This is massive--supposed to be the largest airport in the world.  Oddly, however, it is not monumental, just big.  It is relatively easy to navigate given its size, but architecturally it is disappointing.  There is not the variation in spaces that is so memorable at Kansai Airport in a facility of similarly program.  This is just one big statement that keeps going on and on and on.  The…

This is a whole chunk of the city housing 2500 people in over 700 apartments.  It is incredibly ambitious in its notions about public space in residential environments.  The complex is essentially a gated community with its back to the surrounding city and its focus on a central garden.  Though there are "public" venues in the central space, they are oriented to the same exclusive crowd as the…

A stone's throw from Tiananmen Square, this huge abstract intervention seems to have landed awkwardly in the middle of a bustling city. It defies interaction either with neighboring buildings or pedestrians passing by.  The building sets the arts housed inside clearly apart from the life of the city.  Though bold and striking in form from the exterior, it is cold and vacuous in much of the…

The bright green exterior of Opposite House actually seems right at home in the tree-lined Beijing neighborhood where it is located.  The jaw-dropping part of the building is the interior which has dramatic spaces, dazzling light and rich, tactile materials

CCTV's daring shape definitely grabs attention from anywhere nearby.  But the best quality of its shape is the way it morphs and changes as you move around it in the city.  In that regard, it reminds me of the Pennzoil Building in Houston by Philip Johnson when it was first completed in the mid-1970s.  It, too, was minimalist urban sculpture that employed simple geometries to create dynamic…

Nestled in the valleys of a beautiful site on the outskirts of Beijing is a group of contemporary houses and a clubhouse designed by 12 outstanding Asian architects.  Each house is an individualistic object and they bear little relationship to each other.  Although there are some nice moments in many of the houses, this project seems to be symptomatic of something wrong with architecture today.…

One of the best parts of the trip to China was the opportunity to see these things with my son, Sloan and his girlfriend, Kate.  Sloan's background in history and law and Kate's background in anthropology complemented my own background in architecture.  They are really smart, perceptive people who could absorb the places we visited with great depth.  They are also full of positive energy and lots…

We visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall which is more remote and less visited than the Badaling section near Beijing.  It was renovated in the 1950s and 1960s and is in an area of magnificent natural beauty.

Although Datong is a very old city and was a dynastic capital of China two different times, it is now dominated by coal mining and power production.  It is not a charming city as a whole, but it is interesting as an example of an "ordinary" Chinese city.  There is a transformation happening that is common across the country where cities are tearing out their old city fabric and replacing it with…

This 1400-year-old temple contains statues of Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist gods in stone, iron and bronze.  Many temples in China are similarly ecumenical, bringing together the 3 major religions of the country.  The temple was located at a critical pass on a trade route.  It is beside a river that is now dammed, but was once prone to flooding.  Hanging the temple from the side of the cliff…

I have long been fascinated by buildings created by carving out a void rather than by building a solid form.  I love the rock cut temple at Carli in India and the whole cities carved in the sides of the hills in Cappadocia in central Turkey.  But the very best version of this architecture  by subtraction may be the elaborate series of spaces created to house Buddhist figures near the border of…

In the Muslim Quarter in Xian there is an amazing night market that is bustling with people, food and activity.  It is clearly the social heart of an ancient and cohesive neighborhood.  The street market weaves into a narrow bazaar that could be in Istanbul and finally up to the gates of the mosque.  What a visual feast!  And the people are a gas to watch.

Once the largest city in the world, Xian has been the capital of China for over 4000 years of its history.  There are artifacts from many periods of Chinese development.  In the central city, however, there are beautifully preserved relics that date back to the 14th and 15th century, the height of the Ming Dynasty.  The 9-mile long city walls are still intact and well preserved as are the Bell…

Images of the Terra Cotta Warriors makes almost anyone want to travel to China.  Created over 2200 years ago and buried until a farmer discovered them in 1974, these vast excavations definitely live up to expectations.  The objects are beautiful.  The story of  a great leader preparing for protection in the afterlife for decades is mysterious and compelling.  The archeological feat underway is…

Although 92% of China's population is the majority Han ethnicity there are a number of minority cultures that are often located in remote areas.  Some of these minority people live in beautiful Zhuang, Yao and Dong villages in the mountains of southern China where time seems to have stood still.  There are often no roads to these villages, and you must hike in an hour or more to get there.  The…