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[Photos] Brand New Train Station Roof in Hebei “Leaks Like a Waterfall”

Posted: 08/29/2014 2:27 pm

shijiazhuang train station leaky roof 01Chinese modern architecture can be counted upon to be grand, austere, and usually resembling some kind of kitchen utensil. And if the brand-new Shijiazhuang Railway Station is an indication of a trend, Chinese buildings are also built to be leaky.

READ: Shenzhen’s brand new airport already leaking

In the case of the Shijiazhuang Railway Station, “leaky” may not quite capture what is happening. Netizens posted pictures last night showing a torrent of water spraying from the railway station ceiling, covering a large section of the passenger hall.

To be fair, a record rainfall hit Shijiazhuang at that time. The rain was so severe it flooded roads and delayed flights and trains. And yet, if you were a resident of the capitial of Hebei that night, you wouldn’t be able to find shelter from the storm at its brand new train station.

Here are some more pictures:

shijiazhuang train station leaky roof 01shijiazhuang train station leaky roof 01

Instilling a respect for the natural environment, the leaky Shijiazhuang Railway Station has inspired a hashtag on Weibo named after the Water Curtain Cave in Shanxi Province. While it appears to be an appropriate enough name, the visual similarities are there as well.

shuiliandong water curtain cave

Related:

Photos: Dongguan Times, Sina Hebei, 761

Haohao
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Meet Shenzhen’s Newest Tallest Building: The Peace Finance Center

Posted: 07/16/2014 9:01 am

The new Peace Finance Center, which is still under construction, is now the tallest building in Shenzhen, at 448.3 meters high. The Peace Finance Center has taken the honor away from the previous title holder, the KingKey Financial Center, whose one hundred floors measures 441.8 meters in height.

The main structure of the Peace Finance Building will stand at 588 meters tall, but with a planned attachment to be added later on, the complete height will be 660 meters.

The Peace Finance Center will have 115 floors with another five stories underground. It is slated to be completed in 2016.

Photo: Sina

Haohao
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[Photos] Tencent’s New Guangzhou Offices Are 100% Awesome

Posted: 06/25/2014 1:29 pm

tencent guangzhou officeCheck out the new Guangzhou offices of internet behemoth Tencent, borne from six buildings that were once part of an old textile factory.

The new offices of the Shenzhen-based maker of the popular WeChat app are shown in a pictorial published in Business Insider. Eight-hundred Tencent employees will be enjoying things like a two-story slide to pop downstairs and a wall made out of plants.

We don’t see any Segways that are ubiquitous on high-tech campuses, but we’re still very impressed with this modern design that is practical, elegant, and doesn’t look like a kitchen instrument or a pair of pants.

tencent guangzhou officetencent guangzhou officetencent guangzhou officetencent guangzhou officetencent guangzhou officetencent guangzhou office

Photos: Business Insider

Haohao
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Guangzhou destroys two heritage buildings from the 1940s, despite protests

Posted: 06/14/2013 10:00 am

Two buildings on Guangzhou’s Shishu Road which represent a rare form of architecture were leveled on the morning of June 11 in spite of locals having written to the government to protest, Xinhua reports. Both were built during the Republic of China period in the 1940s.

The demolition crew in action, courtesy of Xinhua

The buildings were said by experts to represent a form of architecture that mixed the ancient with the modern and is extremely rare. The type of architecture was even described as being as important to China’s cultural heritage as the panda.

Historically significant buildings being demolished in the name of development is, of course, nothing new.

Philip Pan described the process in his 2008 book, Out of Mao’s Shadow:

In reality, though, local officials often approved projects and sold land-use rights to developers without going through the trouble of buying or seizing them from homeowners first. Officials then conspired with developers to pressure owners to give up their land. Developers often hired thugs to intimidate residents while police looked the other way. And local authorities sometimes cut off water, electricity, or heat to the holdouts. If necessary, the government intervened on behalf of developers and ordered a forced eviction on questionable legal grounds. Altogether, between 1991 and 2003, more than half a million families in Beijing were evicted by developers.

This has given rise to the coinage of the term “chaina,” which sounds like the English word “China” but means “Where should we demolish next?”

Haohao
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New US consulate in Guangzhou is given a sculpture, nobody sure what it is

Posted: 03/26/2013 3:22 pm

The United States consulate in Guangzhou is one of the busiest in China. It’s responsible for handling visa enquiries for people all over the southern part of the country, stretching down to Hainan Island.

In short, the needs of the consulate have outgrown its current digs, so it will soon move into a brand new facility in Zhujiang New Town. The consulate is expected to have a grand opening ceremony later this year.

A US artist named Joel Shapiro has created a sculpture that has been donated to the consulate to mark the occasion.  Shapiro, who’s 71 years old, is apparently well-known in the world of abstract art, according to the Wall Street Journal. And as with the genre, much is left up to individual interpretation.

Enter, this:

That blue sculpture to the left is the one designed by Shapiro. What is it, exactly? Some say it looks like a flying man, others wonder if it’s a bird, we think it kind of looks like a guy about to stand up from a chair?!

Shapiro says people are welcome to interpret the design “any way they’d like to, as long as it stimulates the imagination.”

In China last week, Mr. Shapiro oversaw installation of the 22-foot-tall outdoor, bright-blue metal work. The bright-blue Guangzhou work is made of six parts bolted together. Why blue? “I like blue,” Mr. Shapiro said, wearing a blue button-down shirt. But he also explained that the hue “gives the piece a solidity, and it doesn’t reflect light. It amplifies the mass of the piece.” He chose a durable matte paint used by the U.S. military for covert operations.

The sculpture, the result of a seven-year process, was made in a foundry north of New York City. Mr. Shapiro donated the piece to the consulate at the behest of the nonprofit Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, which paid for the fabrication of the sculpture and has given work by over 200 artists to American outposts in more than 140 countries. In 1999, FAPE arranged for the artist to donate a 40-foot-high bronze sculpture for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa.

Guangzhou is fast becoming a bit of a hotbed for architecture. The new blue consulate sculpture sits beside the Guangzhou Opera House, which has also received international acclaim.

Any guesses on what the blue sculpture is supposed to be?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

 

Haohao
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Architects propose crazy new idea to deal with Shenzhen’s urbanization: the “farmscraper”

Posted: 03/9/2013 3:40 pm

Architects are often pushing the boundaries of vision and scope with their ideas, but the profession has outdone itself on this occasion.

The designers at Vincent Callebaut believe they have an answer to China’s mass urban migration, polluting cities and resource-hungry people.

Their Shenzhen-inspired “Asian Cairns” vision is aptly named the “farmscraper”.

China’s mass-migration has led to a tipping point as the number of city-dwellers has now exceeded that of the rural population and that is expected to rise to 800 million people by 2020.
Vincent Callebaut Architecte say Shenzhen is a microcosm, adding the city has outgrown its resources.  Their solution is more blocks of towers, but not as we know it.

From the pictures on their website, they propose a “green, dense, smart city connected by the TIC (total integrated communication) and eco-designed from biotechnologies.”

Shenzhen may have transformed more than any other city in China since Deng Xiaoping launched reform and opening more than 30 years ago.  Back then, Shenzhen was mostly farmland, while today it’s filled with skyscrapers and high-rise apartments.

This latest concept can only be politely described as asthetically bonkers, with an almost out-of-this world vision, presenting a mid-air house within a garden made up of six self-sufficient, self-sustaining towers.

The numerous layers of pebble-shaped floors give it the scale of a supersize Stonehenge.

“The Asian Cairns project syntheses our architectural philosophy that transforms the cities in ecosystems,” say Vincent Callebaut Architecte.

They call it the “farmscraper.” We’d like to think of this as a skyforest.

Haohao
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Shenzhen’s tallest building to open in August

Posted: 04/26/2011 8:59 am

The comparisons rage on in China about which city has the tallest building.

Shenzhen is about to whip out its tallest building, the brand new KingKey, 100 which is (naturally) 100 floors high and will open in Western Luohu. It is 441.8 metres high, which passes the current record holder, the Dawang Building, at 383.95 metres high.

From the Shenzhen Standard:

With 100 floors, the Kingkey 100 beautifully made by TFP Farrells of London, will be marked as the eight highest building of the world. Kingkey 100 has the highest hotel in the city, the St. Regis with it’s 220,000 sq. meter floor area from the 75th to 100 floor that features highest highest garden and restaurant was linked to KK mall with luxury brand stores, restaurants, and the city’s first IMAX Cinema.

While it might be the 8th tallest in the world, it won’t be even close to the tallest in China.

KingKey, it should be noted, also has a beautiful hotel in Dameisha which plays second-fiddle to those who can’t afford to stay at the Sheraton Dameisha Resort. One could argue the rooms are better at the KingKey anyway. But it’s the name of the hotel that stands out: The KingKey Palace. Say that 5 times fast.

You can read a lot more about the architect of the KingKey 100, Sir Terry Ferrell, here.

We reported earlier on The Nanfang about a new 400-metre monster going up in Dongguan, and how that fits in with the other tall buildings in the country:

So what about other tall buildings in China? Well, if we include Taiwan, (and we should, just so our website doesn’t get blocked), Taipei 101 takes the cake easily, coming in at 509 meters high. In Mainland China, the tallest remains the World Financial Centre in Shanghai (492 meters), followed by the brand new International Commerce Centre in Kowloon (484 meters).

The thing is, there are hundreds of skyscrapers in Shanghai and Hong Kong, so even the tallest towers tend to blend in. However, anybody’s who’s been to Taipei would agree that Taipei 101 is an absolute anomaly on the city’s skyline as the single tower standing out amidst several low-rise buildings. The same effect will likely happen in Dongguan.

Just for trivia’s sake, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa at over 800 meters high, or more than double the height of Dongguan’s new tower.

The new KingKey 100 will throw open its doors in August this year.


Haohao
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