Absurdity, Allegory and China

In early June I went to the CCTV Bldg. to have a look and what I found cocked my brow a few degrees: on the roof of the northwest tower, Tower 1, there was a helipad, a circular affair that oddly took the edge off the well-defined linear profile. A circle of all things! As I gave it more thought I realized that this wasn’t so strange, given that the building is News Control for a state organ that has exclusive rights to broadcast to one-quarter of the world’s population. That they would have a helipad is not odd, though a circular one seemed way out of character. I tried not to think about it too much. (I get tired of thinking about this building too much! And telling myself that, “Someone’s got to do it,” sometimes wears a little thin. Sisyphus had his ramp and rock, and I ended up with this. All in all, I’d say I got the better deal, though his burden is, undoubtedly, a lot easier to roll.)

At the end of June I was in Paris and happened upon a copy of the Architecture and Urbanism, July 2005 Special Issue on the “CCTV by OMA.” It was not cheap, and I walked away from it, though the details of this thick, glossy issue were too much to … walk away from. Later Beth went back to the shop and bought the copy. The main attractions were the architectural renderings, along with plans, sections and elevations of both main buildings in the complex, as well as drawings and renderings of the other buildings and proposed public spaces within the borders of this massive project.

Last week Jeremy at Danwei mentioned the following concerning the helipad:

On a related subject, the iconic new CCTV building designed by Rem Koolhaas has had its clean lines ruined by the addition of a helicopter landing pad on the roof.

The gossip in Beijing is that Koolhaas was enraged by the late-breaking design change, …

In a follow up to my comment where I mentioned the Architecture and Urbanism special issue he posted the following:

I called a staff member of Koolhaas’ firm OMA in Beijing. He told me he was too busy right now to find out what happened: essentially “no comment”.

Below are three photos (click on the photos for larger versions) from the issue showing the helipad as part of the long-term plan. If there is a rub it is probably not over the helipad, but rather the change that grew it from a square contained within the perimeter of the footprint, into a circle that overhangs the edges, as well as raising the deck of the pad above the high point of the roof. It’s all about the mashing (not the meshing) of shapes, and how some things can, unexpectedly, change. It is, after all, CCTV.