Rem's Chinese Puzzle

In China, there's a race to construct the world's tallest building. Both the Shanghai World Financial Center (due by 2008) and Union Square in Hong Kong (to open in 2007) will top out at more than 1,500 feet into the clouds. But in Beijing, height isn't everything. Just before Christmas, officials of CCTV, the country's flagship television network, unveiled a design for their new headquarters by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas that redefines the skyscraper. At 750 feet it seems comparatively puny, but its 5.5 million square feet of floor space (as much as one of the Twin Towers) snake into a squared-off loop that links the various functions of CCTV into a continuum. And its stunning silhouette, with amazing turns and cantilevers, makes it unlike anything on any urban skyline. Like a lot of people, Koolhaas has been mulling over skyscrapers since 9-11. "It's a kind of unconscious working out of issues," he says. "How can you make a high-rise building that's not about height? How can you make a high-rise building that can define a place rather than simply occupy it?"

The ultracool Koolhaas, best known for designing cultural institutions--and the Manhattan Prada store--has never built anything this big. But he beat two U.S. firms famous for their skyscrapers, as well as Toyo Ito of Japan, Dominique Perrault of France and several Chinese firms, in a competition for the $600 million project. CCTV operates 12 channels in China but plans to expand to 200 by 2008, the year the Olympics come to Beijing--and the deadline for the new headquarters. The network wants to produce more shows rather than just purchase them; in this design, production, news, broadcasting and offices are all to be under one sloping roof. Koolhaas, with his associate Ole Scheeren and engineer Cecil Balmond, created an innovative structure where crisscrossing supports become denser at critical junctures. The overall scheme also calls for an adjacent hotel and large theater.

Still, Koolhaas has taken some heat. The Asia expert Ian Buruma argues that Western architects might consider designing a hospital in China--but not the headquarters for state-controlled TV news. Koolhaas, who spent time in China researching "Great Leap Forward," his 2001 book about the development of the Pearl River delta, counters that the country is undergoing a shift, evident in part by its entry into the World Trade Organization. "There is a new generation," he says. "It is my considered opinion that on the whole they are making huge progress." Whether his building, with its giant opening, signals a new openness for the press may not be apparent. (The new chief of propaganda recently instructed the Chinese media to "foster a political sense.") But in its ambition and radical design, it's clearly a great leap forward.