Perhaps compelled by whatever muse inspired the building that looks like a pair of pants, the compact, car-free Great City, or the world's next tallest skyscraper—set to be built in 90 days—China has once again entered the realm of the mindboggling. The "Ring of Life," which stands 515 feet tall in the northeastern city of Fushun, is made of 3,000 tons of steel and 12,000 LED lights. The structure cost roughly $16M to erect, a lot of moolah for a building that does nothing but stand there as a piece of "landscape architecture" and, well, look like a circle. Though, to be fair, it's not like the Ring of Life is the first fairly useless structure to be built just for the sake of boasting an architectural feat; there was the Eiffel Tower, for one, not to mention the still completely uninhabitable shell of a hotel that hulks in North Korea.
· What the Hell is China Building Here? [The Atlantic via Gizmodo]
· All Architectural Craziness Coverage [Curbed National]
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