art.218.com for years. Koolhaas expressed surprise over the controversy: 'We regret the renewed attention, and distance ourselves emphatically from the interpretations attributed to these images.'
The roots of the debate, however, lie much deeper. Many Chinese are annoyed that foreign, and not home-grown, architects are designing prestigious buildings. Also, many bemoan that billions are wasted on those showpieces of China's emerging power.
Costs for the new CCTV complex are estimated at $1 billion, although nobody dares publicise the true pricetag.
What is more, China's all-powerful state television, which built itself this monument, often enough faces criticism for being a stilted propaganda organ providing only homespun content.
A fire which earlier this year destroyed the almost-completed annex, depicted in another draft for the 2004 Content magazine as a life-sized penis with two semi-naked women, led to little-concealed gloating in Beijing.
A gigantic fireworks display that the TV station staged without a permit on the occasion of the Chinese New Year had the 159-metre building up in flames as if it was built of dry tinder.
The question of what to do with the ruin is delaying the grand opening of the building, which maybe is simply too avant-garde for many Chinese.
German architect Scheeren describes the main building's two slanted, L-shaped towers which are connected at a hight of 160 metres with a 70-metre-high projection, as a 'cage, or a tube folded in space'.
He sees a loop, which could also hint at a new organisational structure for CCTV, doing away with vertical hierarchies.
Chinese artist and architect Ai Weiwei, who co-designed the 'Bird's Nest' Olympic stadium, defended Kolhaas.
'I am sure simple imitation of genitals was not his inspiration,' he was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
The Communist Party organ Zhongguo Qingnianbao took a more philosophical approach to the buttocks controversy. 'The worship of procreation is a widespread custom in primitive societies,' it said.