Architecture was built on copies

China has a new ban on “plagiarising, imitating, and copycatting” building designs for public facilities across the country.

Professor Gerard Reinmuth and Urtzi Grau, School of Architecture

In recent years, developers across China have used the allure of copies in projects such an Austrian village in Guangdong, a replica Paris in Hangzhou, a copy of London’s Tower Bridge in Suzhou and a (now dismantled) Sydney Opera House in Liaoning province.

This new ban may seem like an encouragement of greater creativity or independence. But – if taken literally – it will force architects working in China to address a question central to their discipline: what is the status of the copy?

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