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China State Construction and Engineering Corporation, China Central Television

Rem Koolhaas/OMA

Building shaped like a giant cubist "loop." Koolhaas has said the blockish, yet unique, form would work well on the Beijing skyline because only bold shapes can be seen at any distance through the city's haze and pollution. The irregular steel latticework webbing on the building's facade is actually a carefully-planned bracing system to hold up the precariously cantilevered overhang at the top. According to a March 14, 2005 article in The New Yorker:

"[Koolhaas] worried that the Chinese contractors that had been hired might not be able, or willing, to meet OMA's demanding specifications. 'There is simply no model for how to building something like this in China,' he said. I recalled an essay that Koolhaas had published in Content about the overhanging section of the loop, and how it would come together during construction. Two cantilevered sections would link at a middle point, like two hands coming together. This fusing process would be so delicate, he explained, that the engineers required that it be performed only at dawn--after the building had cooled off during the night, guaranteeing that the steel was of equal temperature. Without such precautions, the entire building could crack."