“The bigger a building is, the harder it is to make wonderful”
In addition to a bubble-gum story about hot new twenty-somethings and an almost-too-thorough play-by-play of the fall
Accompanied by some really breathtaking shots by Stephen Wilkes and Todd Eberle, the article fawns over Beijing’s “daring commissions” and “creatively humanistic design.”
An interesting point made by Kurt Andersen in the piece: The Olympics often bring a flood of outstanding architecture to its host city, but in the case of Beijing, that effort has bled into buildings that could otherwise be mundane.
Like Foster + Partners’ new $3.8 billion terminal at the Beijing airport and Rem Koolhaas’ China Central Television office building (shown at left), building types that Andersen says “very seldom turn out better than mediocre.”
Andersen embarks on an exploration of the architecture and the phenomenon, complete with comparisons to turn-of-the century New York, Koolhaas “snarling” and the author finding himself an “apologist” for the authoritarian regime and its role in the transformation. A fun read.
Tags: Architecture, Beijiing Olympics, Koolhaas
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