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 Oscar Holland

 

 

China wants beautiful architecture. Its 'ugliest building' contest suggests there's a long way to go

A violin-shaped church, an "upside down" house and a hotel modeled on a Russian doll are among the entries in a poll to name this year's "ugliest" Chinese buildings.

Half a decade after President Xi Jinping's government issued a directive calling for an end to "oversized, xenocentric, weird" structures, Chinese architecture website Archcy.com has identified almost 90 contenders for the 12th edition of its annual Ugliest Building Survey.

The shortlist spans skyscrapers, museums, hotels and sports facilities, bringing together some of the unusual shapes and tactless ornamentation that have contributed to the country's reputation for bizarre architecture.

The public poll, which at the time of writing had attracted more than 30,000 votes, is currently led by a five-arched gate at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. It is closely trailed by a glass bridge in Sichuan province that is suspended between statues of giant men and women in traditional costume.

Other nominees include a museum that has been compared to pots of instant noodles, and a 1.5-kilometer (0.9-mile) stretch of Shanghai towers connected by a single undulating roof.

Voting remains open until December, at which point a judging panel comprised of architects, critics and academics will weigh in. Entries will be evaluated based on nine criteria, including whether the building is deemed "inharmonious" with the surroundings, or if its design is thought to have been plagiarized. A final selection of 2021's 10 "ugliest" buildings will be announced at the end of the year, with public polling accounting for 40% of the final decision, according to organizers.

 

Poll "winners" in recent years have included a cultural center shaped like a crab and a pedestrian bridge embellished with a series of six oversized "diamonds."

There is clearly no shortage of questionable designs in a country that has rapidly urbanized and now builds more skyscrapers per year than the rest of the world combined. But while there are still plenty of candidates for the tongue-in-cheek competition, the country's architects and developers now face tighter building codes and urban planning regulations.

President Xi has long voiced his concern about China's reputation for odd architecture. In 2014, he openly criticized the construction of unusual buildings at a Beijing literary symposium, according to state media reports, and his government has since sought to regulate the country's skylines.

In June 2020, China's housing ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a powerful economic planning body, issued a circular calling for an end to "copycat" buildings and skyscrapers taller than 500 meters (1,640 feet). The NDRC reiterated the height restriction earlier this year, with a policy document that also "strictly prohibits" the construction of "ugly" buildings, in favor of those that are "suitable, economical, green and beautiful."

 

The ban on 500-meter-plus buildings will, in practice, affect very few of the country's architects: there are only five skyscrapers of that height in the country, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats. But the new government communiqués have included a slew of less eye-catching — but potentially far-reaching — proposals.

Suggestions have included appointing a chief architect for each city, as seen in many Western countries, as well as a credit system that could blacklist designers who do not comply with planning regulations. The government has also warned against demolishing historical buildings, while encouraging designs that "highlight Chinese characteristics." For example, the American architects behind Beijing's tallest skyscraper, China Zun, told CNN in 2019 they had been forced to modify their design mid-construction after the vice mayor's office suggested it "wasn't Chinese enough."

Of course, China's bureaucratic governance means new regulations can be slow to take effect. According to Fei Chen, a senior architecture professor specializing in urban policy at the UK's Liverpool University, new guidelines provide a broad framework for cities, but finer details must be resolved at a local level.

"Architects and urban designers may benefit from quite specific guidance on what good design is," she said at the time of the housing ministry circular. "But this needs to be related to the local context, so I wouldn't expect the national government to produce guidance like this. What works in one context may not work in another."

There is also, she added, huge variation in architectural standards around the country.

"In east-coast cities, or more developed areas, architects have better design skills, so they produce better buildings. But in inland cities you still see buildings that copy others' styles or architectural languages, and that doesn't result in very good design," she said.

Lunar celebration

A bright moon lights up the night sky in the southern Chinese city of Haikou. In celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional day for family reunion in China, millions of families gathered on Tuesday to enjoy mooncakes and admire what's believed to be the fullest moon of the year.

 

China's new promise on coal

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a rare address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, making a major new climate pledge not to build any new coal-fired power projects abroad.

It's a striking shift in policy for the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, which has previously invested heavily in new coal projects abroad. China announced or planned $160 billion worth of coal-fired plants globally between 2014 and 2020, according to the Green Belt and Road Initiative Center.

Chinese leaders have repeatedly spoken on the need for greater climate action in recent years, as pressure has built among the international community. The sprawling Belt and Road project, Xi's signature global infrastructure initiative which aims at creating trade corridors across Asia, Africa and Europe, has already begun to draw down its coal initiatives.

However, even as China promised to cut down on emissions, with the goal to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, new coal plants are still reportedly being built in parts of the country. Coal remains the country's biggest source of energy by a long shot — China consumed more coal than all other countries in the world put together in 2020, a study by the research group Ember showed.

The US has urged China to take stronger measures — but the two countries' deteriorating relationship has complicated climate negotiations. US Climate Envoy John Kerry's visit to China earlier this month ended with no joint agreement or new pledges by China, to the disappointment of climate experts.

China's pledge on Tuesday and the more conciliatory tone in Xi's address were welcomed as a step forward — and perhaps a sign of the increasing pressure to act on climate, as world leaders prepare for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November.

Evergrande's chairman is promising his employees that they will "walk out of the darkness" caused by the embattled Chinese conglomerate's historic debt crisis. 

 

But what happens next for the company is still anyone's guess, and the lack of guidance from the company and authorities in Beijing about how the crisis will be resolved is creating uncertainty for investors worldwide amid fears that a collapse could slam China's vast property sector and the global economy. 

 

Xu Jiayin, the chairman of Evergrande Group, acknowledged in a letter to employees Tuesday that the cash-strapped real estate developer "has encountered unprecedented difficulties." The letter was published in the Paper, a state-owned Chinese media outlet, and confirmed to be genuine by an Evergrande representative.

 

"I am convinced that through the joint efforts and hard work of leaders and employees at all levels, Evergrande will surely walk out of the darkness as soon as possible," he wrote. Xu added that he thinks the company will "surely be able to speed up the full resumption of work and production."

 

Xu's letter made no mention of debt repayments due this week, but the company said in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday that it had negotiated with its bondholders to repay the interest due Thursday on one of its bonds. 

 

The company did not elaborate on the terms of the payment, but the amount to be paid in interest totals about 232 million yuan ($36 million), according to data from Refinitiv.

 

Interest worth $83.5 million on another bond is also due Thursday, though the company has not said anything publicly about what will happen to that payment. The group is China's most indebted developer, with more than $300 billion worth of liabilities. Over the last few weeks, it warned investors twice that it could default if it's unable to raise money quickly.

 

The lack of official comment from Beijing over how the Evergrande crisis may be resolved appears to be a major source of uncertainty. Economists at Macquarie Group said Tuesday that they expect Chinese policymakers to be "patient."

 

The government still wants to deter "excessive risk-taking" from property developers like Evergrande, wrote Macquarie's Larry Hu and Xinyu Ji, in a research note. But Beijing will also want to "maintain stability" in the property sector, they added. Evergrande alone holds about 6.5% of the total debt held by the country's property sector, according to an estimate by UBS.

 

"As such, policymakers would choose to wait first, then step in later to ensure an orderly debt restructuring," Hu and Ji wrote.

 

Tommy Wu, lead economist for Oxford Economics, said he expects Beijing to intervene in some capacity.

 

"At least they will engineer some sort of restructuring so that it will look like more like a soft landing for the Evergrande saga," Wu said.

Around Asia

• After months of lockdown, parts of Southeast Asia are leaving behind their "zero-Covid" policy and charting a path toward living with the virus — despite experts' warnings that it may be too early to do so.
• An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 struck near Melbourne in southern Australia on Wednesday, according to Geoscience Australia.

• Two Japanese sisters have been confirmed as the world's oldest living identical twins and the oldest ever identical twins at the age of 107.