Beijing flies into an unsustainable future

It’s that man again. This time it is only the biggest building ever built. On time, within budget – and, from the photographs I’ve seen, it looks sensational as well. Unusually for a Foster building, new Terminal 3 building at Beijing Capital International Airport is in colour, to keep in with the general traditions of Chinese buildings and with feng shui in particular.

I knew that the feng shui man had a look over Norman (as he was then) Foster’s plans for the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, but I only recently discovered that when he approached I.M.Pei, the American-Chinese architect for the Bank of China building next door – which now dwarfs it – he was sent packing with a “We don’t believe all that mediaeval nonsense any more” flea in his ear.

To give you an idea of the length of the consultation process in China, Foster’s Beijing airport terminal was built in less time than it took just to hold the inquiry into a third runway at Heathrow. Actually, so was Kansai airport. Even so, it’s a pretty amazing achievement. Particularly as it has taken me 11 months to get planning approval to put another floor on a Victorian building in Westminster.

Foster’s Beijing airport terminal was built in less time than it took just to hold the inquiry into a third runway at Heathrow

The engineer on the airport, Arup in some guise, is also building the Herzog & de Meuron “bird’s nest” stadium and the Rem Koolhaas media centre. So it’s quite a busy time for British builders in Beijing, one way and another. Let’s hope we get our own buildings finished as efficiently for the 2012 Olympics.

Frankly, I find the whole idea of the Chinese technological revolution pretty scary. It is all very well me dutifully putting in a compact fluorescent lightbulb here and there, but China is opening a new coal-fired power station every five days.

Beijing airport is supposed to be sustainable. I am not really sure what a sustainable airport is. It is not particularly reassuring (except for airport builders, no doubt) to discover that China is planning to build a few more airports over the next 10 years – well, 97 more airports, in fact. Will all these be sustainable? Or will they be built by the home team on the Trabant model? Airports, like motorways, generate traffic.

Everyone is an only child. And only children, much more than the rest of us, are used to getting what they want.

There is a “green city” being built somewhere in China on all the soundest ecological principles, but most of the development one reads about seems to be on the American model. Cars. Roads. More cars. Carbon. We in the developed West have had three-car families for years – why shouldn’t the Chinese?

It occurs to me that one of the by-blows of Mao’s “one child per family” policy is that these days the whole place must be run by people who have no extended families. Everyone is an only child. And only children, much more than the rest of us, are used to getting what they want.

That seems to be what is happening in China. So, while it is great that the showpiece entry-port for the Olympics is another masterpiece by Lord Foster, I view stories about building and development in China more with foreboding than with enthusiasm.