Beijing Central Business District or the Beijing CBD is Beijing’s core business borough spread over a total area of 4 square kilometres in the eastern urban area of Beijing city.
Planned since 1993 and scheduled to be completed this year (before the Olympics), it is currently residing 3000 businesses constituting, 500 multinationals, 570 foreign representative branch offices, 150 international financial corporations & 200 intermediary service companies.
Beijing CBD comprises of over 10 million square metres of constructed real estate; 50% of which is office space, 25% apartments and the remainder 25% commercial and service oriented.
Continue reading ‘Towers of Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD)’
With the Olympic flame well on it’s way on the journey to Beijing, organizers are gearing up for the big event when the doors open on August 8th. - 24th 2008. With a little over 120 days to go until the gates open to the Olympic stadium, much will have to be done.
Despite all the action that is yet to come we wanted to take a look behind the scenes and see where this all started.
When a city gets awarded with the coveted prestige of hosting the Olympic Games, architects and planners run amok for some time to design the best possible structure to hold masses of people.
Continue reading ‘Olympic Stadium Designs, And The Winner Is…!’
This high tech building is to be the control and data centre of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Notice how it bears resemblance to a circuit board or digital bar code? Well, it was intentional and has been named the Digital building, which pretty much reflects its digital design scheme and personifies the promise of the Beijing Municipal Government to present the Beijing Olympics or Digital Olympics as it is often referred as, with the highest technological content on offer by any Olympics in history.
Continue reading ‘Digital Beijing Building’
The first project in our series is the ‘Beijing Great Wheel’
In a bid to boost tourism in China, construction has begun for the soon to-be ‘tallest & largest observation Ferris wheel’ in the world. The Ferris named, ‘Beijing Great Wheel’ is to be located in eastern Beijing’s Chaoyang Park, venue for beach volleyball in the Beijing 2008 Olympics and would stand at a soaring 680 feet (207 metres) dwarfing the London Eye which is about 135 metres (443 feet) and the Singapore flyer which towers at 165 metres (541 feet).
Beijing wheel is expected have 48 air-conditioned capsules with each capsule having the capacity of carrying 40 passengers.
Continue reading ‘Beijing’s Great Observation Wheel’
The National Center for the Performing Arts was completed recently in Beijing, China. Designed by architect Paul Andreu, the first concert was held there December 2007.
The exterior of the theater is a titanium accented glass dome that is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. It is said to look like an egg floating on water. It was designed as an iconic feature, something that would be immediately recognizable, like the Sydney Opera House.
Continue reading ‘The National Grand Theater Beijing, China’
The National Aquatics Centre in Beijing, China - known as “The Water Cube” - for obvious reasons, is now complete. The Water Cube will feature aquatic events for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The building’s structural design, which is based on the natural formation of soap bubbles to give a random, organic appearance, used research undertaken by Weaire and Phelan (professors of physics) into how soap bubbles might be arranged in an infinite array.
To bring the design to life, the individual bubbles were incorporated into a plastic film and tailored like a sewing pattern. An entire section is pieced together and then put into place within the structure. There are interior and exterior films, and the film was then inflated in-situ.
Arup is the consultancy company that designed the project.
Photos of the exterior during construction:
Continue reading ‘Watercube in Beijing 2008′
China Central Television’s (CCTV) HQ will be completed to broadcast the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The project began in March 2003 following a review of the design by a panel of Chinese experts. It is being constructed next to the 3rd Ring Road in Beijing, China, on a 10 ha site in the new Central Business District.
The development is being undertaken by the Chinese Government as part of a plan to redevelop central Beijing with innovative and functional architecture, while preserving historic buildings at the same time.
The new building will involve two ‘L’ shaped high-rise towers linked at the top and the bottom at an angle to form a loop, which has been described as a ‘Z’ criss-cross.
The total construction cost is estimated at €600 million. The CCTV tower will employ 10,000 people following completion in 2008.
Continue reading ‘CCTV Tower Beijing’
