http://abitare.it/highlights/tvcc-pechino/

Since 2002, when Rem Koolhass won the bid to design the new station site for CCTV, criticisms has been never ending. However, as the completion of CCTV approaches, the northern building TVCC, which was expected to be finished before CCTV, caught fire on the day of the Chinese Lantern Festival, 9 February 2009, when the moon was the closest to the earth in 52 years. Then, how do people in the architecture field in Beijing respond to such an event? This is the topic of this conversation. we invited the prestigious architecture and art critic, Mr. Fang Zhenning, to preside over a serial conversation, which aims to freely discuss the problems between art, architecture and the city, as well as exploring the developmental tendencies tendency of the three. This dialogue between Mr. Fang Zhenning and Mr. Liang Jingyu, begins the opening of the discussion.

Starting from TVCC

Mr. Fang Zhenning: In this discussion we will talk about things happening around us. It should have been lucky for Koolhass, because it is no easy task to win the bid of the Cultual and Art Center in Taibei, which is quite an achievement in years of OMA’s practice. Although OMA won several bids in recent years, they didn’t generate many discussions. We had planned to discuss the new project of the Culture and Art Center in Taibei, however, the TVCC fire engulfed all those ideas and plans. Today, we’d like to talk about this fire and its influence on architecture, fireproofing and the city.
Mr. Liang Jingyu: It sounds like a good topic, and we can make it more profound. It has been five years since Koolhass won the bid of CCTV, maybe it was too early to comment on it five years ago, but now things have changed and we can draw some conclusions from it, since we can look at it on a wider background. However, it is also a chance to talk about the guiding role that Koolhass’s works play in Chinese architecture and the entire architectural world.

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