The Tiger Economies and the Creative Industries

After changing the topic of my dissertation a couple of times, I think I found one that I will stick to (hopefully): 'The Tiger Economies and the Creative Industries'. Since I'm fascinated by East Asian cultures and countries and have tried to connect most of my research to the creative industries, that topic fits quite well. To make the head of the my programme at college happy as well, it is also a very interesting field regarding economic development.

The Four Tigers is a term used to describe 4 economies in East Asia, which have seen rapid economic growth in the last decades and which have served as role models for other developing economies. The 4 economies are South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The growth in the 60s - 90s was dominantly triggered by export-led manufacturing, very successfully. Furthermore, in all those countries (let's just call Taiwan a country as well..., sorry China!), the government played a very important role and supported the economy heavily with subsidies and development policies.

In recent years another development can be observed. All four Tigers, especially Hong Kong and South Korea, invested significantly in the knowledge based economy, in particular the creative industries. The Hong Kong films became very popular in China and other South East Asian countries and with the 'Korean Wave', we have seen an immense popularity of Korean music, films and TV series in Japan, China and Taiwan.

The Four Tigers could serve again as examples of how they made the next step from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy and to show how important the creative industries are not only for a rich culture, but also for economic growth and development. The cases might inspire governments around the world, in developing and developed economies and hopefully lead to more policies supporting the creative industries.

In my research I will also find out how important the role of the government was and which part it played in the rise of East Asian creativity.

Burberry World Live in Taipei

Burberry exports Britishness into the world. Very suitable to the current weather conditions in London this also consists to let it rain. The latest project from Burberry is "Burberry World Live" and was launched this week in Taipei together with the opening of a brand new store. Burberry World Live will travel around the world with London, Hong Kong and Chicago following this year.

The event is an experience including film, live music, weather (some wind, leaves and as mentioned also rain) and of course fashion, where guests dive into the whole Burberry world. The event in Taipei was filmed and a short movie published on Burberry's website and Facebook page. So everybody can at least a little bit take part of the amazing brand concept Burberry creates. This makes it also an absolutely integrated experience and shows once more how Burberry pulls all the strings in contemporary marketing.

@BurberryPR

I love how my courses at Uni make me writing blog posts. It's not that my next blog series is part of the assignment, but since I'm starting a new very interesting project, I thought why not sharing it on red bulb and on Twitter, which you can follow on @jbabics.

Over the next month I will follow Burberry's PR activity. I'm interested in what the media reports about Burberry, how the brand communicates with the press and how they integrate PR in their whole communication strategy. Since I will follow public relations from Burberry, I call it @BurberryPR in Twitter style.

The most interesting stories, news and findings I will share here on red bulb.

Tate Modern, Culture & Lifestyle

This is my last post about my Tate Modern brand experience journey. I submitted my paper yesterday and although my little research project is therefore finished, I just had to go to Tate Modern again this eve. Exactly, this eve. Tate Modern is open until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays, that's amazing! And that's actually also a good time to go, because it has much less people.

I promised you a post about Tate Modern's target group. This is very easy: it's the public.
Tate, the mother of Tate Modern has an official mission from the British Government to increase public knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of British, modern and contemporary art and everything they do is done to maximise value for the public.
However, who is exactly this "public"? As I wrote before Tate Modern is always full of tourists, so it can't be only the British tax payer. Tate Modern is free, at least the Collection. So everybody can just walk in, have a look around and leave again. This is pretty unique for a museum of this high calibre, but it's actually necessary, if you offer a place for the public. Not all who want to go to museums are able to go to museums in other countries, where entrance prices are sometimes already a social class divider and a sign for their elitist character. So Tate Modern is just for everybody.


The maintenance of Tate Modern must be quite expensive. Already the insurance charges for the temporary exhibitions must cost a fortune. The Government and also private funders have to provide this sum, so that we, the public can still enjoy Tate Modern, even for free. The fact that this is possible shows the significance of art and museums in our western culture. We grow up with art, it's part of our education. I guess all the school classes here in London visit Tate Modern once in a while or maybe other major museums. I think this is absolutely great and a huge advantage, the paintings have so much to say and we can learn a lot from them (and from the artists of course).


What I love so much about Tate Modern is that they fulfill this mission to increase public knowledge and understanding of art very well and especially also the third point, enjoyment. Tate Modern is not only a very successful brand, but also a very fancy one. Art becomes pleasure in Tate Modern. 
Some people might criticise this a little bit commercialisation of high value culture, but I think that's exactly how it should be. The art in Tate Modern is not only for the elite, it's for the public. The way Tate Modern presents and exhibits the art it's also an enjoyment and in that way they definitely reach their objective: to maximise value for the public.

Tate Modern & The Self

My plan for today’s post was to write about Tate Modern’s target group. The target group is very important for a brand, as it influences almost every decision from communication to products and consumer interaction. I will definitely cover this topic, however, for today I suddenly had the feeling to write about something else.

I walked from Southbank along the Thames to Tate Modern, as I mentioned before one of my favorite walks in London, although I could have sent all the tourists to the moon today. The weather was beautiful and my mind was busy with different thoughts, when it suddenly popped in my mind: what am I doing exactly? Why do I go to Tate Modern on a sunny Saturday afternoon? Why do I go there again and don’t just write another post from home and get the inputs from my memory of other Tate Modern visits?

However, when I entered the building I knew again why. There is just no better place to write about my brand journey than inside Tate Modern itself. This place is such an inspiration. When you enter Tate Modern, you enter a world of its own. I can’t really explain why, but there is a calmness here, which helps me to settle down thoughts and at the same time free my mind. It must have to do with the paintings and all the art here. Museums very often have that impact on me.

Being in Tate Modern is also very inspiring. It makes me question my life, supports my creative thinking, gives me new ideas and actually makes me more self-confident. Most importantly, it makes me feel free. It is probably that in Tate Modern I am part of a world, which is connected to all the artists represented by the paintings. A world with history and so many different ideas. A global world bringing people together from all around the world with a similar purpose.

This museum can give me the feeling that everything is possible and that it is just up to me to grab the opportunities. Only very few places can trigger these emotions in myself.

A brand should aim to do what Tate Modern does to me. A brand should connect with a person, go deep into their feelings and emotions, create a relationship and open a new world. If a brand manages to do that it most probably gets its very desired loyal customers.

Tate Modern - Brand Location

Branding is not just a nice logo and good advertising. The brand reflects the personality of an organization  with everything that is part of it: products, services, employees, history, customers, advertising, packaging,  logo design,... and location. The attention location received as part of the brand image, is a rather new phenomenon and was probably first explored by luxury brands. They found each other all over the world in certain places, streets or avenues. Good examples are the Champs-Élysées in Paris, New Bond Street in London, Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, the Fifth Avenue in New York or The Bund in Shanghai.

However, also technology brands recognized the potential of prominent locations with Apple once more leading this development. Sport brands started to build their own shops, like Nike, Adidas, Puma and are not happy anymore to be simply sold by department stores. Even M&M's has its own store, one that all the tourists find very easily when visiting London with its amazing location at Leicester Square and spread over 4 floors.

In all the countries I have been so far, I always visited a Starbucks. It has somehow changed, since Starbucks opened so many stores, but in the beginning of their launch in countries around the world, they always rented very beautiful buildings at very attractive locations. For me this was part of the Starbucks brand experience. You drank a good coffee, were served by lovely staff and had a very nice painted ceiling or a stunning view out of the window. The quality of the Starbucks locations has decreased dramatically since they started to grow so quickly, which is a pity, but not really part of the topic I want to cover now...

Tate Modern has one of the most beautiful locations in London. The Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron transformed the Bankside Power Station into Tate Modern and the museum receives now 5 million visitors every year. In the same year Foster & Partners built the Millennium Bridge, which now connects St Paul's Cathedral and Tate Modern and is a very beautiful walk with amazing views of the City, Tower Bridge and of course the Thames. Tate Modern can also be approached from both sides along the Thames either from Tower Bridge or from London Eye and Southbank. Two walks I would strongly recommend to everybody visiting London.

The building itself is very impressive and the architects managed to keep the character of the old power station, but make it a place where the paintings and sculptures come into their own. The Turbine Hall was left as a huge hall, which can be used for large installations, maybe also laid out with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds (a project by Ai Weiwei) or it is just taken over by visitors which sit down or walk around and enjoy the architectural masterpiece.

Tate Modern's location has definitely also an impact to make it the world's most visited museum for modern art. It is just such a good experience to come here and after you have been once in Tate Modern you want to come again and again. From every floor you have a stunning view on St Paul's Cathedral, the most beautiful one in the restaurant on the top floor.
The open space makes the art also more accessible for the visitors and walking through the rooms you get the feeling that people start a communication with the pieces exhibited in Tate Modern. I have visited a lot of museums in different cities around the world and Tate Modern is one of the most beautiful one, where the art starts to come alive. My favorite one is still Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, though, with its extension designed by Jean Nouvel.

Boxpark Shoreditch - a Brandpark

Boxpark in Shoreditch opened 3 months ago and it's a very exciting new project. "Boxpark is a retail revolution - the world's first pop-up mall", a statement a copied from their website www.boxpark.co.uk. Boxpark is indeed a very unusual and innovative concept, which I haven't seen anywhere else. Stores moved in containers and will occupy the temporary space for the next 5 years. After that, the area around Shoreditch High Street Station will probably be transformed into office buildings and luxury apartments, as part of "the City's" conquest of Shoreditch and Spitalfields. However, I have never heard of any master plan or project development plan, so that might give Boxpark even a bit more than 5 years...

I visited Boxpark the day before the opening weekend, where most of the stores were already open and finished their last decoration efforts. I checked out most of the stores and asked myself how the concept of the world's first pop-up mall might be financially profitable for the tenants. Boxpark is absolutely cool. It's a mix between independent fashion shops, organic (and also non-organic) food stores and trendy brands like Gola, Vans, Puma, Dockers, Oakley and Nike. However, the space they have in the pop-up mall is very limited. The biggest stores have 3 containers, the smaller ones have only one, where the brands can hardly display any products, otherwise you could not move in there anymore. So I asked myself, how is that possible? The smaller, independent stores are maybe happy with showing a small range of stylish products, but don't the global brands need more space? I always thought in retail you need as much space as possible, since more space means more profit (if the location is right of course). What makes it attractive for Nike to show a few shoes and a few running shirts...?

Yesterday I found out. Nike opened its NIKEiD shop last week and that also opened my eyes. The global brands use Boxpark as a Brandpark. They use the pop-up mall as an opportunity to present and probably also test new trends, products and create their own brand experience worlds out of the containers. Shoreditch has a very high density of innovators and early adopters, so for the Brands this is a perfect opportunity to present themselves to the world's trendsetters and also use it as a brand lab. The NIKEiD shop is an absolutely exciting example. The shop does not have any shoes in there (apart from a few samples), but about 10 Apple computers with TV size screens, comfortable sofas and many design and art books. So what can you do here? You can create your own personalized shoe... The computers allow you to choose a model and then add colors and material the way you would like to have it. The books serve as inspiration. I talked with one of the shop assistants and asked a few critical questions. The system is still rather limited, so you could not create your own patterns or styles. However, the concept will be continuously improved and in the future we might even be able to create our completely individually designed Nike shoe. After you purchased your personalized shoe, it takes up to 4 weeks for delivery. You will receive regular updates via e-mail when it's finished, shipped and due to delivery, so your excitement will even be higher and make your waiting time shorter.
Another cool feature they have in there is one of the world's only two interactive large Nike history touch screens, where you can choose pics and movies, which show you Nike's history and the life of the brand.

After the NIKEiD shop I also visited the "normal" Nike shop, which is on the first floor or let's say in the first container layer. It's also very cool and they had a lot of very new products and styles I haven't seen in other Nike stores. Another shop assistant showed me the new Nike "augmented reality" iPad app, where you can open a shoe box and have a 3D look at the newest model, which was more fancy than useful, but still amazing.

Before I left, I also explored the dancing screen, which recognizes temperature and therefore creates an image of you with green and red bubbles. At the end of your dance you get a code, which allows you to download the movie or share it on Facebook and Twitter. Or share it on your blog...

That's Brand Experience!

Tate Logo Design

I actually planned to go to Tate Modern again today to continue my brand experience journey. However, the weather was just too beautiful and I kind of did not like the idea to get on the tube and spend the whole afternoon in central London. Therefore, I chose a topic which is not necessarily related to an actual visit, but can be explored online or from my memory: The logo design of Tate Modern.

The Tate Modern logo is the first logo I've ever seen, which is kind of a "living" logo. It changes its shape and appearance continuously and also according to the medium it is used. The basis is "TATE" written in capital letters and in a font, which comes close Arial, just a bit more round and modern (I'm not a typographer, so please don't judge...). However, the logo may change every time you'll see it. The letters become bold, sometimes the first too letters almost vanish, sometimes it's the second two letters. It looks like the letters start to disappear and appear again and the spaces within the letters become bigger or smaller. Go, have a look yourself on www.tate.org.uk and click on the different tabs and titles. Every time the page re-loads, the logo changes. They also play a lot with different colors. The colour, which seems to be predominant for Tate Modern is pink. However, it does not have to be pink, it works on several backgrounds depending on the content of the medium where the logo is used.

Is the Tate Modern logo a logo in transformation?

Didn't we learn that one of the most important rules in branding is consistency? It seems that we are sometimes allowed to break the rules and it also seems that it can be very successful. However, although the logo changes its appearance, there is indeed very much consistency. Many of you might not have even noticed that the logo changes, because you always see only one version at the time. And the design is always very clear and strong. Most importantly the style does not change, but stays within clear borders. The logo design has very distinct characteristics.

Tate Modern is kind of a sub-brand within the Tate family brand structure or also called brand architecture. Tate Modern's siblings are Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. All the sub-brands have their own colour and the supplement is written on top of the right corner of the "TATE" logo. Tate Modern is the most well-known of these four sub-brands and the others definitely profit from Tate Modern's popularity. Many people also visit Tate Britain on their trip to London and not just because they want to see the exhibitions with as high quality as Tate Modern, but also because they make the link between the two brands and get the attention of Tate Britain through their experience with Tate Modern.

HdM and Ai Weiwei will design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion this Summer

I know I'm always a bit late with the announcements here on red bulb. If you want to get more recent updates it's probably better to follow my twitter account @jbabics.

The decision was made earlier this month by the Serpentine Gallery that the Swiss Architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Chinese artist, architect, curator, publisher, poet and urbanist Ai Weiwei will have the honor to be able to design the gallery's pavilion in Kensington Gardens this summer. I was very pleased to hear that but at the same time also a bit surprised. One of the condition for an architect to be chosen to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is that they have never built anything in the UK before. Herzog & de Meuron have indeed completed a quite distinct project in the UK with converting the Bankside Power Station in London into Tate Modern. However, the pavilion will be the first "collaboration" of HdM and Ai Weiwei in the UK... In 2010 they already used a trick to get Jean Nouvel build the pavilion with the reason that his new shopping center close to St Paul's Cathedral was actually not finished yet. The original idea of the pavilion was probably to give a chance to very talented new architects with potential to become start architects. Since most of the pavilion designers are now stars (e.g. Zaha Hadid, the designer of the first pavilion in 2000) the standard became very high and the building boom in London does not leave so many star architects, which have not built in UK yet.

Anyway, by no means I want to criticise the choice of Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery, and his team. I really look forward to seeing the result of HdM and Ai Weiwei's creative minds, which has of course also a connection to the Olympic Games in London. Herzog and de Meuron designed the "Bird's Nest", the National Stadium for the Olympics in Beijing 2008 and Ai Weiwei was integrated in the project very early as their cultural interpreter.

I am sure we will see a very unique approach of the architects to this project. Some first descriptions can be found on www.serpentinegallery.org.

London Fashion Week

I can't really write anything about the London Fashion Week, because I'm not there. However, I told myself for the next LFW I need to get some tickets. Somehow...

Although, I'm not attending any fashion shows or events, I still get a glimpse of all the fancy people walking around Covent Garden and other places in Central London. London Fashion Week is another vibrant event, which brings together so many creative people, who inspire each other. Lovely!

Universal Studios unveils a new logo for its 100th Birthday

It's not a rebrand. The new logo of Universal, which will be used this spring, the year of the studio's 100th birthday, is similar to the old version and very recognisable.

When I saw it for the first time I was quite surprised and thought that they use now a 3D font for their logo. However, when I checked out older logo versions I saw that this is actually not new, but that already older logos had "UNIVERSAL" written in 3D. The new logo somehow makes it more distinct, or maybe it was just me, who only noticed it now.

I could very well imagine that the logo will be really in 3D when shown in front of 3D movies.

Another change is the text below the logo, which says now "a Comcast Company" and not "An NBCUniversal Company" anymore, after Comcast purchased 51% of NBCU in 2010.

Could a Museum be a Brand?

I’m writing my first “tate experience” blog article on the cold concrete stairs in the turbine hall. The café was massively overcrowded as the rest of the museum. This is actually a very good sign, although it’s a bit annoying for me. Tate Modern attracts thousands of visitors every day and it is probably one of the most popular tourist attractions in London. Did somebody say people don’t like to go to museums? 

The audience could not be more diverse: People from all around the world, kids, teens, a couple on their first date, lonely individuals, artists, art lovers, school groups and English language students. One thing people want to see here is art, no discussion. However, I strongly believe this place has an attraction, which goes beyond art. Tate Modern became a place, where people just like to spend their time. It became a place, which people recommend to their friends. It has its consistency with the collection, but also variety with its exhibitions and events. People might come here just to visit the shop (something I do regularly for example). Visitors consume Tate Modern, some become a member of Tate Modern and some might see Tate Modern as their favourite place in London, where they look forward to coming back again and again. Tate Modern has a very distinct logo and commuting with the tube, you might face advertisements from Tate Modern every day.

All these characteristics sound like what businesses are desperately looking for. Being a very successful brand. People who have positive emotions and memories when thinking of the brand and of course also worldwide popularity and recognition.

However, are we allowed to call a museum a brand? Of course we are, brands and branding is used for almost everything today, which I think is absolutely fair as long as the product, company, location, person fulfils certain characteristics, which I will explore later on in my “tate experience”.

Through my regular visits in the next couple of weeks I will try to investigate what makes Tate Modern so successful and loved. I will try to dig deeper into my own emotions and feelings of why Tate Modern is one of my beloved places in London. And hopefully I will be able to draw some conclusions for other brands and how they can learn from Tate Modern.

Now it gets almost too cold and I need to move on. Hopefully the rain stopped. Otherwise, I will just spend some more time here, which is usually no problem, because I could spend hours in Tate Modern.

Tate Experience

For my second term at Birkbeck College I chose to attend the module “Buyer Behaviour”, which we decided to call now “Consumer Behaviour”, but it seems to take its time to change the name officially. This, however, does not seem to have any influence on the quality of the module, which I very much enjoy. Choosing the module has the consequence that I’m left with almost no time apart from working and studying, since I also have two compulsory modules during this term. For these two modules, as the name compulsory would suggest, I did not have any freedom to attend them or not.

Anyway, this is not really of significance of what I’m about to start here. The assignment in my module “Consumer Behaviour” is writing about our experience with a brand. At the end the assignment will be an essay with hopefully some good academic sources and interesting studies. But Wendy Hein, our lecturer, motivated us to write a blog with our experience and afterwards integrate this in our essay. This is of course a very good opportunity for me to start a series in red bulb. That it fits into the content of red bulb, but especially, because the topic absolutely fascinates me, I will write about a cultural brand: Tate Modern. You're able to join me on a journey, where I will write about my experience with one of the loveliest museums in the world. Enjoy…!

Red Bull Canimation

When I saw this video in the cinema, I had to cry. Not even the most dramatic movie can trigger these emotions in me, but that short "behind the sciences" film just hit me. I know that clever marketing guys are behind this film and I know that it is built up to get to the heart of the people, but I still just could not help it. Red Bull is usually rather known to support extreme sports and crazy athletes, but Canimation is a different kind of sponsoring. I just love when enthusiastic and motivated young people get a chance to show their creativity and get the recognition for it. 

Red Bull somehow found a way to support people who are dedicated in what they're doing and at the same time profit from it also commercially. This is pure brand building and Red Bull managed to turn these millions of marketing spend into profit and into a brand, which is so valuable.

Canimation was a competition and Red Bull welcomed all creative people to enter with an animation, which used the blue and silver can as inspiration. The results of the winners can be viewed on http://canimation.redbull.co.uk/

Will Shang Xia become China's first global luxury brand?

China is the second largest market for luxury goods after Japan and forecasts estimate that it will become the world's top consumer of luxury goods in 2015. At the moment it is mainly the western luxury brands, which profit from this incredible growth, but it won't take too long until the Chinese and also the global market is ready for China's own luxury brands.

Brands from China still struggle to get rid of the copy, mass production and bad quality image. Especially when it comes to luxury goods, consumers in China and in other countries favour European brands with their long history and global reputation. But there is also a sign that buyers in China start to seek out brands, which have their roots in their own culture. Once established in their home country such brands would have a huge potential to become global brands, merely due to the size of their domestic market.

Shang Xia might be a very promising candidate. Shang Xia opened its first store in 2010 in Shanghai and plans to open another one in Beijing and Paris soon. Their products range from clothing, shoes to furniture and ceramics. Already visible throughout all their lines is a clear message of a minimal design, a self-confidence of its Chinese heritage and a finesse of its traditional production. Indications, which could make it a very successful luxury brand.

However, the main reason why I see much potential in Shang Xia to become China's first global luxury brand is the French company, which is part owner of Shang Xia: Hermès, one of the world's most desirable luxury-goods brands and also one the most profitable one. The experience and Hermès' own brand will definitely help Shang Xia to enter the global luxury market and I believe that also consumers in Europe and the United States are ready for a Chinese brand.

Video Game Industry Outgrows Film and Music

Recently I was in the cinema and saw a trailer for "Assassin's Creed: Revelations". During the trailer I thought, wow I need to watch that movie. Until I realized it's not a trailer for a movie, but an advertisement for a video game. It happened to me again, when I saw the poster in the tube and the thought came up: didn't I see that trailer? Must be an awesome movie. I even tried to google, in which cinema I could see it. Then I realized that I have been confused before and that my mind tricked me again. The poster just looked so much like a movie ad.

The way video games are advertised becomes more and more similar to film advertising and the budget they spend to market a new game must also reach the sums for Hollywood blockbusters. This has also its reason. Without really being noticed by the media, the video game industry started to outgrow the film and music industry. The global video game industry was worth $66 billion in 2010, while the global box-office results for film in 2010 was only $31.8 billion. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3", a shooter video game took $775 million in the first five days after its release, which you can compare to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II", the highest-grossing film of 2011 and and its $202 million it made in the first five days.

The video game industry takes therefore place in the first row of the entertainment business and its growth predictions are even more exciting.
No wonder that also brands start to discover product placement in video games.

What happened to the CCTV?

For most of the people CCTV triggers the image of security cameras, but CCTV is also the short form of China Central Television (the Chinese counterpart of BBC) and "the CCTV" is commonly also used as a name for the skyscraper, which was built in Beijing to serve as the broadcasting channel's new headquarters.

The CCTV headquarters was designed by OMA, the architecture office of Rem Koolhaas, and received international recognition for its very unique structure. Together with the Olympic Stadium (the Bird's Nest) by Herzog & de Meuron, Paul Andreu's National Theater of China and the terminal 3 of Beijing’s international airport designed by Foster + Partner it belongs to symbols of the new age of iconic contemporary architecture in China built by famous international architects.

Pictures of the CCTV headquarters can be found in many books about modern architecture, since it is symbolic for a new generation of complex engineering structures, which would not have been possible a decade ago.

The beautiful rendered pictures is what everybody has in mind when they think about the CCTV headquarters, including me when I first visited Beijing last summer. Walking towards the building, the pictures out of the architecture books seem to keep their promise. The 44-storey skyscraper arising in the Beijing Central Business District looks absolutely stunning. However, when I came closer I got more and more the feeling that there is something wrong. The building was officially opened in 2008, but everything looked like it is still in construction. A big fence surrounds the CCTV headquarters and it does not really look like anybody works in there.

Three years ago, in the beginning of 2009 I was in Shanghai during the Chinese New Year and I remember very well the Lantern Festival, which is the last day of the festive season. We received the news that one of the buildings close to the CCTV headquarters was on fire and that there was a huge risk that the skyscraper itself gets damaged as well. The Beijing Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which was in construction and was meant to occupy the building burnt down completely and some people suspected fraud behind the fire, since the hotel business was not at its best during this time. However, the good news was that the CCTV headquarters was undamaged.

Therefore, I did not think anything bad when I planned to visit Koolhaas' skyscraper in Beijing. Lights are on in the building, but it looks rather unoccupied. The building, which burnt down was not completely removed and the whole area still looks like a construction site, although the buildings should have been finished already. So what happened to the CCTV? Google could not give me an answer, descriptions are vague and give rather information about the unique and praised design of the structure than about the current use. Pictures again seem all be rendered and very seldom you'll find a real photograph.

If the Chinese want to keep hidden what happened on the night of the Lantern Festival in 2009, they will probably manage to keep it hidden. I wonder, what happens with the CCTV headquarters. It would be a real shame, if the building is never going to be used. Hopefully the site looks different the next time I'll be in Beijing...