China Launches New Rules to Harmonize Architecture

Since coming to power two years ago, Xi Jinping has tightened his grip on everything from Internet gossip to official corruption, now it appears that China’s new leadership is asserting authority over the aesthetics of new buildings.

And according to one of the bureaucrats who will be enforcing the government’s oversight over architecture, that means no more “bizarre buildings” such as Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium or the iconic, Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV tower.

Building Designs Called Upon to Inspire Minds and Warm Hearts

In the eyes of Yang Shichao, a senior official from Guangdong, architects in China need to design buildings that “give more thought to the needs of the people and to protecting the environment, rather than just seeking to be eye-catching.”

And Yang, whose remarks, were picked up in the Daily Telegraph, is well aligned with some people who can make those words stick. Just more than a month ago, Xi Jinping told a group of artists in Beijing that architecture in China, like other arts, needs to “be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles.”

In his October call for more patriotic building design, Xi singled out Beijing’s CCTV tower as an example of a design that strayed from serving the people, and the comments by Yang repeated this charge.

Yang, who serves as the deputy head of Guangdong’s Academy of Building Research said of the CCTV tower that, “[The] new CCTV building is incompatible with Beijing’s culture, which stresses uprightness and rules.”

Going one better on China’s senior leadership, Yang went on to criticise the Bird’s Nest, which has previously been singled out as one of China’s architectural highlights, as an “unreasonable structure because it used too much steel.

New Rules to Allow Bureaucrats to Veto Architect’s Plans

According to Yang, in the future, architects and designers will be kept on the path towards righteous building design through some new rules on the way from China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

The predominance of rules in Beijing may not be as apparent to those attempting to navigate the roads of China’s capital as it is to officials in Guangdong.

Under the new restrictions, however, buildings which have “abnormal structures” or have “shocking features” will not be allowed in China. And the supervision of architectural taste by bureaucrats will apparently ensure that new designs will keep the people’s minds inspired and hearts warmed.