Post-financial crisis architects come to China as “economic refugees”

The myth of the American dream, according to which any person living in the United States has the opportunity to prosper through hard work, has now become Chinese. The economic crisis has led to unemployment, a slower pace of investment and construction; architects are particularly affected. In parallel, McKinsey predicts that China will build the equivalent of ten New Yorks in the next 20 years, amounting to 50,000 buildings, representing huge opportunities for a whole generation of architects.

The New York Times recently interviewed international architects who came to China to find work and a less-restricted work environment. What are their impressions today on the Chinese architectural world? One architect working at MAD architects says that when he arrived in 2009, he was almost the only foreigner, but today, half of the staff in his office is composed of newly arrived Spanish, Americans, or Germans.