Wiggling through a phalanx of mid-rise housing blocks, a covered walkway and attached café serve as a colorful antidote to the regimented architecture all around it. Designed by the Madrid-based firm SelgasCano, the irrepressible explosion of angled-steel tubing and corrugated-metal roofing is a social magnet for the thousands of residents in Bailuwan Town. As has happened throughout China during the past three decades, the area two hours’ driving distance from the coastal city of Qingdao has been rapidly transformed from farmland. The developer makes its profit from the housing components—which are heavily formatted in siting, plan, and scale and usually designed by large Chinese firms—but entices buyers with a series of eye-catching, break-the-mold structures often designed by foreign architects. At Bailuwan, in addition to Junya Ishigami, the developer commissioned Sou Fujimoto, Ryue Nishizawa, and SelgasCano to create these special elements, each firm working independently of the others to add a different spice to the architectural stew. Some of these have been built, while others—including a hotel and a residential complex by SelgasCano—remain on hold as China’s once-booming housing sector now faces a monumental bust.