China’s leader calls for end to ‘weird architecture’BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese Internet users were divided Thursday after leader Xi Jinping reportedly called for an end to “weird architecture” in a country that has seen a huge construction boom. Much of China’s older building stock is made up of Soviet-style concrete blocks, but in recent years property development has played a huge economic […]
Preservationists campaign to save Moscow’s ‘Eiffel Tower’MOSCOW (AFP) – Thousands of Muscovites and several top international architects have launched an unprecedented campaign to save an elegant steel tower that has loomed over Moscow’s skyline since 1922. The Russian communications ministry says it will dismantle and relocate the Shukhov tower, a masterpiece of design often compared to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. […]
Venice Biennale to promote architecture for crisis timesVENICE, Italy, (AFP) – Global architects like Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster are flying in to Venice for the Biennale show starting on Wednesday where new designs are in tune with the mood of economic crisis. The theme of the world’s largest architecture festival is “Common Ground” and director David Chipperfield from Britain […]