REM KOOLHAAS
Remment Lucas Koolhaas was born 17 November 1944. He is a Dutch architect and architectural theorist. He has recently become Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is the founding partner of OMA.
List of Main Projects:
- Netherlands Dance Theater (The Hague, 1988)
- Nexus Housing (Fukuoka, 1991)
- Kunsthal (Rotterdam, 1993)
- Educatorium (Utrecht, 1993–1997)
- Second Stage Theatre (New York City, 1999)
- Guggenheim Hermitage Museum (Las Vegas, 1980, 2002?)
- McCormick Tribune Campus Center, IIT (Chicago, 1997–2003)
- Netherlands Embassy Berlin (2003)
- Retail design for Prada stores (New York: 2003, Los Angeles: 2004)
- Seattle Central Library (Seattle, 2004)
- Casa da Música (Porto, 2001–2005)
- Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, (London, 2006)
- Shenzhen Stock Exchange, (Shenzhen, 2006)
- Córdoba International Congress Center (Palacio del Sur), Córdoba, Spain
- CCTV HQ (Beijing, 2004–2009)
- Riga Port City, (Riga, 2009)
- 23 East 22nd Street, (New York City, 2008–2010)
- Bryghusprojektet, (Copenhagen, 2008–2010)
- Torre Bicentenario (Bicentennial Tower), (Mexico City, 2007, unbuilt)
- New Court, St. Swithin's Lane (London, 2010)
- De Rotterdam, (Rotterdam, 2009–2013)
He has been awarded with the Pritzker Prize in 2000 and in 2008 Time put him in their top 100 of The World's Most Influential People. He has become from the 1970s one of the more relevant architects in the world and in the history of architecture.
QUALITATIVE
MEDIUM
o What is it made of?
This 600,000 square meter project is mainly made of steel, timber, reinforced concrete and glass. For instance, it has required 123,750 tons of steel for 4.8 million square feet of space, or 51 lbs/sf of steel.
It has an irregular geometry.
Composition of the new CCTV headquarters :
- -the main building, an area of 115,000 square meters which includes a hotel, a visitor's center, a large public theatre, and exhibition spaces. It is a highly visible edifice that can be seen from the main intersection of the Central Business District.
- -the Television Cultural Centre (TVCC) (frames the main building which is situated within the “window” of the TVCC building) a Media Park can be found beneath the open spaces of the TVCC and forms a landscape of public entertainment, outdoor filming areas, and production studios as an extension of the central green axis of the CBD.
- -the Energy Service Centre
The total size is 575.000 m2 :
- -TVCC total 95,000m2: hotel 52,000m2, public facilities 23,000m2, parking 20,000m2
- -CCTV total 465,000m2: 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
The gate of the CCTV tower is without any doors and is transparent.
o How can it be reproduced using its raw materials?
The tower is not designed as a traditional skyscraper pointing directly to the sky, but as a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections that establishes an urban site. “The towers press their overhanging heads together, as if each were wearied by the effort to remain upright,” writes contributor William B. Millard. It uses triangulated structure with diagonal support beams.
The main tower is comprised of two symmetrical L-shaped high-rise towers linked at the top and the bottom at an angle and this disorientates the viewer. It also looks like two Zs joined together, which has been described as a ‘Z’ criss-cross. They reflect and signify each other.
To understand how it was made, one can take a look at this well-done presentation:
the slides 2-3 explain how it was made and the slide 40, the construction process
STYLE
The building does not have the traditional shape of a skyscraper. First of all, it is not as high as technology today might give the opportunity. Secondly it is from by two tilted towers, which are connected by a huge horizontal section in the air creating a big empty space in the middle. The new work of architecture certainly distinguish it self from the other buildings, most of which look much the same.
any perspective we will never see only one of the towers. We will always appreciate the connection. It actually looks like a big empty cube, it has been called the “twisted donut”. The building is not only two independent towers but everything becomes one. The building is based on functionality but as well in architectural design.
Its shape can be sum up in 4 words:
- Constant loop
- Cantilever overhang
- Diagonal structure grid systemà little triangles connected with nodes and rings at their intersect
- L-shaped
It has capability for 10.000 people. The butterfly links can be appreciated since it is covered with glass. It has a brilliant colour when it is at night since it is illuminated and the light reflects on the glass. It looks sophisticated and fragile, it even seem impossible that such an structure will be able to stand by itself.
EXPRESSION
What is it used for:
- The building is used for the Chinese Central Television
- The CCTV building was part of a media park intended to form a landscape of public entertainment, outdoor filming areas, and production studiosThere news programs, interviews, journals recorded in there.
- Administration, news, broadcasting, and program production offices and studios are all continued inside.
- It was one of the buildings built in time for the 2008 Olympic games to make the city more modern and beautiful to host this event. While the tower was used to “brighten” the city, it actually contains inside the news programs that recorded the Olympics and then broadcasted them to the world.
How does it function:
-
It is an “earthbound structure, not a skyscraper”
- It was built in three buildings that were joined together to become one and a half buildings 30 May 2007.
- Components:
o CCTV Building (Headquarters & Broadcasting)
o TVCC Wing (Cultural Center & Performing Arts)
o Media Park (Social Gathering Place)
- Nicknames: “Twisted Donut”, “The Pants”, “Two drunken, upside-down Ls”, “Each Tower is a banana, built with a deliberate slight curve”, “Contorted Loop”
- Seismic Stability Design Approach:
o Frequent Earthquake -> No structural damage
o Intermediate Earthquake -> Repairable Structural Damage
o Rare Earthquake -> Severe Strucutral Damage permitted, must not collapse
http://www.slideshare.net/peterbach/cctv-building-a-structural-design-overview
QUANTITATIVE
VALUE
o What is the cost of production, distribution & sustainability?
Budget: €600 million but COST: €850 million ($1.2 billion)
o How long does it take to manufacture and where is it done?
The construction began in September 2004 and it was due for completion end of 2009 and was actually finished in 2008.
It was constructed on the 20-hectare site of an abandoned motorcycle factory in Beijing’s new Central Business District.
ORIGINALITY
Among the skyscrapers in Beijing there is one in particular that catches the eye. Most architects and designers argued that since the area is one in development it was needed to put together the highest skyscraper possible. Koolhaas dislike this idea and with his team decided then to try to reinvent the idea of skyscraper.
The main idea was to create a skyscraper that really capture the essence of the media and that sum up the purpose and facilitate the work for this one. The building changes of shape depending from which perspective we are looking at it, but we never see a unique tower since this one from whichever perspective is always connected to something else.
From the outset, it was determined that the only way to deliver the desired architectural form of the CCTV building was to engage the entire façade structure, creating in essence an external continuous tube system. This would give the structure the largest available dimensions to resist extreme earthquakes.
The building represents Koolhaas ambition and challenge to traditional forms of architecture. The Building that he created has a strong visual impact. All the surroundings become the background that highlight the presence of his work.
His work is different from the other because it is more pioneering, more exaggerated and it is based in a strong visual impact. Furthermore, it was risky in terms of earthquake and it seemed unstable. Nevertheless, the structure is the result of numerous researches and proved to be much more securing than normal skyscrapers due to several factors:
- Super elasticity of the desing
- The towers deflect under their own weithgt
Furthermore, the building offers the best system in case of emergency, reducing the time for evacuation:
Koolhaas work is one of the biggest buildings ever constructed and the work is also architectural configuration and design.
The building is different as well from others of his family because since the building is for the CCTV it needed to fulfil some necessities. Rem Koolhaas himself argued that one of the reasons why his building was different is because it was the product of the challenges that have been overcome.
SIGNIFICATION
o How does this object go beyond initial interpretation?
The construction of the building is considered to be a structural challenge, especially because it is in a seismic zone. Because of its radical shape, it's said that a taxi driver first came up with its nickname dà kùchǎ (大裤衩), roughly translated as, "big boxer shorts".
This headquarters for China Central Television, combines the entire process of TV-making – administration, production, broadcasting – into a single loop of interconnected activity. Rising from a common platform accommodating production facilities, two towers – one dedicated to broadcasting, one to services, research, and education – lean towards each other and eventually merge in a dramatic, seemingly impossible cantilever.
CCTV's distinctive loop aims to offer an alternative to the exhausted typology of the skyscraper. In spite of their potential to incubate new cultures, programs, and ways of life, most skyscrapers accommodate merely routine activity, arranged according to predictable patterns. Formally, their expressions of verticality have proven to stunt the imagination: as verticality soars, creativity crashes.
Instead of competing in the hopeless race for ultimate height and style within a traditional two-dimensional tower 'soaring' skyward, CCTV proposes a truly three-dimensional experience, culminating in a canopy that symbolically embraces the entire city. CCTV consolidates all its operations in a continuous flow, allowing each worker to be permanently aware of her colleagues – a chain of interdependence that promotes solidarity rather than isolation, collaboration instead of opposition.
The loop also facilitates an unprecedented degree of public access to the production of China's media: visitors will be admitted to a dedicated path circulating through the building, connecting all elements of the program and offering spectacular views from the multiple facades towards the CBD, the Forbidden City, and the rest of Beijing.
VIDEO
nice and interesting blog
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