Photo Courtesy of Arup

China Central Television's looping first-of-a-kind structure resulted from a close collaboration between OMA, three Arup offices and other consultants in Europe, Asia and America. The cooperation was essential in delivering the design (ENR 7/21/08 p. 30) for the building's external continuous tube system. 

Judges noted the difficulties of gaining approval for a design outside the prescriptive Chinese building code and also the challenge of connecting the two towers in the 13-story overhang suspended 36 stories in the air. The linkage was accomplished at dawn when both towers were at the same ambient temperature to minimize differential movement.

Location Beijing

Project Team

Owner General Office of CCTV New Site Construction and Development, Beijing

Architect Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam, Netherlands

General Contractor/CM China State Construction and Eng. Corp., Beijing

Structural and MEP Engineers Arup, Beijing, London, Hong Kong offices

Civil Engineer East China Architecture and Design Institute, Shanghai