Precedence Study - CCTV

In 1949, the establish of the new government, released China from its history, and setup a “new order”. Historical buildings were demolished to give way to new industrial workshops and factories and four-hundred-year old city wall was knocked down to construct Beijing’s 2^nd-Ring Road etc. The development of the city is, to some extend, single sided and dominated by strong political power. The CCTV tower is a prefect metaphor for the Beijing’s development in the last 60 years. The mega-structure, the offensive form, and the loudness of the building has ideally represented the strength of a communist government that directs the development of Beijing, leads the growth of its economy and even controlled the broadcasting of media.

The client of this project, China Central Television or Chinese Central Television (中国中央电视台), commonly abbreviated as CCTV, is the major state television broadcaster in mainland China. CCTV has a network of 19 channels broadcasting different programmes and is accessible to more than one billion viewers, most of which, are in Mainland China. This station is one of the official mouthpieces of the Chinese government, and reports directly to high-level officials in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Propaganda Department. It is commonly believed that the CCTV is the biggest and most powerful media in this country, is both politically and financially enabled Koolhaas to finish this amazing media center. Without this unique historical and contextual background, this project will almost become a mission impossible.