CCTV to get grand new home
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-03-02 10:58

CCTV's new 553,000-square-metre headquarters will be among the first of 300 architectural complexes to be constructed in Beijing's new Central Business District, outside the eastern Third Ring Road.

The total construction cost is estimated at 600 million Euros (US$750 million). The project will be completed ahead of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The contract for the building complex went to winning designer the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) on December 20, 2002, closing an international architectural competition organized by the Beijing International Tendering Co.

The OMA scheme was chosen from among 10 competitors, including Dominique Perrault from France and Kohn Pedersen Fox and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP from the United States, after an international jury that included architect Arata Isozaki and critic Charles Jencks selected three firms for the second phase - Toyo Ito & Associates in collaboration with FCJZ of Beijing, the East China Architecture & Design Institute, and OMA, with OMA coming out as the final choice.

The OMA design features an iconic configuration involving two high-rise towers on a 10-hectare site in the new Central Business District in Beijing.

The tallest tower, with a height of 230 metres and a floor area of 405,000 square metres, combines administration with news, broadcasting, studios and programme production - bringing the entire television process together in a sequence of interconnected areas.

Although the building's main tower is 230 metres tall, it is not a traditional skyscraper, but a continuous series of horizontal and vertical sections that establish an urban site rather than simply pointing skyward.

The irregular grid work on the building's facades is an expression of the forces travelling throughout its structure.

The second building, the 116,000-square-metre Television Cultural Centre (TVCC) includes a hotel, a visitor's centre, a large public theatre and exhibition facilities.

A Media Park forms a landscape of public entertainment, outdoor filming areas and production studios, and serves as an extension of the central green axis of the CBD.

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