![“China is now able to compete on a value-added basis as well as [on] price,” says Bradford Perkins of Perkins Eastman Architects. Newer Chinese manufactures include advanced curtain-wall systems, bamboo flooring, and high-end contract furniture.](https://architectmagazine.stg.zonda.onl/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2008/tmp3ba8-2etmp-tcm20-137548.jpg?w=1024)
Moreover, the Chinese glass companies were ready to customize any order. “They don’t have products that are standard; everything is custom-made,” Brininstool says. “They were very open-minded on the design side.” By comparison, he adds, “a U.S. company will say, ‘If it’s not in the book, we don’t do it.’ ” (His firm’s Chicago condo project is currently on hold.)
The Chinese manufacturers are winning some big projects. Last year, Yuanda Group was awarded a 40-million-euro contract to supply the glass curtain-wall system for Frankfurt Airport’s new railway center, the English-language newspaper China Daily reports, adding that the contract was significant because Germany is a leading developer of such technology. Other Chinese companies have been involved in curtain-wall systems in projects including the Princess Tower in Dubai, China Daily says.
It’s not just Chinese-made glass curtain walls that are entering the market, however. For its part, SOM has begun using Chinese contract furniture systems for projects in the United States, including one for a top-flight law firm, which also met tough price and quality criteria. Meanwhile, American architecture and design firm Rottet Studio is working with a Hong Kong–based company, Decca, on a line of high-end contract furniture. Jan Vingerhoets, chief executive of lighting company Artemide, sees Chinese companies increasingly bidding for architectural lighting products. They focus on products such as recessed lighting in offices, rather than in the residential design sector, because the former is “more about function and price,” Vingerhoets says.
Decca is also moving into the hospitality sector through its U.S. division, Decca Hospitality Furnishings in Atlanta. Formed in 2002 and aimed at the very high-end hotel market, the company now sells around $50 million annually to hotel chains including St. Regis, The Ritz-Carlton, and Four Seasons. The furniture—everything from nightstands and dressers to pieces for public spaces—is designed in the United States and manufactured in Decca-owned factories in China and Thailand, which means it can be priced around 40 percent cheaper than its U.S. equivalents. It also means that Decca, unlike other companies that subcontract to Chinese manufacturers, can better maintain standards. “Our mode of operation is that we own the factory and so can better control quality and delivery,” Nick Hart, chief executive of the U.S. division, explains.
With their growing expertise and confidence, Chinese companies are expected to expand their market abroad for architectural products. “Five years from now, the China brand might be considered on the same level as an Italian brand,” says Gensler’s Van Erp. “They will be tough to compete with.”