Skyscrapers top out nearly every day in cities across China, making it increasingly difficult for architects to distinguish themselves on the skyline. Some aspiring types believe the antidote is in ever more bizarre designs. The contours of Beijing's new HQ for the People's Daily newspaper, for instance, are alarmingly priapic; officials in Fushun commissioned a giant steel ring that appears to have no interior square footage at all.
See China's latest wave of development
Still, the past several months have brought their share of sensible, groundbreaking designs - from skilled practices both domestic and international. Not that they're less ambitious; some of these projects are astonishing to imagine and would likely be unfeasible anywhere else on earth but in China's vast and rapidly developing territory. And yet here they are as completed or near-completed works.
Seen together, they capture an image of a China on the move, not just economically, but culturally. Theatres, art museums and tourist hubs beckon for a population that, only a decade ago, had barely travelled for leisure. They're also putting regional China on the map for the rest of the world. That can only lead to a better understanding of this enigmatic country, its people and the forces behind its speedy transformation.
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Santa Monica hotspot The Georgian Room is a rare, well-done steakhouse speakeasyHidden inside The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, a restored speakeasy that lovingly nods to its storied past
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In St Barths, Cheval Blanc is an oceanside oasis soaking in turquoise viewsFollowing its 10th anniversary, Cheval Blanc St-Barth continues to shine as a pearl of the Caribbean
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We celebrate the emerging London architects to be excited aboutThese emerging London architects are some of the capital's finest ground-breakers, movers and shakers; heralding a new generation of architecture
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The World Monuments Fund has announced its 2025 Watch – here are some of the endangered sites on the listEvery two years, the World Monuments Fund creates a list of 25 monuments of global significance deemed most in need of restoration. From a modernist icon in Angola to the cultural wreckage of Gaza, these are the heritage sites highlighted
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Tour Xi'an's remarkable new 'human-centred' shopping district with designer Thomas HeatherwickXi'an district by Heatherwick Studio, a 115,000 sq m retail development in the Chinese city, opens this winter. Thomas Heatherwick talks us through its making and ambition
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Raw, refined and dynamic: A-Cold-Wall*’s new Shanghai store is a fresh take on the industrial lookA-Cold-Wall* has a new flagship store in Shanghai, designed by architecture practice Hesselbrand to highlight positive spatial and material tensions
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Sun Tower is a new Chinese cultural attraction that draws on the celestial cycleSun Tower, an imaginative cultural attraction by Open Architecture, draws on the natural cycle and has just opened in China's seaside town of Yantai
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The Suzhou visitor centre in China is a perfect balance of contemporary innovation and cultural identityThe Suzhou visitor centre in China is designed by Tsing-Tien Making, a studio that designs to preserve cultural identity
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Architectural Association's newest show uncovers the architectural legacies of rural China's lost generationThe Architectural Association’s ‘Ripple Ripple Rippling’ is not your typical architecture show, taking an anthropological look at the flux between rural and urban, and bringing a part of China to Bedford Square in London
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Private museum Simple Design Archive is a ‘poetic sound sanctuary’ in ChinaSimple Design Archive, located in China’s Anhui province, is a private museum by HAS Design and Research, fostering a contemplative environment
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Neri & Hu’s dynamic New Bund theatre takes centre stage in Shanghai’s cityscapeIn Shanghai, Neri & Hu’s New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center is a theatre offering a contemporary take on a classical archetype
