Monday, May 1, 2023

China's ugliest buildings

Also today: Young, broke Chinese turn a factory town into a tourist spot, and Germany sets new standard for cheap mass transit.

China's economic rise has led to a proliferation of buildings that prioritized magnitude, imitated foreign design and pursued oddity for the sake of novelty, according to architecture critics. Over-the-top buildings resembling a liquor bottle, folk deity statues, a babushka doll, a gold ingot and even a crab have topped the annual Ugliest Buildings Survey. The trend has shown no sign of stopping, despite China's efforts to ban "oversized, xenocentric, odd" architecture.

The pandemic, however, could finally usher in a new chapter, as local governments ridden with debt move cautiously, and as housing regulators push for low-carbon cities, reports Selina Xu. Today on CityLab: China's Now Spurning 'Ugliest Buildings' That Symbolized Its Meteoric Rise

— Immanual John Milton

More on CityLab

Broke Chinese Gen Zs Turn Factory Town into Top Tourist Spot
Young Chinese are flocking to Zibo in Shandong for cheap barbecue, as consumers are still taking an economic hit from years of isolation.

Germany Sets the New Standard for Cheap, National Mass Transit
A new plan will give riders unlimited travel on all urban buses, trams and trains for €49 a month. It also puts pressure on the government to upgrade its patchy network.

What Happens When Dave Chappelle Buys Up Your Town
As Chappelle's comedy made him a controversial figure nationally, some of his Ohio neighbors have been getting mad, too.

A master in cycling infrastructure

400,000
The number of people in the Netherlands who bike to a train station every weekday, thanks in part to the Dutch's massive investment in bike parking.

What we're reading

  • Why are Americans shooting strangers and neighbors? 'It all goes back to fear.' (The Washington Post)
  • Homeless in the city where he was once mayor (New York Times)
  • World's cities go head to head in race to spot most urban wildlife (The Guardian)
  • Tornado flips cars, damages homes in coastal Florida city (ABC News)
  • The messy reality of Elon Musk's space city (The Atlantic)

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