------Program code: DO-090102-03209 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
01-02-2009 16:18
At 9:08 in the morning of December 26th 2007, the cantilever steel structure of the Main Building of the CCTV new site was successfully closed. This fantastic work of architecture in terms of its asymmetry consists of two towers which are 234-meters and 194 meters high respectively and which toward each other. On top of the two towers is a super cantilever structure weighting 1.8 tons which connects the two towers with a sheer drop of 40 meters to form an irregular ring.
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The building was nominated by Time Magazine in the US as one of the 10 Best New and Upcoming Architectural Marvels of 2007. Commentators even stated that the building challenges the earth’s gravity.
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The designers of the building are Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his partner Ole Scheeren. Five years ago, they gained a great coup in their bid for the CCTV new site project, and from then on the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), famous for promoting vanguard styles, and China’s most authoritative television network, began an important period of cooperation. In the bidding process the review committee gave the plan submitted by Koolhaas and Scheeren unanimous approval, but this did not mean that everything was perfect. To the contrary, the review committee raised many questions regarding the safety of the structure.
This is Arup, a world-famous engineering consultancy firm well-known for the structural design aspects of buildings in unconventional shapes. Arup participated in the structural design process of the renowned Sydney Opera House in Australia, the headquarters of Swiss Reinsurance in London, and even the Scottish Parliament.
As soon as Koolhaas decided upon the Rings Plan for the Main Building of the CCTV new site, he asked Arup to examine the feasibility turning such a fantastic design into a reality.
The first question to be answered by the Arup structural engineers was whether the two inward-tilting towers could actually be built in terms of structure. Both the towers would be inclining bi-directionally, and each tower would have two facades in the shape of parallelogram at an oblique angle of 6 degrees. Such an obscure structure would probably remind people of Italy’s famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.
