China: No More Weird Buildings
 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/22/archit...ngs/index.html

So it takes communist central planning to finally come out and say that buildings aren't throwaway pop fads? That whimsical flights of fancy don't impress people for long, don't have a lasting impact, and we should stop building them.
About time. When every building seeks to 'out weird' the last one, cities just become haphazard junk collections. Weird is for the modern art museums, not skylines.

I find this move interesting. All of the buildings in the provided slideshow in the article are notably unique, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily a bad thing. I can however see the argument that most of these unique buildings have been designed by architects from the West, and don't really represent a "Chinese style" if one exists. The flip side to that argument though is that the same could be said of Dubai, although I would say that city definitely has a unique "Arabian-modern" aesthetic despite the prevalence of Western architecture firms.

The East has been a playground for modern American architects.

I'm not surprised they don't want our guinea pig shit designs anymore.

This??? This is where China decided to make a stand on the environment?

What were they thinking with that donut on the river? The Hadid buildings looks sick. I also like CCTV. The rest are pretty stupid.

The giant penis with the hay covered roof was a bad idea. Some of the other ones were actually great designs.

I find this odd because "odd" buildings are the ones that make it through the ages.

Having said that, it depends (very subjectively) on how one defines odd. Unique architecture is memorable and China is in a position to lead the world. On the other hand, sometimes it just comes out looking retarded. Some of the best and worst is on display in Chinese cities.

What I hope this really means is that there won't be any more exceptionally tacky buildings.

I actually think Dubai has them beat. Over the top nonsense on steroids with the occasional masterpiece.

Just gotta take the bad with the good. Not every building needs to be beautiful.