Archives For Arts & Architecture

CCTV Tower in Beijing: Modern Chinese Icon

john —  December 5, 2012

The headquarters of China Central TV in Beijing is 234m high and known commonly as the “boxer shorts” due to its awkward shape. A Mandarin Oriental hotel was planned to take up residence until New Year fireworks started a large blaze in 2009.

I live across the street (actu­ally two streets) from prob­a­bly the most unique build­ing in China—if not the world. It’s the CCTV Tower, which I’ve been watch­ing with inter­est over the last five years. But when you live so close to it and see it every­day, it looses part of its unique­ness, as it becomes too familiar.

How­ever, I came across an inter­view in Newsweek of Rem Kool­haas, the archi­tect respon­si­ble for the build­ing, which made me want to go back and look at it again in a new light. The arti­cle had some inter­est­ing insights into his life story and some back­ground on the CCTV project. But it was this quote that really stuck in my mind, as he said:

“I would say it’s a build­ing that the Chi­nese could never have thought of but that we [in the West] could never have built.”

I think this sums up quite suc­cinctly the cur­rent state of archi­tec­ture in China. In fact this quote could equally be attrib­uted to a num­ber of build­ings in Bei­jing includ­ing theNational Sta­dium (Bird’s Nest) and the National Cen­tre For Per­form­ing Arts (Birds Egg). Both of these were con­ceived by west­ern archi­tects and built in part­ner­ship with Chi­nese construction. Which is why the world’s best archi­tects, are all work­ing over here. Design­ing iconic struc­tures, which give China some of the most inno­v­a­tive build­ings any­where in the world.

(Blog posted by Ray on November 15, 2012. You can see the original article by following this link to rayallychina.com)

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Olympic Park Visit – Bird’s Nest and Water Cube

john —  May 17, 2012

The Olympic Park is one of the most visited sites in Beijing following 2008 Olympic Games. This site groups together two of the famous Olympic Games places – Bird’s Nest and Water Cube.

2 visits can be done on this site:

• during the day with a visit inside the buildings (fee entrance for Water Cube is 30 RMB and for Bird’s Nest is 50 RMB)

• at night for a walk in the park and around these 2 famous places

I chose for my first visit to go at the end of the day during a week to avoid tourist crowd and above all enjoy the lights which transform the Olympic Park in a magical site…

I was there after my working day and I got from the beginning the feeling that China wanted to build an unforgetable place for the Olympic period : extra-large pedestrian streets, Olympic museum, Souvenir shops and of course the stadium and the swimming-pool.

Night fell then I started to feel the Olympic Games magic. I can imagine the crowd yeld on the Bird’s Nest for Usain Bolt races or the water movement on the Water Cube surface… Amazing!

Hope that the site can stay like today during long years and keep this Olympic fervor…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Blog posted by Julian. You can see the original article by following this link to Julian, A French Man in Asia)

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Phoenix International Media Center (In Progress)

john —  March 26, 2012

The Phoenix Center is located in the city’s largest park, which was once home to the 2008 Summer Olympic beach volleyball games. Surrounded by lush greens and public pathways, the building’s open structure is inviting and it welcomes the park’s landscaping into its many public courtyards.

(Blog posted by inhabitat.com on September, 2011. You can see the original article by following this link to inhabitat.com)

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CCTV & Airport

john —  February 21, 2012

CCTV’s headquarters is nicknamed “big boxer shorts”,“crotch”, “Window of wisdom”(智窗, zhi chuang, sounds exactly the same as ‘hemorrhoid’,痔疮, in Chinese.) by Chinese people who poke fun at its quirky design and structure. Now netizens have drawn a pair of red boxer shorts to cover its ‘sensitive parts’.

cctv-tower-2

cctv-tower-5

The new landmarks reshaping China’s national identity include the new CCTV television headquarters.

cctv-tower-4

Beijing’s air terminal. (Photo picked from NYT)

 

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Olympic Village

john —  February 21, 2012

In Chinese culture, 8 is the luckiest number. When the 2008 Olympic Games were held in Beijing, China, there was no better day to hold the opening ceremony than August 8th (8/8/08). The Olympic Village is not ironically located on subway line 8 in the northern part of Beijing, which is also easily accessible by bus.

The village consists of two largely iconic buildings, The National Stadium aka The Bird’s Nest and the National Aquatics Center aka The Water Cube both pictured below, as well as other indoor arenas, a plethora of hotels and the Olympic Forest Park.

Since the Olympic games, there have been many questions about the continued use of these facilities and whether or not the Beijing people would use the park. If you visit the village during the evening in spring, summer or autumn you will find the park filled with dancers, kite fliers, photographers, tourists and Beijingers enjoying a family outing. The Water Cube has now been turned into an indoor water park and The Bird’s Nest plays host to various football (soccer) events.

The Olympic Village also hosts a circus during the summer and a snow park over winter. The best time to visit the Olympic Village is at dusk so you can see the facilities lit up.

(Blog  contributed by TheBJReviewer on August 29, 2011. You can see the original article by following this link to TheBJReviewer)

Related photos:

The National Olympic Stadium.(From NYT)

Beijing's National Stadium.(Doug Kanter for NYT)

                        The National Aquatics Center. (From NYT)

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