ASIA BRIEFING:CONSTRUCTION work on the multimillion euro headquarters of China's state broadcaster Chinese Central Television (CCTV) has finally been completed, and engineers and architects had a final walk through the striking building last week before handing over to its owners.

Designed by the world’s leading avant-garde architect, Dutch designer Rem Koolhaas, and former partner in his OMA firm Ole Scheeren, it was built by international project engineering group Arup, which also worked on some of the other major Olympic sites around Beijing.

The spectacular 234m tube without right angles, slap bang in the middle of the central business district, has 400,000sq m of floor space and, of all the buildings constructed for the Olympics, it is the one that has changed the skyline of the Chinese capital more than any other.

Beijingers have various references to the building, some saying it looks like a man sitting on the toilet, others saying it resembles a “twisted doughnut”.

The engineer on the project was Arup director Rory McGowan from Monaghan. “This will redefine architecture and how people think about big buildings,” he says.

Beijing is in an earthquake zone and one of the tasks the engineers faced was to ensure it would withstand the kind of quake that can occur every 10,000 years.

“We carried out an unprecedented level of performance-based analysis which included examining all 10,060 elements in the primary structure under all credible seismic conditions,” adds McGowan, who was based in Beijing for a large part of the construction before relocating to Dublin.

“The highly detailed engineering was explained to, and approved by, a government- appointed panel of structural experts.”

Industry sources say the building will open in time to broadcast the London Olympics, after a disastrous fire in February 2009. Executives at CCTV had staged a Chinese new year party on the roof of the neighbouring TVCC building, designed to house a luxury hotel and form an integral part of the complex.

They set off fireworks, which caused a fire. One fireman was killed. The cost of the fire was estimated at more than 160 million yuan (€19 million).

The head of the station was replaced amid a high-level investigation and 20 people were jailed over the incident.