Phoenix International Media Center, Beijing

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Completed in 2014, this doughnut-shaped building serves as the headquarters for the Chinese broadcaster Phoenix Television. It is located on the corner of Chaoyang Park in Beijing.

Designed by the architectural studio BIAD UFO, the building is formed by two bulbous towers with kidney-shaped floorplans wrapped in a latticed glass and steel skin. One tower is several storeys taller than the other giving the torus’ volume its angled profile. The architects were inspired by the twisted form of a symbolic Möbius strip.

The outer shell, made up of a 'stretched' web of steel and 3,800 differently sized and detailed glass panels, encloses snaking elevated walkways and staircases that connect offices and studios. Throughout, the interiors are finished with light-coloured flooring, white walls and gridded glazing.

The curving volume peels away from the ground to reveal access routes to an open-air atrium in the centre of the building.

[edit] Find out more

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Comments

I this building open to the public to go inside?