After Chengdu: Call for nationwide audit of major structures in China

News and Images from The Australian and New Yorker Magazine

“THE Chinese Government is coming under unusual pressure from the public and construction experts to consider a massive nationwide reinforcement program in response to the collapse of so many schools and other public buildings in the Sichuan earthquake.”

As Deyan Sudjic put it in The Edifice Complex, the Olympic Games was in fact China’s signal to the world that it had moved beyond the sweatshop economy characterized by low wage commodity production, bicycles and social conformity. Stung by criticisms of its murky approach to the allocation of construction contracts, Beijing’s municipal government has been proclaiming its determination to pursue design excellence and maintain a fairer tendering process.

While preparation for the Games have swung into full force, and the country gears up for its next great leap forward, it might be that China’s past just caught up with it, what with its millions of buildings that are poorly built being blamed as the primary cause of death in the Chengdu Earthquake. While regulations are in place, many still understand that the process and legislation are but superficial foils which do not enforce any form of discipline when it comes to legitimate and safe construction practices. This recent earthquake aftermath is perhaps a rude reminder for a China in full trailblazer-mode to slow down and stop to repair what it has discreetly chosen to ignore.

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JJ is the co-founder of 5ft Creatives and he is now a legal alien in the US of A