Today OMA participated in the official construction completion ceremony for the China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters in Beijing, which will start to be used later this year. Designed by OMA as a reinvention of the skyscraper as a loop, construction on the building began in 2004. At approximately 473, 000m², CCTV - accommodating TV studios, offices, broadcasting and production facilities - is OMA's largest ever project and its first major building in China.

OMA's design for the stage set at the Greek Theatre in Syracuse, Sicily, was inaugurated today with the performance of Aeschylus's Prometheus Unbound (directed by Claudio Longhi). The scenography features three temporary architectural devices that reinterpret the spaces of the theatre, which dates from the 5th century BCE.

Artist Marina Abramovic has commissioned OMA to develop a former theater in Hudson, upstate New York, into the Marina Abramović Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art (MAI). The project, led by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in OMA's New York office, marries Abramović's 40 years of pioneering work in the genre with OMA's innovation in theatres, museums and curation. Listen to the press conference, with Abramović, Shigematsu, P.S.1 director Klaus Biesenbach, Stefano Boeri and MAI director Serge Le Borgne, here.

Today, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture unveiled plans for a new building in Gorky Park, designed by OMA. Garage Gorky Park - due to be completed in 2014 - will be a renovation of the famous 1960s Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant, a prefabricated concrete structure that has been derelict for more than two decades. Full project info here.

A consortium of experts led by OMA scored the highest of the 10 teams in the first round of the competition to develop the concept of the Moscow Agglomeration. In 2011, the Russian Federation Council confirmed that the city of Moscow will annex 150,000 hectares to the southwest, making Moscow 2.4 times its current size. The expansion is designed to relieve pressure on the historic city centre by redistributing the working places to the annexed part of the Moscow Oblast, thereby addressing transport, ecological and social issues that result from high levels of commuting.

Coolsingel, the mix-used development in the centre of Rotterdam - location of OMA's hq - is currently in design development. New images can be found here. Recently, the Coolsingel team tested the reflective qualities of the facade...

At its Livery Banquet on 14 March the Company of Chartered Architects awarded OMA's new Rothschild Bank headquarters with the New City Architecture Award for 2011. The award recognises a building which, in the opinion of the judges, makes the most significant contribution to the streetscape and skyscape of the City of London.

OMA's associate and director of French projects Clement Blanchet spoke recently at TEDx Toulouse on the proliferation of pressures and pieties that are threatning to eliminate its intrinsic values -- a situation Blanchet called OVERDOSE. The obligation of the icon, the wish of preservation, all with an almost religious dose of "green", the architect faces the exhaustion of a bulimic production. How can the crisis be turned in favor of the architect? View the lecture here.

Shohei Shigematsu, partner in charge of OMA's operations in the Americas, talks to his former OMA colleague Bjarke Ingels, now director of Copenhagen architecture office BIG, about their architectural contemporaries and generational inheritance. From the Barbican, London; watch the lecture here.

Construction begins today on the OMA-designed Taipei Performing Arts Center in Taipei, Taiwan. President Ma Ying-jeou, together with Mayor Hau Lung-pin, representatives from the Taipei City Government, OMA, and local design partner Artech Architects will take part in the groundbreaking ceremony. For a city passionate about theatre, TPAC is a new kind of venue - adaptable, efficient, and intimately connected with the urban fabric.

With great sorrow we have learned of the sudden death of Renz van Luxemburg. As acoustic consultant and friend Renz has, for as long as we can remember, contributed to OMA's work with great dedication, passion and creative insight. Renz was a key collaborator who made it possibile to realise our projects. We will particularly miss his input and friendship. We wish his wife, children, colleagues and friends great strength in coping with this loss.

On behalf of all employees of OMA,

Rem Koolhaas
Victor van der Chijs
Ellen van Loon
Reinier de Graaf
Shohei Shigematsu
David Gianotten
Iyad Alsaka

Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist discuss their new book Project Japan: Metabolism Talks… at London's Architectural Association, hosted by Brett Steele, director of the AA, and writer Shumon Basar. Watch the entire event here.

The 24-hour Museum, a collaboration between AMO, Prada and artist Francesco Vezzoli, opens in Paris on Tuesday night at the Palais d'Iéna, a modernist pavilion built by Auguste Perret in 1937. The one-off event - including an opening night party, public and press tours, and visits by schoolchildren - will be a staging of a "fake" museum, examining the modes in which art is presented and consumed, and the role of the museum as a social condensor.

Hong Kong, Rotterdam, 13 December 2012 - The New South Wales Government announced on Tuesday that Destination Sydney, consisting of Lend Lease, HOSTPLUS, Capella Capital, AEG Ogden and Spotless, is the preferred consortium for Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct (SICEEP) redevelopment. OMA is the master plan designer within the consortium, and is also the conceptual architect of the ICC Hotels within the master plan.

A team of Dutch designers, including OMA, is reconceiving one of the most crucial spaces in the United Nations headquarters in New York: the North Delegates Lounge.

Rem Koolhaas recently took a walking tour of Hafencity, in Der Speigel's hometown, Hamburg, then had a nose around the German weekly magazine's new headquarters. Along the way, he talked to Spiegel's culture editors Philipp Oehmke and Tobias Rapp about the complex effects of the free market on projects like Hafencity (where OMA once had a project), AMO's new book about the Metabolists, Project Japan, and how the Spiegel staff can "occupy" their own building. Full intereview here; German original here.