Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

CCTV Headquarters

When fake complexity goes wrong

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 15:45, last updated Mon, 09/05/2011 - 21:47

Part of the CCTV complex in Beijing burns down. It's hard to tell from the aftermath pictures what is the structural damage and what is the original design.

See Fake Complexity - CCTV Headquarters.

Fake Complexity - CCTV Headquarters

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 19:06, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:42

Engineering firm ARUP provided the complexity for this project.

From time to time I happen upon an attempt to "do" complexity that completely misses the point. In this first installment of many "Fake Complexity" topics, the culprit is Rem Koolhaas and his CCTV Headquarters for Beijing.

Further comment

Please send your comments by email at mthl@mthl.info, or find me on Twitter @mathieuhelie. The commenting system is closed at the moment as no measures can hold back blog spamming bots.

Subscribe to CCTV Headquarters
Loading