Chinese president Xi Jinping a few years ago lambasted the ‘weird architecture’ that international stars were building in his country (see Arquitectura Viva 169), but his denouncement does not seem to have been much heeded. Otherwise there would be no place for the Shimao ShenKong International Center, a topographic, contorted, iconic, multi-level “urban living room” that the Dutch firm MVRDV has raised in the city of Shenzhen to house a conference center, a bus terminal, and a theater.