Examining an Architecture of Image: OMA’s CCTV Headquarters

Abstract The article examines the increasing complexity of the relationship between contemporary architecture and media image by focusing on Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)’s Chinese Central Television Headquarters (CCTV) in Beijing in China, completed in 2012. Here, the CCTV is positioned within a global capitalist system, designed by a brand-architect. It is also deemed an example of productive image-architecture relationships, productive of theoretical discourses, architecture and the construction of architect’s brand identity and fame. Considering that architectural historian Aaron Betsky regarded Rem Koolhaas as architect able to produce “a convincing architecture of image” (Patteeuw 2003, 39), this article argues that the very nature of what a convincing architecture of image is is under threat, and contends that at the mercy of media, architecture can be devalued through objectification through media consumption. This article thereby aims to expand the understanding of the productive relationships between architecture and media images.