2020 China’s ten most ugliest buildings are released, who is ruining the beauty of the city?

Judging the ugly, I don’t know when it will become a new trend culture.

From the local luxury goods of Balenciaga to the "2020 Ugly Selection" contest held by Taobao, they all show that compared to the same beauty, unique ugliness are more likely to be popular in this era.

Recently, the results of the " Top Ten Ugly Buildings in China ", known as the "Golden Sour Plum Award" in the architectural industry, have been announced. The organizers hope to use "architectural appraisal" to make more people aware of the public hazards of those exotic buildings.

Architect Zhang Qinnan once said that the city is the most beautiful, most advanced, most complex and most profound product created by mankind. The ugly architecture is destroying the beauty of the city with a distorted aesthetic.

2020 China's ten ugliest buildings, ugly to a new height

1. Guangzhou Sunac Grand Theater

Reasons for the list: far-fetched creativity, random collage of Chinese elements, grotesque shapes, harming the image of the city.

The top ten most ugly buildings in China this year is the Guangzhou Sunac Grand Theatre. The British architecture firm Steven Chilton Architects (SCA), which is responsible for the design, uses silk, phoenix, red and other Chinese elements, but it is jokingly called "Chinese New Year Go back to the big flower quilt that my mother prepared for you."

According to SCA founder Steven Chilton , Guangzhou Sunac Grand Theater is inspired by the Maritime Silk Road, hoping to resonate with the history and culture of Guangzhou.

However, Gu Mengchao , a professor-level senior architect and one of the judges of the Architectural Society of China, believes that the Chinese elements adopted by Sunac Grand Theater are a kind of "non-architectural cultural guidance", which is completely incompatible with Guangzhou, a famous historical and cultural city.

SCA is known for being good at "Chinese elements" and has contracted the design of many theaters in China, such as the Wuxi Taihu Theater and Guangzhou Wanda Huadu Theater, which combine elements such as bamboo forests and dental sculptures. They are all amazing works.

But why Sunac Grand Theater is hard to say. "Collage of Chinese elements indiscriminately" is an important reason. Just like Disney's live-action version of "Mulan", although it is mixed with many Chinese cultural symbols, it does not capture the charm of it. , Reflects the stereotype of the Western perspective.

Having said that, the original renderings released by SCA are quite beautiful. As for why it became what it is now, it may be another story.

2. Changbai Mountain Changbaidi Resort Hotel, Yanbian, Jilin

Reasons for being on the list: The form is made mechanically, exaggerated and rude, the scale is out of balance, and the waste is huge.

The second Changbai Mountain Changbaidi Resort Hotel is a typical "cottage building". The roof design almost copied the famous Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore, but the effect is just as good as it is.

It is worth mentioning that the ugliest architectural champion of 2019, Chongqing Raffles City, is also a replica of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, but it is more vivid, because it was designed by the designer of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel Moshe Safdie.

The reason why Raffles City is on the list is not copycat plagiarism, but "brutally trampling on the historical context of Chongqing and rudely destroying the environmental scale of the mountain city."

3. Chongqing Wulong Flying Kiss

Reasons for the list: grandstanding, vulgar intentions, clumsy modeling, destroying natural landscapes.

The uniquely shaped "Kiss of Flying Heaven" in Wulong, Chongqing, has become a local internet celebrity attraction because of the complaints made by netizens, attracting many people to check in.

According to the person in charge of the attraction, "Flying Kiss" was built at a cost of 100 million yuan. It is the only twin interactive flying island in the world. The prototype is the white horse fairy and the tea fairy in local folklore. As a result, the earthy shape was complained about "The Giant Serves."

After the controversy was triggered, Yang Kai, the head of the design team of "Flying Kiss", expressed his grievance because the landing effect was very different from the design draft. "We did not foresee the temporary changes and adjustments in the construction process. of."

But if it weren't for such a strange look, "Flying Kiss" might not have become popular either. There are still many buildings like this that use "ugliness" to gain attention, but after a while, there is often only a piece of chicken feathers left.

4. Nanjing Beehive Hotel, Jiangsu

Reasons for the list: weird form, pretentious, extravagant worship, and vulgar taste.

As the name suggests, the Hive Hotel is a hive-shaped building located in the Dragon Valley of Nanjing. It combines the two main bodies of the "Hive" with the cliff and mountain in a mosaic way.

The design theme of the Hive Hotel is "gorgeous without losing the sense of technology", and it seems that it is not ugly, but the judges believe that its luxurious shape promotes money worship.

However, one of the masterpieces of "luxury worship of money" is the Shenyang Fangyuan Building. This ancient copper coin-shaped building was selected as one of the "Top Ten Ugliest Buildings in the World" by Time Magazine and CNN.

5. Guizhou Xingyi Wanfeng Lake Jilongbao Hotel

Reasons for being on the list: Blindly worshipping foreign countries, distorted cultural values, and seriously conflicting with the original ecological landscape of the region.

I first saw Guizhou’s Xingyi Wanfeng Lake Gironde Hotel, and thought that Harry Potter’s alma mater Hogwarts opened a branch in China. European-style architecture is not uncommon in China, and the Gironde Hotel’s imitated object is Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.

Similar to Raffles City, the judges believe that this castle is in conflict with the environment of Wanfeng Lake, causing irreversible damage to the original ecological landscape.

6. Wuqiao International Acrobatics Theater, Cangzhou, Hebei

Reasons for being on the list: poorly imitating Chinese traditional architectural classics, chaotic forms and out of proportion.

Another botched imitator, the Wuqiao International Acrobatics Theater in Cangzhou, Hebei, imitated the classic building of the Temple of Heaven and Prayer Hall, which was built in the Ming Dynasty. It is a good interpretation of what is meant by "wearing a dragon robe is not like a prince."

7. Guangxi Hechi Danquan Wine Industry Cultural Center

Reasons for the list: simplistic image comparison, vulgar conception, and crude style.

The last time I saw a similar building was the geography garden and science and education base in the school. If you didn't tell you, would you think that this is a cultural center that displays various famous wines?

8. New Building of Jiangxi Provincial Library

Reasons for the list: The design concept is far-fetched and the formal language is chaotic.

This may be the most controversial building this year, and many netizens complained about it.

According to the introduction of the new building of the Jiangxi Provincial Library, the exterior of the building adopts the theme of the image of the Tengwang Pavilion gable and the form of an arch bridge, such as an erected book, turning the pages of the book facing the surging Gan River.

9. Guangdong Maoming Youth Activity Center

Reasons for being on the list: The design is patchy and the organization is out of order.

This is a youth activity center, not a kindergarten.

10. Shaanxi Baoji Union Bridge

Reasons for the list: The use of imported forms is detrimental to cultural identity.

Needless to say, Tower Bridge will cry.

Although the Baoji Union Bridge cost a huge amount of 359 million yuan to build, it is far less similar than the Taying Bridge in Xiangcheng District, Suzhou, which cost only 14.35 million yuan.

Tadao Ando's works have also been on the list, the "Golden Plum Award" in the architecture industry

Whether it is beauty pageant or ugly selection, it is always inevitable to cause controversy, because aesthetics are often subjective, standards are difficult to unify, and they will continue to change with the times and social environment.

Women in the Tang Dynasty regarded fullness as their beauty. Later, thin waists and long legs became the mainstream of aesthetics. In recent years, the "perfect body" has gradually been abandoned. Victoria's Secret Show can no longer be run. More and more brands are beginning to invite large-size models to contemporary speakers. .

The selection of "Ugliest Buildings" is not the case. For example, the Fangyuan Building mentioned above. On the one hand, it has been rated as the "Top Ten Ugliest Buildings in the World" many times. At the same time, it was also selected in the 2000 Venice World Architecture Design Exhibition. At the meeting, it became the only award-winning work in Asia and won the reputation of "the most creative and revolutionary perfect building in the world".

The selection of "China's Top Ten Ugliest Buildings" organized by Architects.com.cn is already the eleventh year. It has attracted more and more attention. It is called the "Golden Plum Award" in the construction industry. Standards to judge buildings?

At present, the selection of "China's Top Ten Ugliest Buildings" adopts the mode of nomination by netizens and a final review by a number of professional judges. There are 9 main selection criteria for "Ugly Buildings":

1. The function of the building is extremely unreasonable

2. Extremely inharmonious with the surrounding environment and natural conditions

3. Plagiarism, copycat

4. Blindly worship foreign and antique

5. Eclectic, patchwork

6. Blind Bionics

7. Deliberate symbolism and metaphor

8. Weird and vulgar body

9. Do it deliberately knowingly

Although there are very clear standards, there are often buildings that do not seem so ugly on the list.

For example, the Shanghai International Design Center, which was ranked first in the “Top Ten Ugly Buildings in China” in 2018, was created by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando. The reason given by the judges was that "under the prestige, it is hard to be true."

It is precisely because of Tadao Ando's pivotal position in the history of architecture that even mediocre works can cause a huge psychological gap. Zhou Rong , an associate professor at the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University, one of the judges, also explained this issue .

Strictly speaking, the top ten ugly buildings cannot be called the ugliest, but ugly features and influences. The public hazards of ugly buildings that are finally evaluated are the destruction of the natural environment and urban culture, and the values ​​embodied in the buildings.

This is also the most fundamental purpose of the "Ugliest Building" selection, to make more people realize the significance of the beauty and ugliness of architecture to a city.

Who is making a "low aesthetic city"?

A city is an important symbol of human civilization, and architecture, like a cell, can determine the character of a city. As the famous architect Eero Saarinen said:

Let me look at your city, and you can tell what the residents of this city are after culturally.

In the architecture of Florence, we can see the memory of the Renaissance. The neon signs have witnessed the prosperity and changes of Hong Kong. The Canton Tower, the Oriental Pearl Tower, Tiananmen Square… landmark buildings are often people's first impressions of this city.

Architecture reflects the value orientation and cultural pursuit of a city. However, when urban architecture is dominated by some distorted aesthetics, it may bring more than visual pollution.

"New Weekly" once put forward the concept of a "low aesthetic society", pointing out that many Chinese people suffer from aesthetic deprivation, among which strange architecture is one of the top ten symptoms.

In the previous two years, the signboards of street shops on a certain street in Shanghai were all replaced with white letters on a black background, with white flowers on the street, forming a weird atmosphere, which is one example.

So what is beautiful architecture? I am afraid that there is no standard answer. Academician and architect Zheng Shiling of the Chinese Academy of Sciences believes that beautiful buildings "grow" from the ground, not "from outsiders . "

The "Tokyo Toilet" and "The Tokyo Toilet" project we introduced before, the "beauty" of these toilets is not only reflected in the appearance, but more importantly, the design and functionality are well combined, such as the red public toilet designed by Naho Tamura. It makes full use of the long and narrow triangle area next to Ebisu Station.

In a program discussing Bauhaus design, Liang Wendao and Chen Danqing mentioned that in the past we thought that practical things and aesthetically valuable things were contradictory, while Bauhaus thought that the more useful an object, the more beautiful it should be .

This concept coincides with the Danish architecture firm BIG , which is committed to creating a "utility utopia." From floating cities, twisted museums, garbage power plants and other buildings that have attracted attention, they are all how BIG is in reality and A clever balance between ideals.

Looking at the beauty and ugliness of architecture from this perspective, whether it is the flashy appearance or the sacrifice of beauty for practicality, it can be summarized as "ugliness" to some extent.

Some people say that aesthetics has become the biggest challenge facing Chinese companies in the future , because consumers are paying more and more attention to design. In fact, it is not just enterprises, it is a problem that every city cannot ignore.

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