CCTV architect rejects 'sexual' design claims

The architect of China Central Television's futuristic new headquarters has gone into damage-control mode after an online uproar over graphics in a book published five years ago that were interpreted as comparing the avant-garde complex to male and female genitalia.

A week after internet chat rooms and a few newspapers on the mainland raised questions about whether China had paid millions for a massive embarrassment, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas yesterday dismissed the accusations and added that all he had tried to do with the CCTV project was to bring a good piece of architecture to Beijing.

'I was saddened by the speculation because the project combined the efforts from thousands of people including designers, owners and construction workers,' he said. 'All the people involved were hurt by such defamatory comments.'

At the centre of the furore were two pages of graphics in a book published five years ago that put the CCTV complex in a pornographic context.

Mr Koolhaas said he did not draw the graphics and they did not represent his design ideas.

In an earlier statement, his firm, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, said it had rejected the series of cartoons and caricatures of its projects, which were proposed by the designers of the book.

'Instead, [we] chose a version in which the CCTV building is presented as the positive and shining symbol of a changing world order, which reflects our sincere intention with the design,' Mr Koolhaas said.