was mildly surprised at the singular lack of vision exhibited by bigend in commenting that he was disappointed in the options for office space in beijing ("what can you do, it's beijing?"). the architecture of the city is fast rivalling that of anywhere, and with highly customizable courtyards (siheyuan), enormous art studios aplenty near 798,the soho groups pop-arch sensibilities, and the recent work of studio pei zhu and mad (ma yansong's firm) it seems silly to think that cold war gray is still the only option.
of course, i suppose this could be a nod to the fact that w+k, which blue ant could easily be taken as a nod to, has displayed a similar lack of vision in instituting themselves in the capital, with a presence of about 2 staff members. rumours abound that a w+k beijing lab is in the works should stifle that somewhat. i expect more time will be spent in the 'jing for the inevitable completion of the trilogy (?), as there are scant few places changing as quickly.
Posts: 3 | Location: beijing | Registered: January 16, 2008
Originally posted by .memetic liaison.: was mildly surprised at the singular lack of vision exhibited by bigend in commenting that he was disappointed in the options for office space in beijing ("what can you do, it's beijing?"). the architecture of the city is fast rivalling that of anywhere, and with highly customizable courtyards (siheyuan), enormous art studios aplenty near 798,the soho groups pop-arch sensibilities, and the recent work of studio pei zhu and mad (ma yansong's firm) it seems silly to think that cold war gray is still the only option.
of course, i suppose this could be a nod to the fact that w+k, which blue ant could easily be taken as a nod to, has displayed a similar lack of vision in instituting themselves in the capital, with a presence of about 2 staff members. rumours abound that a w+k beijing lab is in the works should stifle that somewhat. i expect more time will be spent in the 'jing for the inevitable completion of the trilogy (?), as there are scant few places changing as quickly.
How about Shanghai?
Posts: 8080 | Location: The Doghouse (again) | Registered: February 20, 2003
shanghai is a much more cosmopolitan option to be sure, but there's a certain glint of faux in its veneer, kind of a conflation of taibei and san fran rather than an authentic chinese city. beijing is big, dirty, brash and utterly chinese.
besides, with projects springing up everywhere from herzog & de meuron, andreu, hadid, koolhaas et cetera, and hutong (narrow traditional chinese communal streets) population going from 2000 to under 100 in the last five years, the look of beijing is spinning out of control. check out pei zhu's digital beijing building for the most techno-fabulous building around.
Posts: 3 | Location: beijing | Registered: January 16, 2008
as for photos of the city, i'll take a look through my aperture library when i have a minute. falling drastically behind on metadata so it's a bit of a mess.
interestingly, if you look at the photo of boogerhead's office on the far right you can see the semi-completed cctv towers by koolhaas and oma.
I could be mistaken, but if you look at the context of bigends comment, it comes directly after a series of descriptions seemingly meant to convey hollis's sense of the office being in a shady area, not an architectually posh one. (100-01) My impression was that he was dismayed at the inability of the area of the Beijing office to intimidate visitors. ("unsettled is good" (101))
