I give SOHO the ‘Jian’.
I was interested recently to read an esteemed Beijing blogger’s giving the ‘Chai’ to the SOHO chain of developments around Beijing.
SOHO complexes now dot Beijing and the most recent Qian Men development is raising some ire. Developing the Qian Men area has been controversial with the old neigbourhood pretty much destroyed. This is a great loss for Beijing. I live an a similar neigbourhood to the north east of the Forbidden City, specifically for the neighbourhood feel and to live on ‘Old Beijing’ – something unique to this town. Losing these rambling low level, sometimes ancient, sometimes slum areas is something Beijing and China will surely regret. So yes, I am opposed to a new SOHO development in Qian Men. I would however likely be opposed to just about any development that was not extremely sensitive to the historical, aesthetic and cultural value of the area.
Now that I have that out of the way, Josh writes: “I readily acknowledge that most of the places they have built have not been in historical Hutong areas, but so what? They make the city worse.” And this is where I have to disagree with him completely. The SOHO projects, for all their many failings, are some of the best developments in Beijing. Yes, it is hard to find the building you are after in Jian Wai SOHO, and yes it is likely to be a short trek away, but, this is Beijing. When was the last time _anything_ in Beijing was conveniently placed? It is not anything about SOHO that is to blame here – rather Beijing’s deliberately inhuman scale and design.
Construction levels in the SOHO projects are questionable, but again – this is Beijing a town where sealing against the cold is still a novel idea and many buildings built in the 90’s look like they date from the 60’s. Amongst Beijing’s non-government architecture – a complex like Jianwai SOHO actually stands out as something of a design paragon. The SOHO complexes are not Falling Water or Hancock Building or Gherkin, they are far from the ugliest or worst built in town.
This having been said, the SOHO projects all have one very, very, important feature – something that sets them apart as a force for good, modernisation and the every-man in Beijing. To my knowledge, none of them, and this is practically unique, has a perimeter fence. Everything, even the walls, in Beijing is surrounded by a wall, fence or other obstruction. This leads to a life of constant half-mile round trips to get from the street to the entrance of a building that was initially not more than thirty yards away. The SOHO buildings are practically the only residential buildings in town that can be approached from any angle. I have heard of endless arguments between architects, landscape designers and urban planners, foreign and local, and developers about removing the ubiquitous, unfriendly, pointless and inconvenient fencing that surrounds everything in Beijing. Invariably, sanity is avoided and a wall is erected.
So, for all their other failings, hooray for SOHO and may they help drag Beijing urban design out of the eleventh century.
chriswaugh_bj responds:
Posted: January 9th, 2009 at 3:54 pm →
At SOHO 现代城 at Bawangfen the main office block is unfenced, but there is a fence around the apartment blocks.
TheOtherRichard responds:
Posted: January 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm →
You are right. I forget that the other back (southern) section is also part of the complex.