Stephanie G. Mathis China has implemented a new ban against “plagiarism, imitation, and copycatting” in building designs in public facilities throughout the country.
Developers in China have been enamored with the idea of replicas in recent years. They built the Austrian Village, Paris, London Tower Bridge, and Sydney Opera House (now demolished) in Liaoning Province.
The Eiffel Tower replica in Tianducheng. Shutterstock.com
This ban may encourage greater creativity or independent thinking. If taken literally, it would force Chinese architects to answer a fundamental question: What is the status copy?
Architects copy everywhere, but they rarely acknowledge the source. It is a default to freely circulate and apply architectural knowledge without giving credit.
Build on Copy
The least regulated creative field is architecture.
Since 1990, architecture has enjoyed a similar status as other artistic fields but has not seen the challenges music has, where well-known musicians have been sued successfully for using someone else’s bassline, guitar riff, or melody.
The intellectual property laws for cinema and literature are more developed, but they are rarely enforced.
The foundation of contemporary architectural education is copying. Beaux-Arts is a teaching method named after a school in Paris, where it was developed in the 1880s. It combines copying, studying, and producing architecture.
In the 20th Century, mechanical replication, as well as the ability to mass reproduce images, increased the accuracy and speed of reproduction. These copycat references spread from Europe to America and were eventually labeled International Style.
Postmodernism began to appear in the 1970s. Tens of thousands of office towers, parking lots, and housing schemes featured columns, balusters, and other remixed elements of architecture’s past.
The Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London was inaugurated by Venturi Scott-Brown in 1991. The design combines modern elements with Italian Mannerism. Rory Hyde/Flickr CC-BY-SA
Online material has replaced the architecture journals and books that used to be the main source of architectural information. Designers will find a wide range of plans, sketches, and technical documents, as well as an uncountable number of photographs and renders.
The tradition of reproduction
Even literal copies of buildings are part of an important architectural tradition because of the importance of copying.
In many countries, the national museum village is a mix of relocated and copied structures: Den Gamle by Denmark, Poble Spanishnolin Barcelona, and the completely reconstructed Gyeongbokgung palace in Seoul.
Den Gamle By recreates traditional Danish houses. RAYANDBEE/Flickr CC-BY
In Japan, every 20 years, the Ise Shrine will be completely rebuilt along with a nearby copy, which is then demolished according to Shinto rituals.
Harry Seidler, an Austrian architect who arrived in Australia in 1948, left behind a number of outstanding buildings. We can now learn the lessons from Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius in Sydney without having to leave.
Harry Seidler’s 1950 Rose Seidler House introduced modernist architecture in Australia. Rory Hyde/Flickr CC-BY-SA
National project
The decision to copy Chinese architecture in China is radical, given the long-standing traditions. It’s an attempt to reduce one of its most distinctive characteristics.
The new directive must be read alongside a message from 2016 that banned “bizarre architectural” and criticized “oversized, bizarre, xenocentric” buildings.
In addition, the 2020 prohibition recommends that any new architecture ” display Chinese characteristics.”
The problem with copies is only when the originals are not from your country.
The role of architecture in the construction and maintenance of national identity is significant. French classicism was born with Claude Perrault’s deceitful scheming, which he used to steal the Louvre Colonnade from Italian architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. Hitler was obsessed with rebuilding Berlin using Albert Speer’s version of neoclassicism. Donald Trump has revived this vision in his call to ” Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again.”
