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From: "Architexturez." <interface.services@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2006 22:08:49 +0530
Architexturez. wrote:
OMA in Beijing: China Central Television Headquarters by Ole Scheeren
and Rem Koolhaas
Architecture and Design Galleries
November 15, 2006–February 26, 2007
But that imagination sometimes takes visitors into blood-curdling
situations. When Koolhaas leads you down an open-mesh catwalk that juts
out like a gangplank over a 10-story atrium, you understand that a great
intellect can be cruel indeed. It was a similar infatuation with purity
that led designers to embrace Corbusier's ideas about towers-in-a-park,
with disastrous consequences for cities and those who live in them.
It's telling that CCTV initially kept the Koolhaas-Scheeren project
under wraps. The design, chosen in a state-run competition, was not
released to the public or subject to review in the heavily controlled
Chinese press. It was only after Di Carlo happened upon the project
during a trip to China to survey the country's bold new architecture
that the television company was persuaded to unveil the project in a
small gallery exhibit. She expanded that show for MoMA.
The New York exhibit takes a reverent stance toward the project,
especially the structural challenges that had to be solved by the
engineering firm, Arup, and its star, Cecil Balmond, a visiting
professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Certainly, designing such a building in four years is an impressive
achievement. And there's no denying that Koolhaas and Scheeren have
created thrilling new forms for a new kind of city. But it appears to be
a city that only the coldest hearts will long to inhabit.
cont'd...
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/16085809.htm