Chinese fakeaway: How the world's most famous buildings - and even whole cities - are being cloned in the Far East

Brit architect Zaha Hadid planning legal action over knock-off development
Copies include an Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng and Thames Town in Shanghai
Replica of the Ronchamp Chapel in France was demolished after outcry
Copy of the Austrian Alpine town of of Hallstatt sprung up in Huizhou city

Some of the world's leading architects are up in arms as yet more copies of famous Western buildings spring up across in China at an unprecedented rate.

Famous clones have already included the Ronchamp Chapel in France, the Eiffel Tower in Paris - and the entire town of Hallstatt in Austria.

Now British architect Zaha Hadid said she plans to take legal action after her eye-catching Wangjing Soho development in Beijing appears to have been replicated by what she calls 'pirate architects', in the city of Chongqing.



Carbon copy: Part of Hiuzhou city has been deliberately constructed to resemble the Austrian town of Hallstatt



The real thing: The genuine Austrian town which has been ripped off by the Chinese

Hadid had initially appeared relaxed about the idea of look-a-like buildings suggesting it would be 'quite exciting' if the cloned showed innovative mutations of the originals.

However she added: 'It is fine to take from the same well, but not from the same bucket.'

Lawyer Nigel Calvert told the Guardian: 'We will be demanding that the copycats immediately cease construction, change the exterior of the building, offer a public apology and provide compensation.'

Incredibly the cloned version in Chongqing could be completed before the original. The developers have maintained the innocence claiming that the shape of their building had been inspired by cobblestones on the Yangtze River and not by Hadid's creation in Beijing.

According to Shanghai-based lawyer You Yunting, Hadid stands a good chance of receiving compensation but it is unlikely she will see the knock-off buildings torn down.



In the northern Chinese city of Tianjin a 15th century fishing village has been all but bulldozed to make way for a replica Manhattan complete with Rockefeller and Lincoln centres and even a Hudson River



Epic project: However the Chinese have some way to go before competing with the original Manhattan skyline

He told German newspaper Der Spiegel: 'Even if the judge rules in favour of Soho, the court will not force the defendant to pull the building down.'

One rip-off which did get a demolition order was the shameless copy of Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel in France.

The replica version popped up in Zhengzhou capital of the northern central Henan province in the late 1990s but was torn down after a furious response by the Corbusier foundation.

And if the French were upset about Ronchamp, one can only imagine the outrage felt in some sectors of Paris when a replica of the Eiffel Tower suddenly appeared in Tianducheng on the outskirts of Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province.

Another hilarious example is a version of London's iconic Tower Bridge which has been built in the city of Suzhou in the east of China.

The Chinese model has twice as many towers as the original version spanning the River Thames but lacks the drawbridge mechanism. It does however boast a cafe selling 'English-style coffee'.

In an attempt to explain the reasoning behind the copycat buildings, archeologist Jack Carlson believes that far from simply mimicking Western landmarks to appear more cultured, they are in fact an attempt to assert China's global supremacy.



The iconic Tower Bridge is another landmark that has been recreated with a look-a-like version popping up in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province



Unlike the original (pictured) the Chinese version of Tower Bridge lacks a raising mechanism



Original: The Ronchamp chapel in France designed by celebrated architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier



Knock-off: The copy that appeared in Zhengzhou capital of the northern central Henan province was torn down after a furious response by the Corbusier foundation



Rip-off: The Eiffel Tower (left) has been cloned on the outskirts of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province (right)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s--cloned.html

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