Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture has won a competition to design the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in Shenzhen, China.
The 250m-high building will be OMA’s second biggest project in China after the vast CCTV building in Beijing, which is under construction.
SSE consists of a central tower with an elevated box raised off the ground to provide a canopy for a public plaza beneath.
“Lifting the base in the air vastly increases its exposure,” says Koolhaas. “In its elevated position, it can ‘broadcast’ the activities of the stock market to the entire city.
“The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity,” he continues. “In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market, the role of symbolism exceeds that of the program - it is a building that has to represent the stock market, more than physically accommodate it.”
>> Read dezeen’s update on this story, with new images, here.
>> More dezeen architecture news here.
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Posted by Marcus Fairs
December 22nd, 2006 at 12:12 pm
oh gawd… why does it try to spatially represent an idea. Good architecture shouldn’t need quotes around an idea: this building doesn’t “broadcast” anything. I must admit, though, Koolhaas is a genius; his cynicism has led him to realize that the average client, even one with lots of money, is an idiot that loves simplistic (not simple, just corny) ideas.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Just another urban atrocity by OMA. Nothing more then a falic representation of their lack of ability to do good architecture.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:20 pm
it is phallic, not falic.
December 23rd, 2006 at 12:13 am
Symbolism without symbols, east meets west ! brilliant !
(the symblism of the idea is in its visibelity and the gesture of the hight) this is koolhaas at his best provoking with a singular gesture !
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:31 am
Una caca. Inmoral y perverso
December 24th, 2006 at 7:43 am
The image looks as the triumph of strategic thinking, where form or beauty are far from being the objectives, and in a way it looks as a sort of fantastic lobby of an utopian OMA´S high rise project, in which every floor is filled with past projects (first floor seattle, second floor universal, third floor any typical plan-junkspace generic new york building).
I also agree with Mr. Tim here, Remment´s language is splashed with deep irony, it´s so commercial you wouldn´t believe it, but then again, the guy (Remment) is, quite frankly, inhabiting another planet, so please don´t try to even grasp what´s behind that apparently shallow discourse, it may well be “…so outrageous that in order for it to be realized it could never be openly declared.” (excerpt from he back cover of delirious ny).
I also think, Mr. Tim, that it would be a foolish act to describe things literally, in a scientific manner, if somebody tells you “this is a chicken:c-h-i-c-k-e-n” you are being insulted, and if you get mad because of the simplistic tone of it, you may also have some attitude issues. The silence, the untold, implies the inteligence of the other: be aware.
December 28th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
hey chris, nice argument NOTTTTT (borat)
December 28th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
so, in order to get one of these things up, in a contest one must only care about arguments?
is an argument a fact or an opinion?
is this a treehugger friendly building?
December 29th, 2006 at 9:46 am
its hard to do a judge with just one image. but I like the building so far (but I prefer the seattle public library).
December 31st, 2006 at 8:39 pm
the seattle public library was great. i just hope they dont mess up the circulation again, making it difficult to get from the spiral to the internet level. the elevators are hot, but you shouldn’t be forced to take them down from the top.
January 16th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Koolhas is running out of good ideas, so he just criticises everything else instead in the meantime.
July 14th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Does anyone know where exactly in Shenzhen this beautiful building will be located…..the city already has so much cutting edge architecture architecture…..
November 17th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Koolhaas’s architecture works better at a medium scale and small scale for the most part. its only there where he gets enough density that his architecture soars. seattle, educatorium, dutch embassy, etc. pretty much all his large projects except CCTV suffer from a lack of a complexity and density, which is what he claims to be instigating in the first place.