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Rem Koolhaas ARCH1222 I Architectural History and Theory 2 I Assignment 2 the moderns: REM KOOLHAAS Erino Christine Sugisaki I 3414660 I Prajakta Sane THE TALL BUILDING An issue inevitably trailing on in society is Chinese Television (CCTV) Headquarters determining the next great phenomenon (2002), this will enlighten the reader in that will contribute to the fundamentals of understanding the new issues that need to modern architecture. Both Le Corbusier be addressed in this age of globalisation and and Mies Van Der Rohe have engraved their this inherent desire to satisfy the culture of mark on modern architecture and have spectacle.3 And this ability to exhaust all significantly influenced Koolhaas’s attitude the possibilities within a new context, whilst towards design.1 However with his close continually reinterpreting the past ideas engagement with the state of architecture of modernism has erected architecture of during late capitalism, issues of suppressing great intensity and his published body of past utopian aspirations of the 1920s are architectural theory to be highly respected. ignited.2 Through the study of the Central As the culture of late capitalism and globalisation progresses to submerge itself into every landscape, Koolhaas’s ability to confront this movement has positioned himself to become one the influential architects of today. No longer was the utopia implied in Le Corbusier’s vision of the city relevant in this age of globalisation.4 It is through this understanding; Koolhaas explored Onswald Mathias Ungers’ “cities within the city.”5 The concept was about embracing selected formal principles of the early modern architecture movement, but then to modify these to be able to re-assimilate them into a new context. Koolhaas has responded to these ideas through his CCTV building. He is aware that “cities are machines for emancipation,” and Beijing was a perfect place to experiment Koolhaas’s vision for 21st century architecture.6 In addition, Unger’s “cities within a city” could be further explored through Mies’s idea of the tall building, whilst modifying it to respond to the accelerating development of China.7 In particular, an analysis of Mies’s Segram Building (1957) will allow one to comprehend how these skyscrapers have developed and evolved. Koolhaas noted that globalisation often resulted in the common practice of “repeating a single module of invention to its breaking point,” resulting to the exhaustion of inspiration, ultimately generating a “condition of hyperbolized identity.”8 Thus he designed this imbalanced, asymmetrical television mega-structure. Furthermore, these consequences of globalisation introduce a second underlining issue of the profit-driven repetition ultimately causing anxiety about identity.9 However important to note is Koolhaas’s aptitude to then also understand this complexity in architecture and not simply reduce it to a caricature of aesthetics.10 Fig. 1 OMA, the CCTV Head- quarters, Beijing, 2002. Ariel photograph. However, some critics have described the 2 CCTV building to be purely joining the flow of the “Bilbao” effect that initially arose due to globalisation.11 It can be argued that this obnoxiously grand building has no visual connection with its surrounding urban context and unlike Mies, there is no prominent subjective drive of the architect and the idea of abstraction.12 However the mega-structure, sharply contrasting its surrounding environment can be also interpreted as a response to the modernisation of China and a representation of the manipulative media power.13 And with the urbanization in China changing and reproducing at an enormous scale and speed, the CCTV seems to integrate itself perfectly into this chaotic scene. Furthermore, the deliberate choice to place the building in a still traditional neighbourhood, may in fact be a constant visual reminder of what the future holds for 14 Beijing. 3 In addition to the structural loop of the building creating impressive visual impact, the loop allows every department of television making to come together. It connects the CCTV’s news, broadcasting, administration and program production departments, where Koolhaas has aimed to create an environment of high interaction between everyone in the television industry.15 This in turn hopes to produce better programming that is more efficient and economical.16 Hence creating a diversion from the negative portrayal of China’s manipulative media power. 4 Fig. 2 Section diagram highlighting the structural loop connecting the leaning towers and main internal spaces. Fig. 3 Site map outlining the immeditate context around the building. There is a close relationships between the main building, TVCC and ‘green’ park. Fig. 4 Photoraph of the building sitting within the developing streets of Beijing. Shows the disconnection between the two urban contexts. Furthermore, the unique structure plays an stressing unlike the ornamental nature of important part in allowing Koolhaas to the vertical mullions of the Seagram re-assimilate past modern theories of the Building’s curtain wall.21 And through the tall building into a building created for the innovative structural nature of the new age of late capitalism. Thus a main building, it allows Koolhaas to comment on design choice was to deliberately deny the the importance of reinterpretation, and not spectacular verticality of the simply repeating past modern architectural building.17 Instead he uses a continuous loop practices. of horizontal and vertical sections, which in itself creates an urban context rather than a Koolhaas’s manipulation of Mies’s tower pointing to the sky.18 And the interpretation of the tall building was not parallelogram-like shape is made possible only echoed through the unique form of the through the series of steel diagonal braces building, but Koolhaas also built a second that wrap the exterior façade, and works in building directly next to the CCTV to avoid conjunction with edge beams and a regular the single vertical posture of the traditional grid of columns.19 And by creating the skyscraper.22 The neighbouring building’s external face as the Television Cultural Centre (TVCC) allows the superstructure, it provides ample strength two buildings to compliment each other and to the sloping towers to deliver the loads to ultimately flow together to morph into one the base.20 It also illustrates how the façade volume.23 And through this additional becomes symbolic of the visual expression theatricality, the architecture provides of the building’s structure. Hence the further enlightenment to Koolhaas’s complex structural elements becomes a satisfaction with the sublime aesthetics of detail in itself, where it is a response to the ambiguity, clearly evident today through structural forces of the spectacle of mass culture.24 Fig. 5 Juxtaposition of facades; CCTV’s diagrid and the Fig. 6 Photograph of the CCTV and TVCC complimenting Seagram building’s vertical mullions. one another. An urban context is created just within the environment of these two buildings. Fig. 7 Image demonstrating the shimmering glass facade, Fig. 8 Photograph highlighting the glass facade of the where the materiality of the building represents the Seagram Building (1957). This building represents the new age of globalisation and the constantly developing traditional notions of a skyscraper during the heroic technologies. period of modern architecture. Through the materiality of the CCTV headquarters, Koolhaas has been able to further enrich the ideologies of creating a building that both connects Mies’s traditional image of a tall building, whilst still maintaining its relevance its today’s chaotic culture. The exhaustion of materials like steel and glass by Mies in his Seagram Building is considered again by Koolhaas who has used them as the main materials for the CCTV.25 In the Seagram building, the glass is used to establish a visual effect of weightlessness through the combination of the shimmering, reflecting quality of the materials and reducing the mullions to the thinnest of lines, and then recessing the vertical supports within the skin.26 Koolhaas also cleverly crafts a theatrical visual ensemble, but through different techniques. In the CCTV building, juxtaposition between the rough, exposed constructed materials against the reflective surfaces such as glass, fabric and mirror allows the building to develop a sensual quality of textures.27 Furthermore, through the combination of high performance glass panels and ceramic frit, it has established a soft silver-grey colour, arguable allowing the building to seamlessly merge its presence in the Beijing skyline.28 Through this ability to respond to the suppressing issue of the aesthetic of spectacle enveloped in the time of late capitalism, whilst also respecting the influence from the protagonists of early modern architecture provides for the creation of great architecture. And through the complexity of the structure and carefully chosen materials of the CCTV headquarters, one is able to realise the attempt to respond to the obvious effects of globalisation in China. The ability to then establish connections with Mies’s development of the tall building, allows Koolhaas to become a prominent and well-respected architect in modern architecture. Fig. 9 Overall ariel photograph of the Beijing skyline and highlights how the CCTV sits amongst its surrounding buildings. ENDNOTES 1. Gevork Hartoonian, “Chapter 5: Rem Koolhaas: Exuberant Object of Delight,” in Architecture and Spectacle: A Critique (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012), 114. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid., 128. 4. Ibid., 114. 5. Ibid., 113. 6. Rem Koolhaas, “The Reinvention Of The City,” in New Perspectives Quartely (New York: Media Flow, 2012), 2. 7. Hartoonian, “Rem Koolhaas,” 113. 8. Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau, S,M,L,XL (New York: The Monacelli Press Inc, 1998), 366. 9. Ibid., 367. 10. Ibid., 969. 11. Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture: A Critical History, 4th edition (London: Thames & Hudson, 2007), 344. 12. Ibid. 13. Ibid., 345. 14. Sarah Amelar, “CCTV Headquarters: Rem Koolhaas Reimagines The Skyscraperand A Chinese Network In The Process,” in Architectural Record (New York: McGraw Hill Companies, 2004), 109.
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