Constituted of two masses of square proportions, the CCTV building is seen as a large screen at the scale of the city of Beijing. Its orientation protects the heart of the establishment from the northern and western winds. The geometric position of this right angle is adjusted by aligning the extremities with the axis marked by adjacent towers which create an urban dialectic relationship with the CCTV building: like two new portals for the city. This very remarkable situation, highly visible from the road, is also extremely exposed to the sunlight. In consequence, for protection from the sun and wind, we have imagined covering this facade with giant parasols of stainless steel structure and a woven metal fabric. This aerial covering floats above the rational Architecture and functional building. The design of these metallic elements, light and supple, creates a combination of an architecture which is at once poetic yet scientific. With more than two hundred parasols, the CCTV building is dressed in a
swathe of light during the day as well as the night. These changes according to the movement of the sun are due to varying intensities of the sun’s rays and of the artificial light of nocturnal events. It is a giant screen, active 24 hours of the day. In conclusion, the concept is to construct a piece of geography, a building territory, a vertical city like a high mountain from which one sees the world and communicates with it.