China Central Television Headquarters
Client: China Central Television
Architect: OMA Stedebouw BV
China Central Television’s (CCTV) new headquarters building is a 234m tall building whose shape has been described as a ‘three-dimensional cranked loop’. The building is formed by two leaning towers, which are bent 90° at the top and bottom to meet forming a continuous tube. The tower, designed by architects OMA - Ole Scheeren & Rem Koolhaas, will be the focal point of Beijing’s new Central Business District.
The highly unusual shape of the tower redefines the physical form of the skyscraper and posed some significant structural challenges during design, not least the need for the structure to withstand a high level of seismic activity.
The biggest challenge for the Arup engineers was the unique structural form of the CCTV building. Before the towers were linked towards the end of the construction phase, they were prone to movement due to the extremes of hot and cold weather in Beijing, so construction issues were a key part of the design process. It was of paramount importance that the design should take into consideration the way the building would behave in its partially-constructed form.
The towers were joined in mid-December 2007 at nine o’clock in the morning, on a windless day when the temperature of the tube structures had the least variation due to direct sunlight. Had the towers been joined at noon on a summer day, the heat would have caused the steel in some of the buildings surfaces to expand slightly, skewing the structure out of alignment.
The completed building combines administration functions with news, broadcasting, studios and programme production. It has enabled the state run television broadcaster to reach a new level of global broadcasting, expanding from its current operation of running 13 channels to over 200.
