The rather short list focuses on Shanghai, with the one exception being the Beijing stadium featured above. Actually, I don’t find the buildings featured in the post to be that ugly, but the aforementioned stadium and the caption the blogger wrote to describe it were worthy of a post:
The National Stadium in Beijing – 42,000 tons of pure steel fugliness. What Batman’s nest would look like if he were really a bat, and if bats made nests.
This is via the Shanghaist, and it brought back memories of one of my posts from two years ago. Still, for sheer, unbridled ugliness, nothing can match this hotel on the outskirts of Beijing. Nothing.
1
By Imagethief
Well, there’s no accounting for taste. I had my first first-hand look at the bird’s nest a two or three weeks ago, as I was driving the fourth ring road. It looks pretty goddamn spectacular from ground level. In a town that is alost entirely bereft of architectural imagination (Twins Mall? The Capital Museum? The awful National Theater? Gimme a break.) It’s a much needed dose of far-out.
No argument on the SH buildings though. Pudong ain’t no Central. Not yet.
September 21, 2006 @ 7:26 pm | Comment
2
By Johnny K
I certainly hope the engineering and approval for this went through the same careful consideration, quality control, attention to detail, and determination to do something right rather than fast that everthing else in China goes through…
September 21, 2006 @ 9:01 pm | Comment
3
By OtherLisa
Is this the stadium they’re building out by the 4th Ring Road? When I saw it, with the girders exposed, it really did look like upsidedown crab claws…
September 21, 2006 @ 9:48 pm | Comment
4
By J. from the Granite Studio
I can’t wait for ’08: Welcome to 燕窩体育场ï¼?
September 22, 2006 @ 11:52 pm | Comment