Underwear as Architecture

The Telegraph:

It was billed as China’s answer to the Arc de Triomphe — a spectacular £445m British-designed skyscraper paying homage to the Asian country’s turbo-charged economic rise.

But even before the 74-storey Gate to the East is complete it has come under attack from critics who compare it not to the famous Parisian war memorial but to a pair of “giant underpants”.

When there is no common vocabulary, no common language of design, forms become arbitrary. And when forms become arbitrary you get buildings that begin to resemble ridiculous things.

Photo: Quirky China News / Rex Features