Design IntelligenceS

I went to Ningbo this weekend. Ningbo is Southeast of Hangzhou. Like everything else in China, scale adjustments are made getting there and upon arrival. What seemed like a city  near Hangzhou and by the sea when one looks at a map, is actually two hours plus away by train, has five and a half million people and is probably another one or two hours from the sea. Some highlights:

Temple in Ningbo:

Tinaye Ge, a 16th century private library:

Ningbo Art Museum…also a drive from the center of the city. It was designed by Wangshu, the Head of the Architecture School at the China Academy of Art.

The walls were built from materials left  from the village that was previously on the site:

Here is a panoramic video of the roofscape.

Then there were the bubble kids in downtown Ningbo. I guess the Chinese have a different idea about plastic bags being toys. I am thinking about the warning you see on plastic bags from the dry cleaners in the U.S. that says something like: “This is not a toy. Danger of suffocation.”