Chinese Architecture: New Hotel Designs

[kn]

Pretty amazing stuff...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/11/travel...html?hpt=hp_c3

[Travis Munroe]

Serious question, why does it seem that our engineering/architectural concepts are so far behind?

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Realtor 1

Serious question, why does it seem that our engineering/architectural concepts are so far behind?

It seems like they have a national obsession with compensation.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Realtor 1

Serious question, why does it seem that our engineering/architectural concepts are so far behind?

Money. They're willing to spend it - we're not.

[Thor]

Its not just money however, they are willing to take more risks with design, where as we are much more conservative in architecture design.

[Muta]

Calgary doesn't have the client base willing to spend the money (if you can believe that). Architecture isn't taken as seriously or as respected in Calgary as much as it is in other areas of the world. People want a building, but they don't want to pay money for high quality architectural commissions. There's not many clients in Calgary that see that as necessary.

It's a sad reality, as there are some damn talented architects in this city. It's slowly changing though, in my opinion. Very slowly.

[squiggs96]

Remember how much opposition there was to the Peace Bridge? Now scale that up for a building.

[Ozy_Flame]

People would rather spend their time yelling at City Hall than supporting interesting architecture, but I digress.

[Knut]

There is some balance to be struck though. I love the look of interesting architecture, but it needs to be cost effective and make economic sense.

China has Billions burning a hole in their pocket and can go crazy.

[Table 5]

Those buildings are way too opulent, and stink of western excess. Calgary's chinatown is way more in keeping with Chairman Mao's vision.

[Bunk]

It's also more expensive to build here. They're willing to have slave like wages for construction, whereas we are not.

That said, creative design doesn't always mean more expensive.

[FlamesAddiction]

Yeah, it basically comes down to money. It's sad though that money is limiting our creativity in this way.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Bunk

It's also more expensive to build here. They're willing to have slave like wages for construction, whereas we are not.

That said, creative design doesn't always mean more expensive.

I agree. Unfortunately, the flavour for creative design in this city isn't quite where it could be yet. Many projects are requested to have a conservative design, or are just expected to have a conservative design.

And that Elements on First project in Chinatown...



Barf.

[jeffman]

Originally Posted by Bunk

It's also more expensive to build here. They're willing to have slave like wages for construction, whereas we are not.

That said, creative design doesn't always mean more expensive.

I can't imagine it to be more expensive here. The amount they save on labour is probably way less than the cost of buying land in a densely populated East Asian city

[Tyler]

I bet they have no issues building bike lanes there either..

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Bunk

It's also more expensive to build here. They're willing to have slave like wages for construction, whereas we are not.

That said, creative design doesn't always mean more expensive.

Most of the time it does though and this is the only correct answer to silly rhetorical questions about "why does Calgary suck architecturally?". It doesn't suck, it is simply reflective of the conditions we are in.

Calgary climate is not friendly to elaborate architectural design due to frequent freeze-thaw cycles. Any kind of protrusive architectural elements (build-outs, niches, cornices etc.) necessitate very expensive building envelope protection measures to defend against moisture penetration with all of its unpleasant consequences (cracking, mold etc.). Driving rains, high winds and freezing make this task very challenging.

Add to that; Calgary labour and materials costs are among the highest in North America. Commercial buildings (office, retail, hotel etc.) are built to make returns on investment from the rents they generate. Even with office rents going through the roof in Calgary nowadays (north of $40/sq/ft/yr+operating costs), these returns are very low; in the 4% to 7% for new construction. Speculator developers don't even start these projects in Calgary. Only the investment behemoths, like REITs and pension funds have the firepower and patience to initiate these projects, as they are more suited to long-term returns. Making the architectural design even more expensive would eliminate the returns unless the rents are raised even higher than they are now, which is not an option that can be controlled by anything but the real estate market.

P.S. I notice that often those same people complaining about temporary foreign workers employed at minimum wage in Canada are complaining about lack of good architecture. The fact that those elaborate modern buildings in China, Dubai and Malaysia are built by workers earning cents/hr is conveniently ignored.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Calgary's new Telus Building is pretty nice

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Calgary's new Telus Building is pretty nice

Yes, it definitely is. TELUS did a good thing by getting one of the most popular architectural firms in the world at the moment (BIG) to grace our fine city with a project.

I imagine it will be value engineered down somewhat, but still, it will be a beauty.

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Muta

Yes, it definitely is. TELUS did a good thing by getting one of the most popular architectural firms in the world at the moment (BIG) to grace our fine city with a project.

I imagine it will be value engineered down somewhat, but still, it will be a beauty.

Well atleast they did something nice with their increased revenues.

[Hack&Lube]

China has the critical mass of population, money, foreign investment, finance, and industries.

The same reason why we can't have a nice downtown (not enough population living there) is probably one of the critical reasons why we can't have nice buildings either. It's difficult to justify the cost when there's only one or two big O&G players every decade that might want a new building. With Imperial moving to a big box in the burbs, it might even go the opposite direction.

If you've been to China, you'll just notice the incredible amount of people and density that makes it worthwhile to build nice things because there will always be people and money to make it worthwhile to have it and in that culture. Even a small little village outside Shen Zhen is bustling at night with more shops and restaurants late at night than any location in Calgary. (South African guy walking around a village explaining why there are no Laundromats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqUFkjjy-I8&t=7m35s)


Displays of opulence, wealth, and grandeur are also important in that culture.

Finally, the weather sucks here. As others have said, the necessities of dealing with the temperature fluxes makes buildings conservative and when it's cold, everybody just stays home in the suburbs so there's no critical mass to create any sort of cool-looking dense architecture.