Hadid design being cloned in China
Race on to see who completes work first
A scheme by Zaha Hadid Architects in China is being copied elsewhere in the country by pirate architects.The practice is working on 11 projects in China including the Wangjing SOHO complex in Beijing which is made up of three towers that resemble curved sails.
But the developer behind this scheme has complained that it is being replicated in Chongqing and is in danger of being completed after its copycat rival.
Hadid’s project director on the SOHO scheme, Satoshi Ohashi, told German news magazine Der Spiegel: “It is possible that the Chongqing pirates got hold of some digital files or renderings of the project. You could work out a similar building if you are technically very capable but this would only be a rough simulation of the architecture.”
The original, which will have more than 521,000sq m of office and retail space, is set to be completed next year with the race now on to see which project is completed first.
But any legal action SOHO might look at would only have limited consequences, a Shanghai-based lawyer warned. “Even if the judge rules in favour of SOHO, the court will not force the defendant to pull the building down,” said You Yunting. “It could order the payment of compensation.”
A World Heritage site in Austria, the lakeside village of Hallstatt, has already been copied in China with the cloned village opening last year in Huizhou in Guangdong province just 12 months after work started.
