And finally… China outlaws plagiaristic architecture
The once-prevalent practice of constructing copycat architectural clones like Thames Town on the outskirts of Shanghai has been banned by the Chinese government.
Having taken off in the early 1990s, the knockoff architecture trend, which also mimicked the likeliness of Parisian landmarks and Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel, gave Chinese residents the chance to tour the world, architecturally speaking, without stepping foot outside of the country.
Copycats of Chinese landmarks including an abbreviated Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, both in the wealthy Huaxi Village in the Jiangsu province, are also fairly common.
Now the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is moving to champion local design and crack down on the cloning of architectural styles and landmark structures belonging to other countries.
As the BBC reported, the ministry specifies that “plagiarizing, imitating, and copycatting” is now verboten in the construction of new buildings, while “large, foreign, and weird” designs will be limited. Avoiding copycat architecture will be particularly important in the construction of sports stadiums, exhibition centres, museums, and other large, culturally significant buildings per the government statement.
Moving forward, the Chinese government also aims to “strengthen cultural confidence, show a city’s features, exhibit the contemporary spirit, and display the Chinese characteristics” in new building projects.