Last updated at 20:38 26 January 2008

Two colossal towers rise drunkenly from a sea of grey high-rise blocks. Their summits are joined by a bridge jutting out at a bizarre right angle. Another L-shaped link at the base completes this loop of steel and glass.

Yet thanks to this seemingly impossible architecture, the China Central Television Centre will be able to withstand an earthquake measuring eight on the Richter scale.

The 768ft (234m) building in Beijing is as tall as One Canada Square at Canary Wharf, yet totters at an angle of 10 degrees, almost twice the deviation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

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Listed by Time magazine as one of the ten new architectural wonders of the world, it was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhass and London-based structural engineer Cecil Balmond.

Construction started in 2004 and the £400million, 52-storey building will be completed in time to broadcast the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Joining the two towers with the skybridge was so delicate that it had to be done at 4am, when the metal was at its coolest, to avoid expansion.

Arup, the British firm responsible for the project, said: "The building's primary support is achieved through its skin of leaning columns."