Friday Funny: Apartment Building's Fake Window Facepalm

Images of a new apartment development in Qingdao, Shandong province have caused a stir on the Internet in recent weeks. The reason? Builders painted dozens of fake windows along the high-rise buildings' facades. Who were they trying to fool?

1 minute read

November 8, 2013, 2:00 PM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


I swear we're not trying to pick on Chinese planning and design, but we can't seem to help ourselves. The latest culprit is a fake window fiasco involving newly constructed low-cost housing in Qingdao.

"Yes, earlier this month, Chinese Internet users noticed that a number of the windows on the building were not actually windows — they had been painted on," writes Adam Taylor. "What could be behind the decision to include fake windows on a government-funded building filled with low-cost apartments? Netizens wondered if the government had been cutting corners, or scammed by a building contractor."

In response to the outcry, the government explained that the fake windows were added for "aesthetic reasons" to decorate stairwells and "later posted a message to their Weibo account saying that they had asked the contractors to remove the fake windows, explaining that they had created an 'adverse social effect.'"



Monday, October 28, 2013 in Business Insider

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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