China wearies of oddball architecture

Chinese officials are done with being the world’s Petri dish for growing avant-garde, weird-looking buildings.

Building on complaints from President Xi Jinping, the Chinese State Council is offering new design guidelines to prevent future office buildings, houses and sports stadiums that look like giant golden eggs, doll collections or bird’s nests. The double-towered headquarters of China Central Television in Beijing, designed by a cutting-edge Dutch architect, is known by the locals as the “Big Pants Building.”

“There is a phenomenon that buildings in cities are attempting to be large, Western-oriented and weird, the Council said in a report issued late last month, according to a story in the official Chinese news service Xinhua. “Bizarre architecture that is not economical, functional, aesthetically pleasing or environmentally friendly will be forbidden.”

China’s emergence as an economic superpower has brought with it an unprecedented real estate boom and a contest between developers to offer distinctive product in a crowded marketplace. Vast new cities have sprung up amid a vast relocation of Chinese from rural to urban environments.

A frustrated Mr. Xi in October 14 delivered a two-hour attack on outre architecture, calling for morally uplifting, more traditional designs that should “be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles.”