CCTV Beijing Building, China Central Television, Design, Architect, Project, Photos

CCTV Headquarters Beijing : China Central Television Building

Chinese TV Station and Headquarters design by OMA

30 Jun 2013

CCTV Headquarters in Beijing Award

CTBUH Names CCTV Headquarters Best Tall Building in Asia & Australia 2013
CTBUH Awards 2013

CCTV photos © Philippe Ruault
Highly distinctive towers in Canada, China, the UK and UAE have been named the best tall buildings in the world for 2013 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The four regional winners include The Bow in Calgary, Canada (Americas); CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, China (Asia & Australia); The Shard, London (Europe); Sowwah Square, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Middle East & Africa).

16 May 2012

Central China TV Beijing

CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, designed by OMA, completed

Design: OMA

Design: Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren (until 2010), David Gianotten, in collaboration with partners Shohei Shigematsu, Ellen van Loon and Victor van der Chijs

Beijing, 16 May 2012 – Today OMA participated in the official construction completion ceremony for the China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters in Beijing, which will start to be used later this year. Designed by OMA as a reinvention of the skyscraper as a loop, construction on the building began in 2004. At approximately 473, 000m2, CCTV – accommodating TV studios, offices, broadcasting and production facilities – is OMA’s largest ever project and its first major building in China.

CCTV/OMA Partners-in-charge: Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, designers, David Gianotten, photograph by Iwan Baan

CCTV defies the skyscraper’s typical quest for ultimate height. Rising from a common platform, two towers lean towards each other and eventually merge in a perpendicular, 75-metre cantilever. The design combines the entire process of TV-making – formerly scattered in various locations across the city – into a loop of interconnected activities.

CCTV/OMA Partners-in-charge: Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren, David Gianotten – photographed by Iwan Baan

The structure of the CCTV Headquarters, and the forces at work within it, is visible on its façade: a web of diagonals that becomes dense in areas of greater stress, looser and more open in areas requiring less support. The façade itself becomes a visual manifestation of the building’s structure.

Rem Koolhaas commented: “I am very happy, after years of intense collaboration, that the CCTV building will soon begin to perform its role in the way it is intended.”

CCTV image courtesy of OMA

The CCTV project was led by OMA / Rem Koolhaas, former OMA partner Ole Scheeren (until 2010), OMA partner David Gianotten and project manager Dongmei Yao in close collaboration with partners Shohei Shigematsu, Ellen van Loon and Victor van der Chijs. The design team consisted of project architects Anu Leinonen, Charles Berman and Adrianne Fisher together with a team of over 100 architects from OMA.

The structural and MEP design was provided by Cecil Balmond and Arup, while ECADI (East China Architectural Design & Research Institute) functioned as the Local Design Institute. Design Consultants included Front INC, Inside/Outside, DHV, DMJMH+N, Lerch Bates & Associates, LPA, Sandy Brown Associates and Romano Gatland NY.

CCTV photos : OMA / Philippe Ruault

Central China TV Beijing images / information from OMA

Comment from Anthony Sully

What a monstrosity and an indication of the arrogance of OMA to produce a building that has so many design faults: several layered grids for the cladding with so may ‘specials’ to make it a laughable 1st year architectural project. A building plan that appears to have some regimented repeated components contrary to the mad leaning envelope.

Anthony Sully, Monmouthshire, UK

Central China TV

CCTV photo by Ole Scheeren

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 image courtesy of 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 image courtesy of OMA