ArchDaily’s January 19 article “Zaha Hadid’s, Under Construction, Chengdu Science Fiction Museum Will Host Worldcon 2023” has an 11-picture gallery showing what the venue is expected to look like when it is finished.
The world’s largest science fiction event Worldcon will take place in the Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Under construction, the 59,000 sq. m venue that will host the 81st annual World Science Fiction Convention and the Hugo Awards, is set to become a vibrant center of innovation and gathering place for the “leading incubator of science fiction writing in China”. In fact, the city of Chengdu, home to over 20 million residents, is transforming into an important global center of scientific innovation and research….
The article does not report on the percentage of work already completed.
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Gee, none of us has ever attended an SF con in a hotel which didn’t finish the scheduled renovations in time for our con!
Sure, some of us have, isn’t that your point? But this article is about the venue, not the hotels whose websites show they are open for business now. The venue hasn’t opened, it’s still under construction.
Let us hope the venue is finished and in full commission by the time this fall’s Worldcon rolls around. I still recall when I was on the Denvention II committee, and we hung our plans for easy (and free) bus transit between the hotels and the convention center on the new 16th Street Pedestrian/Shuttle Bus mall. It was supposed to be completed and fully operational before the con, but it was nowhere near ready. So, we had to throw together an expensive substitute service using buses chartered from Gray Line. This unforeseen expense contributed to Denvention II just barely breaking even, along with one stolen piece in the Art Show and about two grand worth of rubber checks which were used to buy artwork (we paid the artists involved in full and ate the checks; rubber tastes terrible, doesn’t go down well, and causes indigestion).
Jeanne Jackson says Let us hope the venue is finished and in full commission by the time this fall’s Worldcon rolls around. I still recall when I was on the Denvention II committee, and we hung our plans for easy (and free) bus transit between the hotels and the convention center on the new 16th Street Pedestrian/Shuttle Bus mall. It was supposed to be completed and fully operational before the con, but it was nowhere near ready. So, we had to throw together an expensive substitute service using buses chartered from Gray Line. This unforeseen expense contributed to Denvention II just barely breaking even, along with one stolen piece in the Art Show and about two grand worth of rubber checks which were used to buy artwork (we paid the artists involved in full and ate the checks; rubber tastes terrible, doesn’t go down well, and causes indigestion).
Yeah, I’ve covered costs for concerts that went far worse than I expected. Writing out checks to artists for fifteen hundred dollars when the receipts for that night are half of that hurt. It didn’t happen often, thank the Queen of Air and Darkness, but it happened.
Clickity
The Chinese are famous for quickly completing construction projects. They throw thousands of workers at the project.
I wonder about mosquitoes since the site looks to be surrounded by fresh water.
The world’s largest science fiction event Worldcon!
“Perhaps you’ll believe this artist’s conception!”
Another post on Chinese social media and seems like an insider.
https://share.api.weibo.cn/share/362533211,4860055750710244.html?weibo_id=4860055750710244&wx=1
#2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention
What a coincidence.
This morning the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention just announced on Twitter that it has been rescheduled from August 16-20 to October 18-22, and (finally) the venue has been clearly revised to the Science Fiction Pavilion at the World Science Fiction Park at Jingrong Lake in Pidu District. The news today () reported that the construction of the new science and technology pavilion is expected to be completed and accepted by August 30 this year (Figure 1).
The news on 5 January was still saying that it would be completed on 30 July (Figure 2).
So it’s really hard not to suspect that the conference has been rescheduled because the (newly renovated) Science and Technology Museum will not be completed as scheduled.
It seems that the news media are better informed than the members who bought their place on the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention ballot.
The organizing committee was supposed to provide periodic progress reports on the organization of the conference to members who bought tickets according to the constitution, but so far they haven’t received them.
But the original declaration of information on the new Century City address in the high-tech zone (the official website is still this address) is not used, why so rigid to change in this new venue? See the news about the unrelated Pidu District (where the new venue is located) has long played the name of the Chengdu World Science Fiction Conference “to take advantage of the momentum, to do strong industry, to do excellent brand” as intended (reference: http://t.cn/A69NqI51), and the commercial real estate big Vanke also as early as in their own Jing Rong metropolis The announcement of the property mentioned that the “World Science Fiction Conference” was held in Pidu District (reference: http://t.cn/A6or2FXD).
I can only suspect that the organizing committee actually sold all its members early on to use the venue as a bargaining chip in exchange for government performance commercial real estate interests.
The World Science Fiction Convention is supposed to be a convention for science fiction fans, not a convention organized by the national government, but rather has been very shy of government involvement.
As early as when the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention was awarded the bid, there was opposition from the foreign science fiction community at the announcement site in Washington, D.C. There were a large number of votes for non-compliance saying that the Chinese government was operating in the background (reference: http://t.cn/A6XOwdtj).
This is a good thing, because the organising committee has suddenly announced that it is not going to be able to host the event.
And because the organising committee has suddenly announced that the event has been rescheduled from August to October, many students who were originally able to attend during the summer holidays (members of various university science fiction societies have previously supported Chengdu’s bid for tickets) are now unable to attend, and there are no refund channels.
Today’s announcement by the Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention organizing committee suggests that only members who purchase a membership before the end of January 31 (only 10 days left) will have the right to be nominated for the Hugo Awards, but the problem of the official website not being able to accept credit card payments from abroad remains unresolved, and questions from foreign science fiction fans continue to come in.
With the epidemic out of the way and the support of science fiction fans across the country, this was a highly anticipated event.
But now, it feels like a mess.
We need to keep an eye on the reaction of the science fiction industry and science fiction fans abroad.
Check out the architects’ other projects.
Zaha Hadid is (or was) an amazing architect. Her work is always beautiful and has a fabulous futuristic quality. She died in 2016 so this project must have been in process for quite some time to still be under construction 7 years later.
That tripped me up, too. Zahra Hadid was an amazing architect, but she died almost seven years ago, so this project must have been in development for quite some time.
Her 400-employee firm continues to develop new projects extending through 2030, so this museum might be one that originated after her death.
Weirdog quoted:
The editor of website that posted this has comprehension issues. Anyone can be nominated after January 31. Members need to join by January 31 to be eligible to participate in the nomination process. However, the editor also overlooks that anyone who was a member of last year’s Worldcon is already eligible to participate.
Click
@Adrienne, that may well be a translation error. The original article was in Chinese.
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