Our analysis of this tenement precinct found in Lingshui county, Hainan province begins with the seminal modernist architect Louis Sullivan’s famous phrase “form follows function.” Buildings should be designed with their purpose in mind, and so it is philosophically laid out here, in this neighborhood, that the purpose of all human life is to sprout like a blade of grass out of red dirt, sway in the wind, and die. All joy is subsumed by the reality of existing. Not one wasted word is spent. You are because you are. Accept it, for residents of Dadun Village are all engaged in the process of death or already dead.
Not even the laziest Sim City players would do this to their terrain, dragging the low-density residential zone tool over such a wide swathe, because who could even bear to know that virtual citizens live in these shelters of depression, hatcheries of mania and likely murder? (Look at the red splotches in the lower-right corner of the picture.) Alas, people live here, according to Daily Mail:
Around 3,500 villagers have started to move into 1,029 new apartments, each of which measures 253 square metres, over the last few weeks after construction of Dadun Village started in October 2010.
Pitiable people. What has the world done to you perfect snowflakes?
Welcome to your new home, workers: Chinese villagers moved into prison-like new town (Daily Mail, h/t Steve George)
I bet there are still better love stories than Twilight to be had in there.
That is of course if you don’t kill yourself after living there for about a month.
Le Corbusier on acid.
nice
Not meaning to be an arse, but how exactly are these at all reminisant of Le Corbusier? One of his central themes was the importance of space, particuarly communal space.
it’s gonna be tough to find your coop when you stumble home after boozing
This is honestly one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen.
Seriously, it makes me want to cry.
That article is ridiculous. “Prison-like”? They may be aesthetically bland (to say the least) but China is a place where millions of people are living 6+ people to a room and many millions more are living in grim apartment blocks where the halls really do feel like those of a prison. Lots of Chinese would be very happy to give up a little variety to live in such relatively luxurious homes.
However, if you live in an apartment block you usually don’t see the rest of the building. And if you’re lucky you might be seeing other apartment blocks which tend to come in different shapes. Also, you’re relatively close to areas of the city that are very different. This on the other hand is a large stretch of land filled with the exact same type of building. Only difference is that there’s a mirror version every other row. The ‘garden’ in the back, if it will ever even grow plants (not enough sunlight), is so small that you can barely use it as a place to put your bike/scooter.
So all you’re left with is an old people’s home stretched out over a large stretch of land. But it just seems like a lazy developer, getting a land deal and then using prefab to keep costs down to a minimum. People will buy anyway, like you said.
Look at the bright side…since they were all built with substandard concrete by developers trying to cut corners and inflate their profit margins, they will almost certainly collapse when the next typhoon/hurricane hits!