New People’s Daily Building Copy Of Dubai Burj Al Arab?

Looks like the People Daily took a page from CCTV in coming up with tacky building designs. The recently approved design located within the vicinity of the CCTV building curiously resembled the infamous 7-star Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. Likewise, it is being criticized by the netizens as both wasteful and shanzhai in the light of all the other megaprojects in Beijing.

From Tianya:

The recent design competition for the new People’s Daily building went through several rounds of appraisal, in the end it was the plan of Professor Zhou Qijiao of the Southeast University School of Architecture that won the final bid.

The bid proposal’s design philosophy revolve around the moral philosophy of “Round sky and square earth”, by using a computer model the building start off round and gradually turn into a 3D two-sided shape, and forms a parallel with the rectangular base. Finally the top of the building form a triangular word “人” [People], associated with the theme of the People’s Daily. The round lead-in also fulfills the requirement of the central location of the project.

The three corner of the building bulge out into massive steel pillars all the way to converge at the top, while the three sides of the glass walls are concave surfaces. The entire design is clean and simple, moreover it saves on building costs.

Southeast University School of Architecture depended on this plan to win the competition between 4 other architecture firms (China Architecture Design & Research Group, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, Central-South Architectural Design Institute, and Zhongye Design Institute); this is also the first time in 50 years that this firm won a design project at the national-level agency in Beijing.

The new building of People’s Daily falls within the 3rd ring road in Beijing, inside the central area of the Beijing Central Business District (CBD), and in alignment with the newly completed CCTV building. The scale of the whole construction reaches over 100 thousand square meters, made up of the International Conference Center, Library, Publishing Building, etc. Among them the height of the tower is over 150 meters. This is the largest construction project since the founding of the People’s Daily, and it will receive widespread attention.

Comments from Tianya::

SUEDE1999:

CCTV, People’s Daily, who will be next?

酷酷的杀生丸:

Without shanzhai, then there is no new China!

invagina:

It appears that behind the “big pants” [Nickname for CCTV building] erected a…

xenium_lee:

It is so easy to use the tax payer’s money.

如果有缘再相见:

Have so much money from selling newspaper.
American newspapers are all nearly dying.
I don’t even want to ask whose money it was. Build it all you want, I want you to build the tallest, biggest, most luxurious building, is that ok?
Because I am in Beijing, after you finished I can still look at it. Just in case if you build something low-profile
The mouthpiece of the party really has a lot of money!
Best wishes to the 60th anniversary, long live for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousand years. Selling newspapers can make a lot of money.

为吗有北京米北瓜:

A city full of buildings of bizarre and strange buildings, Dubai have them because that place lacks any cultural heritage, therefore it does not matter what they build. Even if it looks like a Sci-fi city, it still requires planning and overall design.
Can Beijing do the same? A Birdnest on the left, A Water Cube on the right, A “Big Pants” in the front, and the National Theater in the back, and then…This is how a SB city is created!

executioner13:

Spend so much money; do the common people have the right to refuse?

啦啦歪猪:

This really looks like the thermos bottle we have at home…

正版菊花茶:

MLGB, the taxes that I paid have been wasted like this!

诺曼底登陆D:

Beijing, a perfectly fine historical city turned incongruous by these bastards.

凡尘网事:

Are they still a newspaper publisher?
The People’s newspaper at that!
People’s money is so easy to use.

realplayer702:

People’s Daily, is not worthy of the word “people”.

taoci1234:

How come I feel like it looks like a hot water bottle…
Not a bad design.
To tell you the truth it really does look like the “Sail Boat” [in Dubai] Hotel…

富贵子:

I don’t understand what is the design philosophy of these alien structures today? To save on materials? To maximize space? Or for artistic appeal? This is not a sculpture, what is the point of making bizarre forms and weird shaped buildings? A place for rich and dumb people to burn money.