Office of Metropolitan Architecture - China Central Television Station and Headquarters

Wednesday, 08 October 2008 02:25

Here is another innovative project by dutch architects of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture. CCTV will be one among many towers in Beijing’s new Central Business District, all striving to be unique – all different expressions of the vertical dimension.

The tragedy of the skyscraper is that it marks a place as significant, which it then occupies and exhausts with banality… This banality is twofold: in spite of their potential to be incubators of new cultures, programs, and ways of life, most towers accommodate merely routine activity, arranged according to predictable patterns. Formally, their expressions of verticality have proven to stunt the imagination: as verticality soars, creativity crashes.

Instead of competing in the hopeless race for ultimate height – dominance of the skyline can only be achieved for a short period of time, and soon another, even taller building will emerge – the project proposes an iconographic constellation of two high-rise structures that actively engage the city space: CCTV and TVCC.

CCTV combines administration and offices, news and broadcasting, program production and services – the entire process of TV-making – in a loop of interconnected activities. Two structures rise from a common production platform that is partly underground. Each has a different character: one is dedicated to broadcasting, the second to services, research and education; they join at the top to create a cantilevered penthouse for the management. A new icon is formed… not the predictable 2-dimensional tower ‘soaring’ skyward, but a truly, 3-dimensional experience, a canopy that symbolically embraces the entire population… The consolidation of the TV program in a single building allows each worker to be permanently aware of the nature of the work of his co-workers – a chain of interdependence that promotes solidarity rather than isolation, collaboration instead of opposition. The building itself contributes to the coherence of the organization.

While CCTV is a secured building for staff and technology, public visitors will be admitted to the ‘loop’, a dedicated path circulating through the building and connecting to all elements of the program and offering spectacular views across the multiple facades towards the CBD, Beijing, and the Forbidden City.
Facade complete.jpg
The Television Cultural Center (TVCC) is an open, inviting structure. It accommodates visitors and guests, and will be freely accessible to the public. On the ground floor, a continuous lobby provides access to the 1500-seat theatre, a large ballroom, digital cinemas, recording studios and exhibition facilities. The building hosts the international broadcasting centre for the 2008 Olympic Games. The tower accommodates a five-star hotel; guests enter at a dedicated drop-off from the east of the building and ascend to the fifth floor housing the check-in as well as restaurants, lounges, and conference rooms. The hotel rooms are occupying both sides of the tower, forming a spectacular atrium above the landscape of public facilities.

On the block in the south-east, the Media Park is conceived as an extension of the proposed green axis of the CBD. It is open to the public for events and entertainment, and can be used for outdoor filming.

Project Description and Credits:

Project: China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters
Status: Completion 2009
Client: China Central Television (CCTV)
Location: Beijing, China
Budget: 5 billion RMB
Site: 20 hectares in new Central Business District
Program: Total 599.000 m2 (6,450,000 sf). CCTV total 473.000m2(5,100,000 sf): administration 64.800 m2, multi-purpose: 54.900 m2, news broadcasting 65.000 m2, broadcasting 31.800 m2, production 105.400 m2, loop 11.100 m2, services (canteens, gym) 22.500 m2, parking 59.700 m2 TVCC total 95.000m2: hotel S52.000m2, public facilities 23.000m2, parking 20.000m2. Service Building 22.902m2
CCTV headquarters building:
Tower 1 Height: 234m2 (767ft), 54 floors, footprint 40*60m,2400m2 (26,000sf)
Tower 2 Height : 210m (688ft), 44 floors, footprint 40*52m, 2000m2 (21,500sf)
Overhang bottom: 162m, 14 floors
Overhang cantilever: 75m to the west, 67m to the south
Base height: 45m, 9 floors, footprint 160*160m
Basement: -18m, 4 floors

Architects:
Partners in charge: Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas
Project Manager: Dongmei Yao
Project Architects: Charles Berman, David Chacon, Chris van Duijn, Erez Ella, Adrianne Fisher, Anu Leinonen, Andre Schmidt, Shohei Shigematsu, Hiromasa Shirai, Steven Smit

Team: Gabriela Bojalil, Joao Bravo Da Costa, Catarina Canas, Holly Chacon, Dan Cheong, Stephane Derveaux, Keren Engelman, Gaspard Estourgie, Tieying Fang, Pei Feng, Sarah Gibson, Chris James, Abhijit Kapade, Michel van der Kar, Paul Kroese, Peter Lee, Xiaodong Liu, Stuard Maddox, Joseph Monteleone, Cristina Murphy, Shiro Ogata, Roberto Otero, Daan Ooievaar, Torsten Schroeder, Wenchian Shi, Kamfai Tai, Faustina Tsai, Jasmine Tsoi, Xinyuan Wang, Luke Willis, Victoria Willocks, You Wu, Tian Tian Xu, Dirk Zschunke; With: Jeffrey Bolhuis, Georg Bucher, Johannes Buchholz, Paul Burgstaller, Max Burianek, Tim Callaghan, Gonzalo Laurentiu Coceanga, Guillaume Colboc, Pedro Costa Gama, Dorthee Dietz, Melissa Dowler, Lodewijk van Eeghen, Rodney Eggleston, Steffen Ell, Mamen Escorihueles, Joris Fach, Joao Gomes Branco Teodosio, Hendrik Gruss, James Harper, Yiannis Kanakakis, Suse Koch, Lawrence Leung, Menno van der Meer, Rodrigo Nunez Carrasco, Florian Pucher, Beatriz Ramo Lopez, Max Rink, Beatrice Schiavina, Max Schwitalla, Manuel Shvartzberg, Arianna Spaccasassi, Antonio Teles Branco, Laurent Troost, Loy Tsao, Steffie Wedde Support: Lisa Aalders, Mayyan Fan, Aoshuang Liu, Yonghong Liu, Weiwei Liu, Qiang Ou, Yongzhen Sun, Yimeng Wang, Xinhua Wu, Yi Xu, Yajuan Zhang

Competition Team: Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren, Shohei Shigematsu, Alain Fouraux, Fernando Donis, Adrianne Fisher, Anu Leinonen, Hiromasa Shirai, Tammo Prinze, Catarina Canas, Erez Ella, Victoria Willocks, Johannes Buchholz, Guillaume Colboc, Mamen Escorihuela, Sarah Gibson, Shiro Ogata, Torsten SchrÃ¶der, L. E. Tsao, Zhaohui Wu, Yimin Zhu