725 replies to this topic

[mr.x]

The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the bird's nest, will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies. In 2002 Government officials engaged architects worldwide in a design competition. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron collaborated with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group to win the competition. Contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, is the Artistic Consultant for design. The stadium will seat as many as 100,000 spectators during the Olympics, but this will be reduced to 80,000 after the games. It has replaced the original intended venue of the Guangdong Olympic Stadium.

The stadium is 330 metres long by 220 metres wide, and is 69.2 metres tall. The 250,000 square metre (gross floor area) stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. The stadium will cost up to 3.5 billion yuan (422,873,850 USD/ 325,395,593 EUR). The ground was broken in December 2003, and construction started in March 2004, but was halted by the high construction cost in August 2004.

In the new design, the roof of the stadium had been omitted from the design. Experts say that this will make the stadium safer, whilst reducing construction costs. The construction of the Olympic buildings continued once again in the beginning of 2005.

50,000 workers work 23 and a half hours a day on the stadium. Completion ix expected 2007.









Exterior completed

[mr.x]

Previously posted interiors by Mo Rush:

[Ruling Czar]

From the looks of it, they are planning a spectacular cauldron.

[baron-pierreIV]

Actually, to me -- it looks spectacular on paper, but really quite unsightly in real life. I think the "unfinished" look is ... a BIG mistake. It's an ugly monstrosity!

[rav3n]

It will be an awesome stadium, and completed more faster that the athens one . However i don't have any idea about how it will be the cauldron and how it will be visible outside .

Or maybe they can just put a screen outside the stadium that shows the Olympic cauldron, or something like that

[RobH]

baron-pierreIV, on Mar 19 2007, 11:56 PM, said:

Actually, to me -- it looks spectacular on paper, but really quite unsightly in real life. I think the "unfinished" look is ... a BIG mistake. It's an ugly monstrosity!

I completely agree. It's like a Dali-esque multi-storey car park. Horrible. My only hope is that it looks better when lit up in the evening.

A real let down.

[micheal_warren]

once completed it will look absolutely amazing!!

[NOC]

rav3n, on Mar 20 2007, 12:06 AM, said:

It will be an awesome stadium, and completed more faster that the athens one .

Have they finished the Athens Stadium? When did that happen? I thought they were still behind schedule.

[baron-pierreIV]

NOC, on Mar 20 2007, 09:06 PM, said:

Have they finished the Athens Stadium? When did that happen? I thought they were still behind schedule.

They're holding back on the luxury boxes until the 2104 SOGs.

[Go Europe]

baron-pierreIV, on Mar 20 2007, 09:09 PM, said:

They're holding back on the luxury boxes until the 2104 SOGs.

I thought 2104 will be the 25th time LA would host the games (being so successful)! Or is it going to be the 13th time Sydney will (extremely successful as well)! Oh I can not remember!!