China’s “Duplitecture” Cities Mimic the World’s Greatest Architectural Hits
Source: slate.com
The best knockoffs in the world are in China. There are plenty of fake designer handbags and Rolexes, but China’s knockoffs go way beyond fashion. There are knockoff Apple stores that look so much like the real thing that some employees believe they are working in real Apple stores. And then there are entire knockoff cities. There are Venices with complete canals and replicas of the Doge’s Palace. A Paris with an Eiffel Tower and an Arc de Triomphe. In the suburbs of any Chinese city, there are endless examples of “duplitecture.”Shanghai alone has 10 neighborhoods all built in the architectural styles of different European countries. Traffic permitting, it’s possible to travel from “Germany” to “Italy” to “England” in the course of a few hours.
In the suburbs of Hangzhou, China, the hallmarks of Parisian architecture have been recreated almost brick-for-brick in a sprawling residential development complete with churches and carriage rides.
These are not theme parks or novelties like one might see in Las Vegas. Duplitecture developments are functioning communities where Chinese families are raising their children and living their lives.
These communities also differ from American Chinatowns or Germantowns, which were established by immigrants. These are Chinese communities, in American- or European-styled buildings, designed primarily by Chinese architects.
China’s carbon copy of Venice offers Italian-inspired la dolce vita living in townhouses overlooking a network of man-made canals on which “gondoliers” navigate gondolas under stone bridges.
These replica buildings resemble the originals to varying degrees. The buildings might be larger or smaller than the real things. They might be made of different materials or even painted another color. As such, duplitecture can become a warped caricature of the original.
Developers take a lot of liberties with duplitecture construction, sometimes adjusting the replicas to work in accordance with the principles of feng shui.
Nevertheless, a lot of these duplitecture communities have rules to actively discourage any behavior that they think might disrupt the “European feel” of the development.
To further create the impression of a Paris, there might be a French bakery or a Bastille Day celebration.
The gargantuan villas at Beijing’s Palais de Fortune development have been built with materials imported from France and have each been named after prized symbols of French culture, from the Louvre to Versailles.
As odd and uncanny as these buildings and communities can be, duplitecture is pretty impressive. These buildings go up quickly, on a massive scale, and they show no signs of stopping. New developments are popping up around China all the time, even though duplitecture isn’t exactly a new trend.
In premodern China, imperial rulers used copycat buildings to show off their authority, making replicas of landmarks in cities they had conquered, or importing flora and fauna to recreate foreign landscapes within their own domain.
Real estate agencies in Shanghai’s British-inspired Thames Town lure potential buyers with the proimse that they can “Dream of England. Live in Thames Town.” Security guards patrolling the property—a mix of Gothic, Tudor, and half-timbered buildings—wear uniforms inspired by those of the Queen’s Foot Guard.
In keeping with that tradition, one of the most copied buildings in China is the very seat of Western power itself: the White House. Serving as hotels, restaurants, courthouses, and homes, White Houses are all over China, morphed and varied in different permutations. Still, they all have those signature columns and square porticoes.
Though some might argue that the Chinese have taken duplitecture to a whole new level, architects have been copying each other forever, and the U.S. is no exception. The architect who built the White House based his design on the Leinster House in Dublin, which is now the seat of the Irish parliament. The Leinster House, in turn, contains strong elements of Greek and Roman architecture.
[...]
Read the full article at: slate.com
