Chinese Home Builders Find Great Location: On Top Of A Shopping Mall

[M II A II R II K]

Chinese Home Builders Find Great Location: On Top Of A Shopping Mall


August 15, 2012



Read More: http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog...shopping-mall/

The Chinese city of Zhuzhou, the second largest in the province of Hunan, is being pressed under the tremendous pressure of growth. Home to many a manufactory and textile mill, residents are seeking new ways to live close to work while preserving the spaciousness of the countryside. Thus, these wonderful photos of McMansion-style housing atop a five-story shopping center in the central district of Zhuzhou.

The four houses are perched above the city, invisible to street-level action. They do not cast a shadow on the ground, and seem to exist solely in the rarefied world of smoggy skies, with scenic views into the apartments surrounding their airy enclave. Though the landscaping around the houses leaves something to be desired, the overall approach is one we’d like to see replicated on blank and bare urban roofscapes everywhere. Now that’s mixed-use development.

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[eleven=11]

thats cool.
the houses look fake, but still cool.
is all of china smoggy???
its a good thing we have the EPA in the USA.
unless romney/ryan get rid of it.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by eleven=11

thats cool.
the houses look fake, but still cool.
is all of china smoggy???
its a good thing we have the EPA in the USA.
unless romney/ryan get rid of it.

Not all of China is smoggy, but since they use old-style coal generators for the majority of their electricity production, in addition to all the factory sources of pollution it's like the U.S. in the 1920s.

There are cities with less pollution than others, plus many of the interior industrial cities are also very humid, which adds a haze to photos. You can't always tell how much of it is pollution vs. natural mist or humidity, and humity + pollution is visually even worse than either by itself.

Then there's geography - Zhuzhou is in a valley, which traps the air simlar to how L.A.'s smog is worst when the air gets trapped between the coast and the hills.

China needs to figure these things out, but it's hard to prioritize air quality against all the other things they're trying to do, especially when you're at least nominally communist and it's the richest people who live in the cities while many of the poorest are in the countryside and are missing even more basic fundamentals of modern life. Do you pay for cleaner air in a city, or indoor plumbing and sewage treatment for rural areas?

[Rizzo]

Ooo...those rooftop air handlers must make lousy neighbors.

[THE BIG APPLE]

Only in China (or Asia for a matter of fact).