业技术学校/上海市徐汇区蒲汇塘路99号 [via Augapfel & dhfz ]

Thames Town may look exactly like an English country village, but it's actually 25 miles southwest of Shanghai. It's one of nine new towns Shanghai planners hope will relieve population pressures in the city center. The town's market square even has its own statue of Winston Churchill. Yang Jinghui and Zi Haiying pose for wedding photographs in front of Thames Town's church. Even Thames Town's security guards have special touches to their uniforms that seem designed to evoke English pageantry. INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: Learn about the nine foreign-style new towns in Shanghai's suburbs. [via  npr ] Shanghai's city planners are carrying out an ambitious scheme to relieve population pressure: They are resettling 500,000 people in nine new towns in the suburbs. Each is built in a distinctive style, including an Italian town with canals based on Venice and a German town designed by Albert Speer, the son of Hitler's favorite architect. Thames Town is one of these n...

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 ]

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 ]

'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 ]

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 ]

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?