Daniel Libeskind is accused of “hypocrisy of the first order” after it was learned that he is working in Hong Kong—despite having recently called for architects to boycott jobs in what he called the “totalitarian regime” of China. The UK’s Building Design magazine reported on April 4 that construction has begun on the 269,000-square-foot Creative Media Center at the City University of Hong Kong. But back in February, as RECORD reported, Libeskind urged architects to “take a more ethical stance” by avoiding work in China and other countries that have a poor record on human rights. His apparent about face drew immediate criticism. The head of a group called Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine told Building Design that Libeskind’s actions were hypocritical. The head of a Tibetan rights group added: “If you call for a ban on architects working in China—full stop—then you have to accept that includes Hong Kong.” Speaking in the architect’s defense, his wife, Nina, denied that this was the case. “This is not a dogmatic idea for Daniel,” she told Building Design. “It’s a personal thing for him. We’ve seen what has happened in Tibet, but there is a rule of law in Hong Kong that Daniel is comfortable with.” Missing from the controversy is any discussion of architecture—namely, the quality of Libeskind’s design in Hong Kong. But the silence is perhaps understandable. As an author of the architecture.mnp blog wrote of the crystalline-shaped building on April 7: “This thing is a) basically the same as maaaaaaaddddd other Daniel Libeskind designs (I’m pretty tired of these starchitects, frankly) and b) carbon copy or not, it’s kind of a mess.”
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