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Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the CCTV headquarters in Beijing is famous for all the wrong reasons: nicknamed "Big Pants," the shape of the building has been joked about since the day it was unveiled. Not too far from the "pants," the People's Daily newspaper offices are housed in a suggestively-shaped structure. Over the past few years, many unconventional facades have popped up in China. Only recently has Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China, declared his distaste for it.

"No more weird architecture," he said at a literary forum last week, reports People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. He added that art should "be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles." Sure, everyone could better cultivate their own tastes, but without the ability to get a little weird, what happens to the ability to innovate? 

Below, we look at some of the wild-but-wonderful buildings and proposals that have made China a haven for unconventional architecture:

Like stalagmites sticking straight out of a Seussian Whoville, the two Phoenix Towers were designed by UK architecture firm Chetwoods to solve the city of Wutan's pollution problem. If realized, the dual skyscrapers would crush the record for world's tallest building.

This lotus-shaped conference center blooms on an artificial lake on Wujin. Designed by studio505, the three blooms symbolize unity and harmony for the future. Given the fact that the structure is actually an addition to an existing subterranean municipal facility, we're hard-pressed to deny the weirdness of this one.

The bubble-shaped mockups for Huangzhou's China Comic and Animation Museum (CCAM), designed by Dutch architecture company MVRDV, are playful and and strange. Owing their shapes to comic book spech bubbles, a ban on 'weird architecture' would limit the CCAM's ability to speak for itself. 

This light-up slinky perched on Lake Tai is actually the newest luxury Sheraton Hotel designed by architect Ma Yansong, from MAD Architects. Despite its unconventional shape, it's the beautiful, LED-encrusted product of an architecture practice that isn't afraid to go a little MAD.  

Finally, also from MAD Architects, the futuristic Pingtan Art Museum juts off the coast of the Fujian province of China. According to the architects, "The sea, the beach, the oasis and the slope all interconnect with each other, forming a harmonious capacious space with the mountains in the distance." It's definitely unlike anything we've ever seen before, which is exactly why weird architecture, can be very, very good. 

This article originally published in thecreatorsproject.vice.com

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