We’ve seen some pretty incredible ad hoc architecture on China’s high-rises — this alpine rooftop mansion should jog your memory — but we may now have a challenger for craziest illegal addition: A bridge built between two different apartment buildings built by and for a lone resident.
According to Chinese news service CRI, the addition connects two high-rises in Nanning, a city in the south about 400km west of Hong Kong. “The corridor connects two buildings in a residential district, but was built and is used by a single owner,” says CRI, adding that it causes “a safety hazard to passers-by walking below.” Meanwhile, Designboom points out that such a structure would be dubious during a typhoon — not to mention the Monsoon rains of which subtropical Nanning gets a bit. Shanghaist says the bridge isn’t even open to other residents — it’s for one owner and one owner only.
An illegally constructed corridor btw 2 buildings in Nanning, Guangxi raises safety concerns among local residents. pic.twitter.com/gOMkQgcwyj
— People’s Daily,China (@PDChina) December 11, 2014
Dangerous and ill-advised though it is, you kind of have to admire the sheer bravado it took to build it. Not only would you have to own two apartments in two separate buildings at roughly the same floor height, and not only would you need to evade the authorities and start building without proper permission or planning, but you’d also have to find materials and hire workers to carry out a project that’s clearly dangerous and illegal and potentially deadly. Someone really wanted to be able to walk from one bedroom to the other, and neither the law, physics or common sense could stop them.
Pictures: CRI via Designboom