Entering the dragon

The 2008 Beijing Olympics have been so obviously planned as a grand celebration of the new China that spectacles of scale were to be expected. But early shots of the city8217;s new airport 8212; on course to be operational months in advance of the games 8212; still inspire awe. Conceptualised by design guru, Norman Foster, it will have the world8217;s largest terminal, creating a million square metres of floor space. It is, as London firm Foster and Partners boasts, the largest construction project in the world. Construction work started in mid-2004 and is on course to be complete by the end of this year. But it is the design that catches the imagination. Foster8217;s dragon-like roof with colours of the Forbidden City is meant to send out the message to arriving passengers that they are disembarking in China, but a China with modernist aspirations.

This is why Beijing is being so carefully scrutinised by those interested in urban renewal. In the run-up to the games, its skyline is being remade by avant-garde architecture. China8217;s emphasis on scale is being made aesthetic with the harnessing of leading international architects. And the city is already experimenting with drastic measures to reduce air pollution, a dreadful and possibly games-stopping consequence of the very economic rise that is to be unveiled next summer. How China handles the attendant media scrutiny as it waves in international visitors through Foster8217;s marvel too will be interesting. To take just a small example: would it expect reporters filing copy in media centres to navigate over the Great Firewall of China but not report on the government8217;s intense censorship of the Internet?

But issues of incongruity between civil rights and modernist architecture apart, cities with aspiration will not be able to dodge the gauntlet being thrown down. These days the urge for renewal is rife in major cities of the world. For them, Beijing is setting very high benchmarks for infrastructure. Not just in magnitude and efficiency but also in forward-looking design.