OMA Designs New Headquarters for Central Chinese TV Giant CCTV in Beijing
23 december 2002, 13:53
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 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:
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 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. 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 lead by partners Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren and Ellen van Loon. OMA’s latest realizations include: the Prada Epicenter store in New York and two Guggenheim Museums in Las Vegas. Currently in construction are: the new Netherlands embassy in Berlin, a concert hall in Porto, a Prada Epicenter in Beverly Hills, a public library for Seattle and a campus center for the IIT in Chicago. Beyond a strong engagement in the United States, OMA has recently focused attention on Europe and Asia.