Friday 22 August 2014

A Different Piano


It's in China, of course.

According to the Armchair Traveller:
"This strange Piano and Violin shaped building built in 2007 serves as showroom for exhibiting the plans for newly created district of Shannan in Huainan City, China.

The transparent Violin houses the escalators and the staircase for the main piano building which displays various plans and development prospects for newly developed area.

It was reportedly designed by Hefei University of Technology and has been built to a scale of 50:1.

Because of its unique shape it has become a popular tourist place and many newlyweds have their photo taken in its front. The locals have dubbed it "the most romantic building in China"."

I am reminded of Gerhy's fish in Barcelona.  When asked why? he reputedly replied "Why not?" Actually, according to American Masters, what he really said was:
"It was by accident that I got into the fish image. My colleagues were starting to replay Greek temples. Y'know in the post-modern thing, I don't know, when was that... the 80s. That was hot, everybody was re-doing the past. I said, y'know, Greek temples are anthropomorphic. And three hundred million years before man was fish. If you wanna, if you gotta go back, if you're insecure about going forward, dammit, go back three hundred million years. Why are you stopping at the Greeks? So I started drawing fish in my sketchbook. and then I started to realize that there was something in it."
Why not? Indeed. 
I can't find a comparably profound explanation from the Chinese architects.

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