| |
 Beijing may not look like it quite yet, but the Chinese capital may well become the home of architecture's next classical modernity. While European cities are busy fine-tuning the achievements of the past, and even the formerly forward-looking New York is increasingly in the mood to put a preservation order on Manhattan, the laboratory of contemporary architecture has moved to Beijing. Compared to the restrictions imposed on architects in the West by long established cities, urban designers have been given carte blanche for stunning experiments in Beijing.
Arguably the most eye-catching among the large building projects is the new CCTV Tower in Beijing's central business district. The design for the structure by Dutch architect Rem Kolhaas is scheduled to be completed by 2008 and promises one of the most dazzling landmarks of contemporary architecture – not just in China, but worldwide. It will be a colossus that takes the form of two leaning towers, 70 floors high, propping each other with links at top and bottom to form a gigantic Moebius strip containing everything from studios to offices. An adjacent hotel block takes the form of an open chest of drawers. This is surely not just another tower; it has ambitions to represent China's new place in the world.
 And it is not alone. The 2008 Olympic Games has spurred a dizzying rate of architectural activities in Beijing. The Olympic National Stadium, by Basel-based Herzog & de Meuron, has an equal claim to be considered the most glamorous project modern China has conceived so far. A myriad of raked 1.2-metre deep steel girders crisscrossing each other give an impression of woven twigs. The so-called 'Bird Nest' stadium is due for completion in 2008, and is the result of a collaboration between the Swiss architects – Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron – and Beijing avant-garde artist-cum-architect Ai Weiwei.
The versatile Ai Weiwei, a central figure in Beijing's experimental art scene since the early 1980s, is a distinguished architect in his own right. For the National Stadium, he advised his Swiss partners to create a crazy, chaotic structure and sketched a tree and a bird's nest, both classical Chinese poetic images, to illustrate his idea.
His signature design, however, is minimalist elegance inspired by the spirit of Old Beijing. This is clearly reflected in his latest creation: the Beijing branch of Lucerne-based Galerie Urs Meile on the outskirts of Dashanzi. Grey bricks set the tone in Ai's designs, like they do in Beijing's old neighbourhoods. Yet, he does not attempt to emulate the ancient architecture. Rather, the artist transforms the traditional styles into a thoroughly modern architectural language.
While a good deal of what's modern in Beijing thus consists of creative reactions to inspirations from the past, other projects simply blast the framework of tradition, both Chinese and Western. Kolhaas's CCTV Tower is unprecedented, both in China and the West. So are the Olympic National Stadium, and, just across the road, the National Swimming Center, the venue for all water-related sports during the 2008 Olympic Games. Dubbed the 'Water Cube', the striking, dreamlike structure plays on the geometry of water bubbles. It is designed by Sydney-based PTW Architects – the brain behind the Australian city's 2000 Olympic Aquatic Centre. Scheduled to finish in 2007, the Water Cube promises a most spectacular scene, especially during nighttime when the opaque blue cube glows in the darkness.
 The most controversial landmark project, however, is undoubtedly Paul Andreu's National Grand Theatre, set to finish in 2007. The unusual design has divided the public and inspired a variety of nicknames ranging from 'UFO', 'sparkling drop of water' and 'eggshell' to 'bombastic blob'. Housing three auditoriums and over 5,400 seats, it sits in the midst of an artificial lake in the heart of Beijing – immediately west of the Great Hall of the People and just 500 meters from Tiananmen Square. The giant titanium sphere, extending 213 metres wide, is covered in silvery metal mesh and split through the centre by a 100-metre section of glazing. A curved earthy-red masonry wall – a homage to the Forbidden City – is the entrance to the 60-metre transparent underwater tube leading to the theatre's foyer.
Beijing's architectural fortunes, however, are by no means merely due to the feats of foreign star architects. The "Commune by the Great Wall", for example, is an ensemble of 12 villas that real-estate developers Zhang Xin and her husband Pan Shiyi commissioned from 12 Asian architects. It was the first Chinese project ever to be awarded a prize in the prestigious Venice Biennale. Zhang and Pan are also the brain behind the cutting-edge SOHO residential developments.
The critical success of the Commune, now a hotel run by Kempinski, is according to Pan unlikely to remain singular for long. He is convinced that the revival of great architecture in China is only just beginning. His words sum it all up: "What we are witnessing now in Beijing is the commencement of a new renaissance."
|
| 6. |
A work by Chinese sculptors Zhuang Yanjun and Jing Yanhong is displayed at the Olympic Sculptures Exhibition |
| 7. |
The construction site of the National Olympic Stadium in Beijing |
| 8. |
Workers install plastic membranes to make up bubbles in the structure of the National Swimming Center for the 2008 Olympic Games |
| 9. |
Forest House designed by Japanese architect Nobuaki Furuya for the Commune by the Great Wall |
| 10. |
An imperial bronze lion guards the entrance to one hall of Yonghegong, a Tibetan Buddhist temple and monastery |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
