If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity will be a non-place. Marc Augé, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London, Verso, 1995, p. 77-78. This report is about a « new town » near Tianjin called […]
When I was in Hangzhou, I visited a failed project of Paris pastiche… made in China! This is not properly an « urbex » report: the place I present here is not abandoned. Tianducheng is a residential compound located in Hangzhou which was conceived as a miniature copy of Paris. Construction was completed in 2007. Although it […]
The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were a great source of failed projects, among which the world’s most ambitious Ferris wheel project. I went on this exploration about one year ago, with my friend Brïn, who created the blog burbex.org. I decided to finally publish it, because he just left China (without saying goodbye, by […]
Still traveling during the summer, I arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan, and looked for abandoned places there. The idea of an abandoned theme park suggested by Gui made my day: Chengdu has a « world-themed » abandoned amusement park and… it is totally ok to visit it! Welcome to the first « authorized » urbex site I have ever visited […]
This is a report about an « unfinished rotten » building in Hangzhou. The city of Hangzhou is now actively preparing for the G20, which means, like for all mega-events in China, that the ultimate priority is put on the city’s image (市容 shirong): everywhere, one can notice large-scale demolition, renovation or rehabilitation of buildings. That is […]
I already wrote a first report two months ago about those strange buildings being currently on interrupted construction: I visited the unfinished Museum of Beaux-Arts and the unfinished Grand Theater. Here is my report about the unfinished-abandoned Sport center designed by the Australian firm Populous (the firm which designed the sport facilities in Nanjing for […]
This report on the visit I did in November 2015 will display the amazing SF architecture of several unfinished-abandoned buildings found in Datong… Strange buildings, aren’t they? Before presenting more closely their amazing architecture, I will explain where they come from… The five major equipments project (五大场馆): a semi-failure Datong, a city in Northern Shanxi […]
