The Piano House

Always looking for ways to triumph within business and air its affluence, China has more than cemented itself as home to some of the world’s most unique and, at times, truly bizarre architecture.

Not satisfied with just the title of creating the tallest skyscraper on the globe, China knows no half measures, instead challenging architectural possibilities to create everything from a giant lotus to a free-standing hula hoop structure.

The country’s futuristic and fantastical creations have just this year been described as ‘devoid of cultural tradition’, with China’s central government calling upon an end to the ‘oversized, xenocentric, weird’ architecture that has been popping up one brick (or glass sheet or steel slate) at a time.

But for now, you can marvel at these seven weird and wonderful architectural creations that fill China’s landscapes.

Located in the Shannan district in Huainan City, China, this glazed building in the form of a violin leaning against a piano was completed in 2007.

Designed by architectural students from the Hefei University of Technology, the building is built at a scale of 50:1, and serves as a showroom for exhibiting development plans.

The transparent violin is made from clear glass panels and contains escalators and a staircase for the main piano building which accommodates two concert halls.

The piano structure is built on three concrete legs and is made from hundreds of black glass panels interspersed with clear and white glass to represent piano keys. A roof terrace is sheltered beneath a canopy shaped like the propped-open lid of a piano.

Because of its unique design, it has become a popular tourist attraction, and has been called ‘the most romantic building in China’ as newly-weds come to have their photograph taken in front of it.

Piano House consists of two parts, depicting two instruments: a transparent violin rests on a translucent piano. The unique building was built for music lovers, however it has nothing to do with music. There is an escalator in the violin, and an exhibition complex in the piano, in which the plans of streets and districts of the city are presented to the attention of visitors. The object was created with the filing of local authorities.

The unusual building seeks to attract the attention of residents of China and numerous tourists to a new developing area in which it has become the most significant object. Due to the continuous glazing of the facades with transparent and tinted glass, the premises of the complex receive the greatest possible natural light. And in the dark, the body of the object disappears in the dark, leaving only the neon contours of the silhouettes of the giant “tools” visible. Despite its popularity, the building is often criticized as some kind of postmodern kitsch and a typical student project, in which there is much more outrageous than art and functionality.

Sometimes the great things that appeared in the world were made possible only thanks to the enormous ego and power of some people that ruled a country or another. This is how pyramids appeared and the Taj Mahal and I am not sure that ordinary people really wanted them. Any way, sometimes this is a good thing while some other times the decisions seem simply crazy. Or how would you call the idea of building a house, a hotel in the shape of a piano and whose stairs look like a glass violin in the middle of nowhere. Because this building does exist and it is situated in the Huainan, Anhui province in China. Looking like something conjured from a giant dollshouse, The Piano House building is a fascinating creation made entirely from glass. Featuring a stately black grand piano-shaped building and an elegant violin-shaped high-rise, complete with a glass staircase within the violin leading into the piano, the exquisite structure is the classical jewel of Huainan’s crown. It’s even been dubbed as ‘the most romantic building in China’ by the locals.

Designed by architectural students of Hefei University of Technology in 2007, as a way to throw the area into the public eye and invite interest from further afield, the space remains deeply rooted in the creative industries, serving as a showroom for exhibiting plans for Huainan’s newly created district of Shannan. With the death of China’s unique architecture looming on the horizon, it has never been a better time to stand back and admire the unusual structures the country has given to the world.

The violin, made completely out of glass, serves as the entry to the house, linking the elevated piano to the ground. The piano portion of the house stands on three concrete legs and features a roof terrace beneath a canopy shaped like the piano’s open top.

It is unclear exactly why and for whom the house was built, but it has become a spectacle in Anhui province (located inland from Shanghai). Of course, meant to simulate instruments, the house itself probably wouldn’t make very pleasing sounds: windows cut into the body of the piano would render the reverberating chamber useless, while the vibrations from the violin’s strings might shatter the glass it’s made of. Visitors to Huainan, China, might be expecting to see typical scenes of Chinese urbanism—mega subdivisions, skyscrapers, shopping malls, and the like—but the city has a surprise in store: a very weird house shaped like a violin leaning against a grand piano.