Mysterious Landmark In Chinese City Looks Like A Time Portal

Architizer News

Mysterious Landmark In Chinese City Looks Like A Time Portal

November 19, 2012

Photo via Reuters/China Daily

Building booms, naturally, breed development, both useful and not. Falling into the latter camp are those flashy, ponderous projects and monuments-to-nothing that accompany many a grand projet. These “landmarks”, typically bland and plenty confused, are meant to anchor new cities and usher in their future prosperity with lots of empty gestures. Matched only by Dubai in architectural silliness, China’s urban landscape seems to be littered with such baubles, whose utter inanity will make you wince, laugh, and lose your faith in humanity–maybe even all at once! Thankfully, the Internet provides, and your office day need not pass without some dumb buildings to scorn at .

The latest in “huh?”-architecture was spotted on Sina Weibo, China’s largest micr0-blogging platform, and the photos depict a giant metal ring that Gizmodo calls an “inter-dimensional portal”. CRI-English likens the thing to a time machine, an affinity that, if taken too far, can wind up censored in Chinese media. If you have to get architectural about it—and we do—the 515-foot tall steel structure is obviously descended from Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch in St. Louis, with the elegant parabola exchanged for an uncomely “O” . Continue.

The landmark stands at the foot of a new sector in Fushun city and reportedly cost $16 million to erect. The structure consists of 3,000 tons of steel and will blinker with 12,000 LED lights at night. Dubbed the “Ring of Life”, the design’s trite symbolism is meant to evoke a gateway to “paradise”, according to CRI-English. Bloggers have panned the project for its steep budget and ugly appearance, not to mention its core uselessness. A typical response, “It’s kinda like the Eiffel Tower, right guys?”. NO.