Beijing's Fuzzy Buildings

Architects who designed new buildings for Beijing were faced with an interesting challenge: how to create powerful, iconic designs in a landscape that is often shrouded with smog.

"Beijing seems to lose its pizazz when the smog is thick," says Christopher Hawthorne, Architecture Critic for the Los Angeles Times. Buildings that look so bold and crisp in architectural renderings turn vague in the reality of Beijing's hazy atmosphere.

To help buildings stand out against the dull, gray sky, architects often chose intense colors, like the dark glass walls of the CCTV headquarters. And, the older buildings like you find in Tiananmen Square? Thank goodness so many of them are red.

Full story: Architects take Beijing's smog into account, Los Angeles Times.

^{Photo: Donchang'an Jie Shopping Centre in Beijing, China. © John W. Banagan / Getty Images}