China's top economic planner announced it would restrict the construction of skyscrapers over 500 meters and prohibit the construction of "ugly buildings" in a document aiming to improve urbanization management that was released on Tuesday.
Among the world’s 10 highest buildings, six that are more than 500 meters are in China.
The construction of buildings over 500 meters has to go through a systematic evaluation of cost and safety due to the engineering complexity and technical difficulty.
The NDRC’s prohibition on the construction of ugly buildings also won support from many netizens who are fed up with such buildings. The regulation even prompted an online trend of people posting pictures of unattractive buildings.
One typical example is located at an unfinished theme park in Hebei, which is half-China’s Temple of Heaven and half-US Capitol. Another is the well-known “Flying Kiss” in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, which features two huge statues leaning toward each other. The “Kiss” has also drawn attention from abroad.
A Beijing-based architecture-related website, Archcy.com, has been selecting China’s top 10 ugliest structures annually for the last 11 years, attracting attention from both Chinese architects and the public.
The most common features of the selected buildings on the list include a weird and vulgar style that seeks to replicate certain creatures or artifacts. There is also a disharmony with the surrounding environment and elements that don’t match up, according to the evaluation criteria of Archcy.com.
