Buildings from 2000

2 min read

In the early 21st century，with China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, Beijing’s successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, Shanghai’s successful bid for the 2010 World Expo, the staging of the 2012 Guangzhou Asian Games and China’s rapid economic growth, China became the focus of the world and world architects’ stage and arena. Many transnationalcompanies brought about an upsurge of investment in China, and many overseas architectural designers began to participate in various design projects in China and frequently won bids for major landmark buildings. According to incomplete statistics in The Global Impact: Overseas Architectural Design in China, from 2000 to 2007, nearly 200 works were created by architects from Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and other countries, including the CCTV headquarters, Terminal 3 of the Capital Airport, the main venue of the2008 Beijing Olympic Games Bird’s Nest, the National Aquatics Center Water Cube, the Shanghai Grand Theater, etc, greatly impacting China’s architectural circles.

In this period,a lot of foreign architectural works entered China, showing that decision-makers were open-minded. Such competition and cooperation made Chinese architects mature faster. This series of works marked the formation of “the internationalist trend”in China, and many overseas architects’ works also triggered a new round of dispute over China’s architectural development among Chinese architects.

Also in this period,”avant-garde architecture”officially ascended the historical stage of China’s modern architectural art development under young architects’ efforts. Between June 22 and 27,1999, at the 2oth congress of World Architects, Chinese young artists’ experience of exhibiting experimental architectural works full of twists and turns received much attention from foreign colleagues. These young architects tried to stay in sync with world architectural thoughts, showing their confrontation with the mainstream culture. Between September 21 and October 28,2001, at the “Chinese New Architecture”exhibition themed “construction”held during the “Asia-Pacific Weeks Berlin,”the hosts Stadtkultur International e.V. and Berlin’s Architecture Forum Aedes invited German architects to select works. Works by Zhang Yonghe, Liu Jiakun, Ma Qingyun, the School of Architecture, Nanjing University and artists Ai Weiwei were selected.

A lot of excellent Chinese architects began to play a leading role in the arena of modern architecture. In 2006, Ma Yansong’s design of the streamline high-rise apartment building”Absolute World Towers”won the bid in Canada.

This was the first time that a Chinese architect had won design right through open international competition. On February 27,2012, Chinese architects Wang Shu won the Pritzker Architecture Prize-the Nobel Prize of architecture.

He was the first Chinese citizen to win this honor and the fourth youngest winner.

All these show that Chinese architects have begun to make an international impact and reveal their characteristics in the global layout of architectural culture.