OMA's trouser-shaped CCTV tower and Herzog & de Meuron's Bird's Nest stadium feature in this photo series by Kris Provoost, which documents the "weird architecture" China has tried to ban.
Architect Kris Provoost, who lives and works in Shanghai, spent seven years creating The Beautified China photoset. In it he captures some of the more unusual projects created by world-renowned architecture practices during the country's recent construction boom.
The Beautified China photography includes OMA's CCTV tower, nicknamed "big pants"
The series, which focuses on the buildings' details rather than context, includes Zaha Hadid Architect's complex for real-estate developer Soho China, completed in 2014, and Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium. Better known as the Bird's Nest, the stadium opened in 2008 and hosted track and field events as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Zaha Hadid Architects' pebble-shaped Wangjing Soho towers in Beijing also features in the series
The Belgian architect also included Rem Koolhaas' CCTV headquarters in Beijing, which opened in 2012, and famously sparked president Xi Jinping to call for an end to "weird architecture" in the country.
The OMA founder defended his project ? which has garnered the nickname "big pants" ? and told Dezeen that the building played an important role in "conceptualising, liberating and realising structure that ...