黑洞社区

Former OMA partner Ole Scheeren, the designer behind Beijing鈥檚 iconic CCTV 黑洞社区, is considering launching a London studio next year.

The man behind Beijing鈥檚 CCTV 黑洞社区 left OMA in 2010 to set up a new practice, Buro Ole Scheeren (Buro OS), based in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Speaking to 黑洞社区 in Singapore this week, Scheeren said his practice was now sizing up a London launch.

Scheeren said: 鈥淚鈥檓 looking at projects in London and considering setting up an office there, maybe next year. It鈥檚 a city I鈥檓 acutely interested in.

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in exploring scale and complexity [in London] 鈥� lessons that we鈥檝e learned in Asia that are becoming of greater use in the UK and Europe.鈥�

The German architect who graduated from the Architectural Association in London, said he was interested in designing 鈥渃ultural as well as commercial projects鈥� in London and was planning the potential move with a 鈥渢eam of collaborators [in London] who know the market well鈥�.

Buro OS is behind some of Asia鈥檚 largest schemes, including mixed-use towers 268m-tall Angkasa Raya in Kuala Lumpur (below), and 310m-tall MahaNakhon in Bangkok.

Prior to launching Buro OS in 2010, Scheeren was director in charge of Asia at OMA and partner-in-charge of Beijing鈥檚 CCTV building.

Scheeren, who puts an emphasis on carving out public realm improvements in his projects, also said he was interested in 鈥渨orking with a city authority on improving city planning鈥�.

He praised London as 鈥渙ne of the most inclusive and open cities in the world鈥�.

Speaking at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore, Scheeren said world cities were losing their public realm to developers.

He said: 鈥淐ities are becoming increasingly dense and vertical, determined not for individual needs but for the needs of developers.

鈥淲hat you get is a series of towers 鈥� but what happens in between those towers? [My focus is] not the architecture of objects, but the architecture of creating spaces.鈥�