Will Hunter discovers how OMA and Arup used metal structures in the astonishing design for the CCTV HQ in Beijing

Like those architects who become such celebrities that they can go by a single name, the ultimate status symbol for a skyscraper is a nickname. Foster has notched up two, with the Gherkin for the Swiss Re Tower and the unprintable but no less accurate sobriquet favoured by cabbies for City Hall. Rogers’ Cheese Grater and Piano’s Shard are both forthcoming.

But OMA’s vision for client China Central Television {CCTV} — a 450,000sq m “loop” comprising two 200m towers connected by a nine-storey base and a 13-storey, 70m overhang — is of such singularity that naming it after a similar-looking object wasn’t an option. The inhabitants of earthquake-prone Beijing simply dubbed it Wei Fang — the Dangerous Building.

Arup, the project engineer, was more sanguine. “It was beyond anything we’d thought of before, but I didn’t fall off my chair,” says engineer Chris Carroll of his first view of OMA’s proposal in 2002. The practice’s giant loop concept, which links up the compartmentalised tasks involved in making TV programmes, will allow the state-run broadcaster to expand from 13 channels to over 200 worldwide.

Arup had to convince a dozen eminent Chinese engineers and academics that although it didn’t meet most of China’s building codes, the project was viable. “We had three months to prove from first principles that it was safe, buildable, and not ridiculously expensive,” says Carroll.

As the project approaches its 2009 completion date, I caught up with Carroll to find out how the engineering solution evolved from OMA’s concept and — since it will actually be one the safest buildings in the country — why the locals may need to come up with a new nickname.
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