Beijing’s 798 Art District gets a design store
The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is the most dynamic art center in Beijing’s 798 Art District, and since 2007 its UCCAstore has been a small temple for vanguard design within the gallery. The original store, now UCCA @ ART.BOOK, is still offering a glut of Chinese art…
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Anatomical jewelry inspired by duckling bones in Beijing’s 798 Art District
Beijing’s 798 Art District has made a mainstream shift in recent years with coffee shops, souvenir stores, flocks of tourists and the usual weekend deploy of an arsenal of digital cameras. 798 has become the center of lighthearted art entertainment, but it still preserves some hidden pearls of…
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The China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing by architects OMA are now complete.
Top: photograph is by Iwan Baan
Above: photograph is by Philippe Ruault
The CCTV building comprises two towers that lean towards one another and are bridged at both the the top and bottom to form a distorted loop.
Above: photograph is by Iwan Baan
The building contains TV studios, offices and facilities for production and broadcasting, which will be put into use later this year.
The project was led by former OMA partner Ole Scheeren, who has since left the firm and set up his own practice. See his proposals for a skyscraper for Kuala Lumpur here.
OMA have unveiled a few new projects in the last month, including a performance institute in New York and an arts venue in Moscow. Rem Koolhaas gave Dezeen a quick introduction to that project, which you can watch here.
Here’s some more information from OMA:
CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, designed by OMA, completed
Today OMA participated in the official construction completion ceremony for the China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters in Beijing, which will start to be used later this year. Designed by OMA as a reinvention of the skyscraper as a loop, construction on the building began in 2004. At approximately 473, 000m2, CCTV – accommodating TV studios, offices, broadcasting and production facilities – is OMA’s largest ever project and its first major building in China.
CCTV defies the skyscraper’s typical quest for ultimate height. Rising from a common platform, two towers lean towards each other and eventually merge in a perpendicular, 75-metre cantilever. The design combines the entire process of TV-making – formerly scattered in various locations across the city – into a loop of interconnected activities.
The structure of the CCTV Headquarters, and the forces at work within it, is visible on its façade: a web of diagonals that becomes dense in areas of greater stress, looser and more open in areas requiring less support. The façade itself becomes a visual manifestation of the building’s structure.
Rem Koolhaas commented: “I am very happy, after years of intense collaboration, that the CCTV building will soon begin to perform its role in the way it is intended.”
The CCTV project was led by OMA / Rem Koolhaas, former OMA partner Ole Scheeren (until 2010), OMA partner David Gianotten and project manager Dongmei Yao in close collaboration with partners Shohei Shigematsu, Ellen van Loon and Victor van der Chijs. The design team consisted of project architects Anu Leinonen, Charles Berman and Adrianne Fisher together with a team of over 100 architects from OMA.
The structural and MEP design was provided by Cecil Balmond and Arup, while ECADI (East China Architectural Design & Research Institute) functioned as the Local Design Institute. Design Consultants included Front INC, Inside/Outside, DHV, DMJMH+N, Lerch Bates & Associates, LPA, Sandy Brown Associates and Romano Gatland NY.
Chinese architects Neri&Hu have completed this private member’s club in Beijing.
A black entrance tunnel leads visitors up towards a reception two storeys above, which open out onto the double-height hall and exhibition gallery that are overlooked from the floors above.
From here, members can also visit a tearoom where drawers cover the walls, a room dedicated to wine-tasting or a library.
Colour palettes graduate from white to light and dark shades of brown, which includes whitewashed oak, smoked oak and teak for the ceilings, walls and floors.
A courtyard lounge occupies the top floor of the building, where openings in the roof exposed certain areas to the elements.
This year Neri&Hu were announced overall winners at the Inside Awards for their conversion of an army headquarters into a hotel.
See the project here and watch our interview with Lyndon Neri here.
Photography is by Shen Zhonghai.
Here’s some more text from the architects:
YINGJIA CLUB at Vanke Beijing
Sales Club & Corporate VIP Lounge
Beijing. China
Located inside Vanke Beijing’s headquarters, the Yingjia Club is a new five-story multi-purpose VIP sales club built into the client’s existing office complex.
Responding to Vanke’s desire for a prominent facade identity and an interior program that is diverse yet flexible in the long term, Neri&Hu created a new exterior and maximized the internal multi-story experience with a mixture of intimate and public spaces interconnected through the different floors via new openings and a continuously winding staircase linking all the rooms.
Taking inspiration from Beijing’s traditional courtyard house, the architectural concept is about connecting the layered private and public spaces in both plan and section with paths and views that encourage visitors to explore and find their own moments of discoveries in between.
The exterior complements the busy interior with one cohesive screen box, uniting the different view openings and also providing a range of porosity relative to the programs inside through different louver densities.
Experientially, the progression into and up the floors gets brighter, lighter, and wider through the gradually changing material palette and quality of light.
Starting from the first floor, the black tunnel entrance evokes a sense of mysterious exclusivity that hints at revealing more just beyond the elongated shades of shadows.
As one enters through and arrives at the reception in the third floor, the layered experience begins to introduce itself, with the contrasting sequences of the compressed and expansive, private and public, black and white, and sky and earth unraveling with each step forward.
Walking along the cavernous, quiet corridors, one can always catch a glimpse of or enter directly into the two main, double-height spaces, the bright receiving hall and exhibition gallery.
From these big public spaces, one can also see through various rooms in the different levels and further into the sky above through overlapping frames of views and skylights, luring the curiosity deeper with the visual connection.
In the receiving hall in particular, a continuous stair path orchestrates the link throughout the entire space, first rising high from the third floor, next leading to the more personal experiences in the fourth floor (tea room, library, wine tasting room), then spiraling up to the top floor through the indoor and semi-outdoor lounges and bars, and finally arriving at complete openness into nature, clear sky, and views of Beijing at the outdoor viewing platform.
As visitors transition between the different rooms, they will interchangeably pass through the different public spaces, invited for gatherings in the open, meditated thoughts in solitude, rest in undisturbed tranquility, or other unexpected meetings with people.
From the different levels, platforms, atriums, windows, skylights, doorways, and reflections along the explorations, everyone will discover their own moments in the course of their journey.
Ground floor – click above for larger image
Third floor – click above for larger image
Fifth floor – click above for larger image
Click above for larger image
Mongolian sartorialists and military simplicity in an avant-garde collection
Decoster Concept is a new design project created by Ziggy Chen (Chinese: Chen Xiang), a well-known fashion designer from Shanghai and founder of Decoster. Decoster Concept is a high level, conceptual label launched in the second half of 2011. The creative research behind the project, the attentive selection of fabrics and the limited number of pieces for each garment make Decoster Concept one of the most exclusive brands in China.
In a new, dark, warehouse-like space in Beijing’s North Village, contemporary minimalism is mixed with different sources of inspiration: Inner-Mongolia’s desolate, windy grasslands and sartorial culture meet the austerity of military uniforms. Monks, herders, soldiers—all icons of a strict simplicity that breaks the often baroque standards of commonplace Chinese style. Colors disappear and give way to a game of light and darkness that recalls the concept of taoist duality and interdependency.
At the same time, in the lines and carefree look of the garments lies the concept of traveling, wandering to remote lands and the inspiring power of vast empty places. This trend to simplicity and a specific inclination to fine craftsmanship seems to be the key elements of what could be the future of Chinese style, a style with ancient roots that has been covered by a century of turmoil and by decades of frenzied development.
See more of Decoster Concept in their SS12 Collection runway show.
Decoster Concept
224/2F No.6 Building
123 Nong, Xingye Rd
Luwan District (xintiandi), Shanghai
and
NLG-01, 02, North Village
No.11 Sanlitun Road
Chaoyang District, Beijing
Lin Tianmiao’s presents a thread-covered apocalypse at Beijing BCA
by Alessandro De Toni
After two years of absence from the art scene, Lin Tianmiao is back for the largest solo exhibition of her career with new works at Beijing Center for the Arts (BCA). As one of the most important Chinese contemporary female artists, she’s renowned internationally for her ability to transform threads and textiles into staggering works of art, as seen in “The Same”.
Her latest exhibition makes an amazing descent into an inner world in which life and death coexist—objects, mainly artificial bones, are covered in gold or meticulously wrapped in colored silk threads. A massive amount of ox, lamb, pig, dog, cat, rabbit bones, tools and wires are crafted into enchanting objects and recombined to create a powerful visual effect.
In one room entirely lined in black cashmere, scattered animal bones and whole skeletons create a sort of dark apocalypse. What at first sight seems like a scene of fierce violence and chaos soon reveals the stunning beauty of a seemingly endless exercise of craftsmanship. More than twenty people have been working for three days to stage this single installation, in which every single piece has been covered entirely with gold foil.
The exhibition continues on the basement floor of the BCA, with an installation of paradoxical tools wrapped in grey silk thread–half organic, half mechanical—and gigantic, tri-dimensional canvases.
The title of the exhibit, “The Same” speaks to its recurrent concept that what seems uniform from a distance gives way to reveal the subtle differences which exist within a world of opulence and diversity.
“The Same—New Works by Lin Tianmiao”
Through 10 March 2012
Beijing Center for the Arts
No.23 Qianmen East Street, Dongcheng District
Beijing 100006
L’agence Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong a pensé cette superbe campagne print pour la Beijing Sports Radio. Utilisant les différents environnements sportifs pour créer des phylactères, représentant ainsi le dialogue et le commentaire sportif, ces visuels sont à découvrir dans la suite.
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Local artists inspire guests with interactive works
It’s hard to turn down an invitation to experience a few days in Beijing while staying at one of its hippest hotels, so when the Opposite House extended an invitation to visit we jumped at the opportunity. The hotel, along with its sister hotel Upper House in Hong Kong, strives to present a uniquely local experience wrapped in service with style, and perfectly suited to hyper-travelers like us. While certainly impressed by little details like in-room check-in and free mini-bars, the biggest surprise came in the form of the hotels’ art programs, particularly the constantly rotating artist program at Opposite House.
Hotel art is notoriously subpar, typically taking the form of cheap prints hung without much thought. Not so at the Opposite House, where the offerings significantly transcend what we’ve typically seen. While the space is filled with excellent art from a range of Chinese artists, the hotel takes it a step further by hosting artists for three-month installation periods, customized by each artist, in the hotel’s massive central forecourt. The hotel is tapped into China’s contemporary artistic core, acting as a host to both established and up-and-coming artists of the city’s prolific talent pool.
Approaching the emerald glass exterior of the Opposite House, the modernist styling blends seamlessly with surrounding bamboo gardens. A large atrium fills the interior while the front faces a traditional courtyard-style home, giving the hotel its witty name. The hotel spares no expense for luxury, and offers a number of bars (Punk and Mesh) and restaurants (the casual Village Cafe, the upscale Asian Bei, and my favorite, Sureño, with its Mediterranean menu).
Opposite House works with the local Red Gate Gallery to create its shows, selecting mainly Beijing-based artists. The hotel keeps the content of these exhibitions as diverse as the interests of the artists themselves. During my visit, I was fortunate enough to witness “Through My Eyes” from Mo Yi and got a preview of “I-Ching,” an installation of sculptures by Huang Rui inspired by the the eponymous book, known in English as “The Book of Changes.”
“Through My Eyes,” is an ever-expanding collection of photographed eyes that blurs the line between artist and audience. Participants pose for a photograph taken by the artist. Two prints are made: one the participant keeps and the second becomes part of the evolving installation, with inscriptions written in the borders by the subjects. While exploring the collection, I opted to be photographed and join the ranks of Mo’s subjects.
“I-Ching” features 64 phrases from the book of changes, inscribed on black and white umbrellas for an installation with both active and passive elements. When the artist is not present, viewers enjoy sculptural groupings of the umbrellas. When the artist is in the hotel, people are invited to stand with the umbrellas and the artist in a circle decorated with the yin yang symbol and to have a one-on-one exchange with the artist, which may be spoken or silent depending on the artist’s desire. While superstitious westerners may be quick to forewarn the dangers of umbrellas indoors, Huang’s show was a hit amongst participating guests.
I-Ching is currently on display, and is open to the public through March 2012. Previous artist exhibitions have included Chen Wenling’s sculptural series “Red Memory,” Li Xiaoling’s clothing-inspired “Enhance the Beauty” and a bespoke postcard collection from various students at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Opposite House
11号 Sanlitun Road
Chaoyang, Beijing, China, 100027
Photos by Opposite House and Evan Orensten
The window frame of this Beijing boutique by Japanese studio Nendo is repeated into the depths of the store.
Nendo designed the repetitive display system to recreated the experience of flicking through images on the pages of a catalogue.
See all our stories about Nendo here.
Photographs are by Daici Ano.
Here’s some more information from Nendo:
nendo’s a new shop design project in Beijing
“CATALOG” flagship store at Sanlitun Village
“CATALOG” store in Beijing
CATALOG is a Hong Kong-based sports fashion wear select shop with an emphasis on sneakers.
The Beijing store is their first foray into China.
The company’s name, CATALOG, reflects its philosophy:
treating brands with different outlooks equally, and actively suggesting ways of coordinating items from
different brands to its customers.
We wanted to recreate the specificity and attraction of a catalogue in our store design.
A store’s ‘face’ is its windows. We ‘copy-pasted’ the store window over and over again, creating a spatial experience similar to flicking through the pages of a catalogue.
The entire store becomes a series of show windows, and every item is in the spotlight.
Chinese studio Interval Architects have completed a pavilion that snakes around a school square in Beijing like the tracks of a roller coaster.
The continuous timber belt folds up and down from the ground to create louvred walls and a roof, which are supported by a series of metal columns.
Where the chunky edges of the structure meet the ground they create benches and surround new patches of grass.
As well as providing a seating area for students, the pavilion can also be used as an outdoor exhibition area.
Some other timber pavilions we’ve published recently include one with a swimming pool inside and another for observing reindeer – see more stories about pavilions here.
Photography is by GU Yunduan.
The following text is from Interval Architects:
Rollercoaster
Situated in a tranquil environment of one of the best vocational schools in Beijing, the project aims at providing an iconic image to the institution as well as redefining the use of an existing public space on the central square of the campus.
Initially, the client wanted to put on the square a themed sculpture with a monumental effect and scale. A huge pedestal was even already built for the sculpture to put on. However the obvious problem of the square is actually a severe lack of effective public space that would allow students to gather and communicate. What the school really needs is not a monument in the center of the campus, but a humanistic and functional gathering space for students and an event space for school activities.
Therefore, with the intention to create an efficient public space, we proposed a continuous self-folding belt structure that resembles the image of a “roller coaster”. The structure folds three-dimensionally to create a series of spaces such as open gardens, shaded pavilions and exhibition corridors. The entire belt bends around and in-between the existing trees on the site so they are well-preserved and maximally utilized for shading.
The rollercoaster-like structure presents a highly recognizable identity to the school as well as a fun image that was widely welcomed by the students.
Credits:
Project Title: Rollercoaster
Location: Beijing Huangzhuang Vocational School
Architect: Interval Architects
Project Architect: Oscar KO, GU Yunduan
Lighting Consultant: MIAO Hailin
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| Reindeer Pavilion by Snøhetta | Artist Retreat by 0 to 1 | Gazebo for TV show by Za Bor Architects |
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