
CCTV, Beijing, China, 20024-2010. By Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren (OMA).
If there’s anything that characterizes that new architecture it’s the immense ambition and scale. Some of the structures highlighted in the exhibit, like a steel and glass office complex in Beijing and a cylindrical housing project in Guangzhou, seem too large to have been designed and built all at once. And many seem terribly impersonal in their monotonous, repetitive forms. People might be impressed with these mega-structures today, but will they want to stay and build their lives here? It’s hard to know what the new landscape will be. China is still in the middle of an extraordinary growth spurt; we’ll have to wait and see.