Beijing National Stadium

The National Stadium in Beijing, often known as the Bird's Nest, has an 80,000-person capacity. The stadium was developed collaboratively by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of the Basel-based architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, project architect Stefan Marbach, artist Ai Weiwei, and CADG, directed by principal architect Li Xinggang. The stadium was built to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2008. It will be used once more in the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Temporary big screens are periodically put at the stands of the Bird's Nest.

The stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest", has the notable virtue of keeping its basically sculptural beauty despite its huge scale and adept fulfillment of a slew of complicated technological criteria. The absence of a tight exterior facade or curtain wall is the stadium's most striking characteristic. Instead, a forest of columns creates a series of transitional zones that are neither exterior nor internal, breaking down the building's monolithic mass while accentuating its tectonic aspects. While huge, the steel pieces suggest frightening movement. The area surrounding the stadium has been planned to flow from it, with access, media, and retail levels positioned beneath an urban park.

The stadium's concrete bowl can hold up to 91,000 people. Color is utilized sparingly—the steel is silver, the concrete bowl and stadium seats are a bright red, while the interior components are matte black. This is not just a magnificent stadium, but also a collection of ideas for the new power of the twenty-first century.

Location: 1 National Stadium South Road, Beijing, China