

Zaha Hadid Architects has won the competition to build Phase II of the International Exhibition Center near Capital International Airport, in Beijing’s Shunyi District. Encompassing 438,500 square meters and rising 45 meters at most, the project enla
Bringing contemporary life into this traditional courtyard without diminishing memory was the objective of a project fundamentally pursuing dialogue between past and present. Located in a typical alley or hutong in old Beijing, the construction falls
A semi-transparent glass facade wraps the new volume, which contains a concert hall seating 1,600 spectators covered with a ceiling of white reflecting petals that allows lighting and visualizations be projected for musical performances...
A chromatic roof is the highlight in the conversion of a traditional siheyuan courtyard into a preschool center that is remarkable, too, in its openness to daylight and vegetation. The principal strategy of the project involved wrapping the preexisti
The Shanghai firm headed by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu were tasked to renovate an old brick building containing two levels of offices, to combine this use with a cultural center including a library, an exhibition hall, and a multipurpose space for 10
Near the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, in Beigou Village, within the boundaries of the city of Beijing, is this hotel conceived as a small village by LLLab., a firm running offices in Shanghai, Stuttgart, and Porto, headed by Hanxiao L
In Daxing District, 46 kilometers south of Tiananmen Square, is the world's largest terminal in a single building, designed by Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016. Daxing International Airport was built to decongest the Chinese capital's airport at Chaoyang
The M Woods Entrance Revitalization is an urban renewal project in the 798 Art Zone of Beijing. The site was originally an abandoned industrial warehouse and then started functioning as an art museum from 2014 onwards. The museum management decided t
Located in the core of Beijing’s old town, the building is part of an urban operation that aims to improve life quality through the renovation of several courtyard-buildings of the traditional zayuan type, formed by an irregular open space and a clus
The site in Qianmen East is located within walking distance of Beijing landmarks like Tiananmen Square and Chang’an Avenue, and it used to be a district with many classical Qing/Ming-styled courtyard-houses. However, with the explosive growth of popu
By the east gate of the Forbidden City, in the heart of Beijing, an old siheyuan-style house is renovated with four types of modular polyethylene blocks that let natural light pass through and fill the interior spaces.
The partial liberalization of the market for architectural projects in China has in past years led to a hatching of young practices bent on exploring paths other than those of official corporativism or the ‘weird architecture’ of international stardo
A currently fashionable theme – and real-estate attraction – in the world of Chinese architecture is the renovation of hutongs, those alleys of popular dwellings of yore, closely huddled around a courtyard, especially in the country’s capital. Ma Yan
The death of the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid three years ago, in 2016, did not bring an end to her thriving firm, as many said it would. On the contrary, it stayed on board a vigorous internationalization phase that has seen the construction o
In an interview at his studio, Gong Dong analyzes his architecture and explains the projects as the result of a demanding and solitary work process.
Respect for nature and critical reinterpretation of building tradition: these are two features of the generation of Chinese architects to which Gong Dong belongs.
Gong Dong studied in Tsinghua and Illinois, and set up Vector Architects just over ten years ago, a studio whose work has soon earned international recognition.
Gong Dong builds with light and with matter. The Beijing architect was dazzled by light on the other side of the Pacific, through his post-graduate training in Illinois; he built luminous and somber works on the coasts of China and deep in the countr
Since the early 1980s, China’s focus has been fundamentally shifted towards economic development. And it was not until that time that the country opened its doors to integrate with the world. Reflecting in the practice of architecture and the theoret
Zaha Hadid's Beijing Airport
The first gates of cities were the triumphal arches through which enlightened governments sought to imitate ancient Rome; later, the grand foyers of train stations, true monuments of the industrial city. Today we have the airports, symbols of global
Many predicted that the death of Zaha Hadid – quintessential example of signature architecture – would compromise the future of her studio.They were wrong: almost three years after the British-Iraqi succumbed to a heart attack, Zaha Hadid Architects