Exhibition “Oma In Beijing” Opens At Moma

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has dedicated a special exhibition to the largest and most ambitious project of Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) to date: The Central China Television Headquarters and TVCC Television Cultural Center in Beijing.  The exhibition which carries the title ‘OMA in Beijing’ will open this Wednesday.
 
The exhibition, designed in collaboration with the museum, traces the development of the CCTV/TVCC project from its earliest conceptual phase to current construction.
 
Drawings from the MoMA collection will accompany the exhibition, situating the project as “one of the most visionary since modernism and beyond” according to Tina di Carlo, assistant curator of architecture and design. OMA’s design for the CCTV has received critical acclaim for its radical reconsideration of the skyscraper typology.
 
OMA’s design conceived by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren won an international competition in 2002. Construction began in 2004, with completion expected for the 2008 Olympics. At a height of 234 m and more than 465.000 m2, CCTV combines the entire process of TV making (administration, production, and broadcasting) into a single loop of interconnected activities. The adjacent 95.000 m2 TVCC offers multiple cultural facilities, including a 1500-seat theater, as well as a 300-room hotel. The project is lead by OMA-partner Ole Scheeren and is a close collaboration with the engineers of Arup.
 
“OMA in Beijing” is on display at MoMA until the 27th of February 2007.
 
Earlier, the work of OMA was part of the 1988 “Deconstructivist” show curated by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley, and has since been frequently on display at MoMA. Models of the CCTV Headquarters building and the Cordoba Congress Center have recently been acquired by MoMA for its own collection.
 
The exhibition is made possible with the generous support of The Architecture Fund (International Culture Program from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands).
 
Over OMA
OMA Rotterdam: From its main headquarters in The Netherlands the office is working on a master plan for the White City area of London; a harbour redevelopment and contemporary art Museum in Riga, the Cordoba Congress Centre in Spain; the redevelopment of the Mercati Generali in Rome, the new head office of Rothschild Bank in London and the MAB/OVG multi-use towers in Rotterdam. In addition the headquarters has a number of activities in the Middle East including two master plans in Dubai, a master plan in Kuwait and one in Ras-Al-Khaimah.
OMA New York: Having overseen the completion of several new buildings since opening in 2001 - including the Seattle Public Library and the Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles (both completed 2004), the IIT Campus Centre in Chicago (2003), and Prada Epicenter in New York (2001). OMA is now designing an extension of Cornell University (NY) and a high rise residential building in Jersey City (NJ).
OMA Beijing: In Asia OMA is responsible for the office’s largest project to date, the 575,000 m2 China Central Television Headquarters CCTV and Television Cultural Center TVCC, currently under construction in Beijing and due for completion in 2008. Other projects in development include a residential tower in Singapore.