Architect Zhou Qi defends 'phallic' design of his People's Daily tower
'Phallic' look of new headquarters for party mouthpiece will be less jarring when built, says Zhou Qi, who calls debate surrounding it political
Zhou Qi is well aware of the unflattering things people have said about the office tower he designed for People's Daily, which is now rising over Beijing's central business district.
Since the 32-storey structure first took shape last spring, countless internet users have taken great glee in the fact that the would-be offices of the Communist Party's top propaganda organ appears - at least during construction - to resemble a male sex organ.
But Zhou says he does not take the sniggering personally. He believes the mockery is aimed not at his design, but at the prominent party institution it will house when completed. "The whole controversy is not directed at us," he told the Sunday Morning Post. "It's actually a political debate in the sphere of ideology targeting People's Daily."
Zhou, a professor of architecture at Southeast University in Nanjing , hopes the smirks will subside when construction ends and work crews remove the scaffolding from the top of the tower that has helped give the building its phallic profile.
"It is a very curved, windy and dangerous zone for the workers," he said.
"But when the scaffolding is taken down upon the completion of construction, people will stop seeing it as a phallic tower."