Central China TV, Beijing : Architecture Information

Info from Office for Metropolitan Architecture: China Central Television Headquarters construction reaches new milestone as façade is completed (Beijing, 6 August 2008) – The final panels of the glass facade of OMA’s CCTV building have been installed, marking a crucial stage in the construction of the new TV station for China’s national broadcaster, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren. CCTV photo by Ole Scheeren Construction of the 600,000 square meter project began in September 2004 on the 20 hectare site of an abandoned motorcycle factory in Beijing’s new Central Business District. After connecting the two leaning towers in December 2007 and topping out structural steel works this March, the CCTV building is due for completion end of 2009, whilst the adjacent Television Cultural Centre (TVCC), including the hotel operated by Mandarin Oriental is expected to open early next year. The third building on the site, the circular service building, is in operation and is presently being used for broadcasting of the Olympic Games. OMA partner in charge of the project Ole Scheeren said from Beijing: “After 6 years of intense collaboration with our client CCTV, our Chinese partners ECADI, and the engineers of ARUP, we are very pleased to see the successful completion of the exterior of the project on time for the Olympics. As the building now stands visibly in the city, it has added the three-dimensional figure of a loop to Beijing’s skyline of towers. It appears big yet sometimes small, and from every angle offers a completely different perspective and reading. We are hopeful to see the building emerge as a symbol of collaboration and change.” Once completed, the CCTV building will transform the usually inaccessible environment of media and television production and give access to the public via the ‘Visitor’s Loop’, a dedicated path of circulation, which allows people to view and experience multiple aspects of the production process. The lowest floor of the overhang, the large cantilever projecting out 75 meters horizontally in 162 meters height, will feature a public media museum and a viewing deck with sights across the city and vertically down through circular glass floor openings. The facades of CCTV portray the irregular geometry of the building’s steel structure. Its sometimes dense, sometimes more open grid of diagonals forms the stability system of the building and reflects the distribution of forces that the structure experiences under different load conditions. The construction of the China Central Television buildings is led by Ole Scheeren from OMA’s Beijing offices, along with project manager Dongmei Yao, project architects Anu Leinonen and Andre Schmidt, and a team of dedicated architects. CCTV Beijing - Info from Office for Metropolitan Architecture: CCTV Television Station and Headquarters - Building Information Project: CCTV Television Station and Headquarters Status: Competition 2002, 1st Prize. Completion 2008 Client: China Central Television (CCTV) Budget: €600m Location: Beijing, China Site: 18ha in new central business district Program: Total 575,000 m2: CCTV building 400,000m2; TVCC building 75,000m2; service building 15,000m2; parking 85,000m2 CCTV: administration 75,000m2; program offices 65,000m2; news production 70,000m2; broadcasting 40,000m2; program production 120,000m2; staff facilities 30,000m2; parking 65,000m2. TVCC: hotel 52,000m2; public facilities 23,000m2 including 1500 seat theatre; parking 20,000m2 CCTV Television Station Beijing + HQ images by/from OMA Associate Architect and Engineer: ECADI (East China Architecture & Design Institute), Shanghai Structure, Services: Arup London, Hong Kong Strategic Advisor: Qingyun Ma, Shanghai High Rise Consultant: DMJMH+N, Los Angeles Curtain Wall: Front, New York Broadcast Design: ECADI, Shanghai / Sandy Brown Associates, London Acoustics: Dorsser Blesgraaf, Eindhoven Scenography: DuckS Scéno, France Vertical Transportation: Lerch Bates & Associates, London Lighting: LPA, Tokyo CCTV Television Station and Headquarters (Beijing, December 20, 2002) CCTV’s new 553,000 m2 headquarters will be among the first of 300 towers to be constructed in Beijing’s new Central Business District. The total construction cost is estimated at 600 Million Euro. The China Central Television project will be completed for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The CCTV headquarters will be one of the first European skyscrapers to be built in China. As part of an international architectural competition organized by the Beijing International Tendering Co., the scheme presented by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) was awarded the contract on December 20. The OMA scheme was chosen from ten competitors, including Dominique Perrault from France and KPF and SOM from the United States. An international jury that included architect Arata Isozaki and critic Charles Jencks selected three teams for the second phase: Toyo Ito & Associates in collaboration with FCJZ of Beijing, the East China Architecture & Design Institute, and OMA. On the 10-hectare site in the new Central Business District in Beijing, the OMA proposal consolidates the program in an iconic configuration of two high-rise buildings: CCTV Headquarters The new CCTV headquarters, at a height of 230m and a floor area of 405,000m2, combines administration with news, broadcasting, studios and program production - the entire process of TV making - in a sequence of interconnected activities. Although the CCTV building is 230 meter tall it is not a traditional tower, but a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections that establish an urban site rather than point to the sky. The irregular grid on the building’s facades is an expression of the forces traveling throughout its structure. Television Cultural Center The second building, the 116,000 m2 Television Cultural Center (TVCC) includes a hotel, a visitor’s center, a large public theatre and exhibition spaces. It is visible from the main intersection of the Central Business District through the ‘window’ of the CCTV headquarters. A Media Park forms a landscape of public entertainment, outdoor filming areas and production studios as an extension of the central green axis of the CBD. Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren will be partners-in-charge. The OMA design team will consist of Shohei Shigematsu, Adrianne Fisher, Hiromasa Shirai, Anu Leinonen, Charles Berman and many others. Qingyun Ma from Shanghai will be advisor to the project. The CCTV Headquarters will be realized in collaboration with ECADI, the East China Architecture & Design Institute from Shanghai. Cecil Balmond and his team of Ove Arup & Partners will be responsible for the structural and mechanical engineering. OMA will collaborate with its media and research branch AMO. The Office for Metropolitan Architecture is concerned with contemporary architecture, urbanism and general cultural issues. The company is led by partners Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren and Ellen van Loon.