World Architecture Icon Finally Complete
We have been warned against the overuse of the world ‘icon’ in relation to architecture projects, but there is no more fitting description for China’s CCTV Headquarters in Beijing.
After its conception 10 years ago in 2002 by architectural firm OMA and lead designers Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, the competition-winning proposal finally came off the page when work began in 2004. Now, a decade later, its opening is imminent.
“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,” Koolhaas says.
The structure breaks with convention and offers an utterly unique aesthetic. This includes the development of two leaning towers rising 54 storeys which meet at a L-shaped, 75-foot extension structure. The now-completed faade shows off the diagonal exterior support system that supports the unconventionally-shaped building....
