Tuesday 1 February 2011

Demise of Egg House in Beijing




Egg House at public pavement.



Birth of an Idea

The 24 year old architect intern Dai Hai-fei (戴海飛) designed and built this ingenious home for himself in October 2010.  With around RMB6500 (US$1000), he built the egg shaped house that included a bed, small table and wash basin at the interior.  On the outside, it was cladded and insulated with sacking and glass seeds that was just beginning to grow in December 2010.  A small solar panel was installed to generate bear minimum lighting at night.  A green architecture true to form.


Bash all Non-conformists


His fast and unintended shot to fame through the internet, and later widely reported by conventional media, drawn in huge public attentions that relevant (or irrelevant) Beijing authority decided to remove Dai’s house on reason of illegal structure recently.

Overdose of Media Exposures

The China system, be it a way of life or implementation of law and order, can be surprisingly slack and varied.  This means the egg house could have survived a bit longer.  However by attracting too much attention, touchy to the Chinese government, the power of the internet and media this time has helped kill an innocent course.



A star is born, only very briefly.



Small sackcloths cladding the Egg House in detail.



At night, the house is simply surreal.



Nestled feeling of home.



Dai (third from left) was an idol outside the realty price spiralling game.




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