Things Lost In the Beijing Fire

北京CBD地区燃起的熊熊大火显然并没有给造价8亿美元的中央电视台主楼造成严重损害。然而，这座地标性建筑及其拥护者却仍遭受了损失。点击下图查看更多图片Associated Press图片报导：大火过后的央视新址配楼在这场火灾中，44层高的央视电视文化中心大楼被烧成了黑色的空壳。中央电视台承认，是其一位员工安排的燃放焰火活动引发了这次火灾。荷兰知名建筑师库哈斯(Rem Koolhaas)的获奖设计作品央视新台址就矗立在北京CBD地区的核心地带，而起火的靴子形状大楼是新台址建筑群里的重要一部分。凭藉着两座大楼的设计方案，库哈斯和他的同事最终赢得了中国垄断性国家电视台中央电视台的设计招标。这场招标吸引了全球一些最为知名的建筑师参加，竞争非常激烈。当时的评委之一严迅奇(Rocco Yim)对《华尔街日报》表示，两座大楼之间的互补关系打动了他。严迅奇2007年接受采访时表示，我觉得靴子和圈状的两座大楼非常有意思。这（电视文化中心大楼）不是一座孤立的大楼，而是与主楼存在着小弟弟一样的互动关系。另外一位支持者博客作者亚历克斯•帕斯特纳克(Alex Pasternack)当年在一个贴子中写道，电视文化中心大楼一直要比对面的笨重兄弟更加令人心情愉快。他形容央视主楼有着惊世骇俗的扭曲形状。帕斯特纳克曾为当地时尚杂志《Urbane》撰文。他写道，电视文化中心大楼被库哈斯所在的大都会建筑事务所(Office for Metropolitan Architecture)的人戏称为“游乐场”。帕斯特纳克写道，这座大楼有着独特的钛锌合金外层，设计师认为这种材料可以让大楼显得更加威严，比其他金属建筑更能抵御时间的侵蚀。该大楼计划入驻一个五星级的文华东方酒店，一个剧院兼演播大厅。（不过，许多普通路人看来，这种闪亮的外部材料倒像是更适合棚户区使用的波纹铝板。）批评央视新台址建筑群整体设计的人认为，这个项目庞大的外形电视文化中心大楼的靴子造型以及主楼的悬臂是意在引发恐惧，象征着国家权力和媒体的控制。似乎是为了支持这种观点，网民们抱怨中国媒体有意淡化了周一的火灾。媒体网站Danwei指出，新华网主页周二早上刊登了一个火灾报导，但却不是北京大火。这篇报导写的是韩国举行正月十五传统“烧蒲苇”活动，结果发生火灾踩踏事件，导致至少4人死亡。Mei Fong（“中国日志”（China Journal）关注全球第一人口大国的发展变化，《华尔街日报》获奖团队数十位记者倾情献稿，Sky Canaves主笔。欢迎读者发送邮件至[e-mail]或在下面评论栏中发表评论和建议。）相关阅读网民直播北京火灾 2009-02-11原声视频：央视新址配楼火灾致一人身亡 2009-02-11中央电视台对火灾表示道歉 2009-02-10央视新台址北配楼发生严重火灾 2009-02-10图片报导：大火过后的央视新址配楼 2009-02-10原声视频：央视新台址配楼严重火灾 2009-02-10图片：央视新总部配楼起火 2009-02-10


The deadly fire that broke out in Beijing's business district has apparently left the landmark $800 million square China Central Television Tower without serious damage. But the iconic structure and its fans have suffered a loss nevertheless.The inferno  which CCTV has admitted was caused by a fireworks display arranged by one its own employees-  turned the 44-story Television Cultural Center into blackened hulk. The boot-shaped building was an integral part of well-known Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas's award-winning vision for the CCTV complex in the heart of Beijing's Central Business District.It was the two-building design that won Mr. Koolhaas and his associates the design commission from CCTV, China's monopoly national broadcaster, in a hotly contested competition involving some of the world's most prestigious architects. Rocco Yim, one of the judges, told the Journal he was impressed by the complementary relationship between the two towers. 'The boot and the loop- struck me as very interesting,' Yim said in a 2007 interview. 'It is not just a standalone, (but) an interactive relationship with a little brother.'Another fan, blogger Alex Pasternack, wrote in a post that year that the TVCC building 'was always meant to be a more lighthearted, pleasurable affair than its hulking sibling next door,' which he described as having a twisting, otherworldly shape.' Pasternack, a former writer with local design magazine Urbane, wrote that the TVCC building was nicknamed 'the fun place' by folks at Mr. Koolhaas's firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture, or OMA.The building  which was to house the five-star Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel, a theater and recording studios-  was clad in a unique skin of titanium zinc alloy, a material that its designers believed would allow the building to rust with dignity and endure the passage of time better than other metal buildings, Pasternack wrote. (To some ordinary passersby, however, the shiny exterior resembled corrugated aluminum siding more suited to shantytowns.)Critics of the overall CCTV compound design say the project's gargantuan size, the TVCC building's boot shape and cantilevered overhang of the main building are designed to inspire fear and symbolize state power and media control.As if to reinforce this, Internet users complained that last night's inferno was played down by Chinese media. Media site Danwei noted 'this morning, Xinhua's own website featured a fire smack in the middle of the homepage, but it wasn't from Beijing. A scheduled blaze during a Lantern Festival celebration in Korea ended up causing a stampede that led to the deaths of at least four crowd members.'Mei Fong