ArchiFlop. Failed visions

• Tianducheng, China
• Start of construction: 2007
• "The Paris of China"

The city of love in the land of smiles. What sounds like the perfect combination, has unfortunately gone somewhat wrong... In 2007, this highly original clone of Paris was planned to be home for some 10,000 people – but there have never been more than 2,000 residents. The reproduction has succeeded with one thing though: The style of the houses, the squares with their fountains, and the carefully landscaped and manicured gardens – everything fits.

But the geographical situation is to blame for no one wanting to live here. Tianducheng is surrounded by huge fields, reachable only on narrow, winding country roads. The local shops have still not been rented out, with horrendously expensive prices for housing. Shanty towns have sprung up alongside the luxurious apartment buildings. After all, the city still serves as a beautiful backdrop for weddings.

Abandoned dreamworlds

• Nara, Japan
• Opened: 1961
• Closed: 2006
• "The Japanese Disneyland"

Impressed by Californian Disneyland, Japanese businessman Kunizu Matsuo decided to construct a similarly spectacular amusement park in the late 1950s, Nara Dreamland. He contacted Walt Disney – but no agreement was reached on the license fees for use of the Disney characters.

Instead, Japanese designers designed their own mascot for the park, but their buildings and attractions mimicked Disney World: Sleeping Beauty’s castle, Adventure Land, and the pirate ship. The park opened in 1961, but just 22 years later, the opening of the actual Disneyland in Tokyo brought about its decline. A supermarket chain acquired the premises in 1993. Then, in the of summer of 2006, it was permanently closed, never to reopen.

A worn-out monument of the past

• Buzludzha, Bulgaria
• Start of construction: 1974
• Abandonment of the building? 1989

A concrete flying saucer, decorated with Communist Party slogans. In its golden age, this palace of propaganda was an important icon of the communist world. Its interior was adorned with mosaics and murals with a Soviet propaganda theme; the Soviet star on the tower was three times the size of the one on the Kremlin.

The construction, which cost 7 billion euros, was inaugurated in 1981 – as a memorial to the liberation of the Turks as well as from National Socialist rule. The Bulgarian Communist Party quickly adopted it as their headquarters. But since the fall of the government in 1989, it has lain neglected. Portraits of communist leaders were destroyed, copper ornaments were looted, mosaics plundered – and the star riddled with gunshots.