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.'"

FULL STORY: People Are Very Confused By This Chinese Apartment Building With Fake Windows

Monday, October 28, 2013 in Business Insider

Architecture Humor China Fake Windows Qingdao

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