Olympic Stadium: Beijing National Stadium

[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

[Rob2012]

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]

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]

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]

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!!

[PYRROS2004]

I wonder who were the VIPs that used the boxes during the Athens Olympics. One of them is grandpa Bush. He came incognito in Athens. We've seen Blair and his wife inside the stadium, various kings were there.

[savas]

although i think that the Athens Olympic Stadium is from an architectual point of view still the best and very "open",.... i think that the stadium is going to look fantastic when finished... When the inside is painted red and the surrounding are complete.. And the right illumination.... The only thing is that it looks a bit too "heavy" from the outside...

[Sir Rols]

Uh oh! Things are not going as smoothly as expected:

BEIJING, March 28, 2007 (AFP) - Work on Beijing's main Olympic stadium is three months behind schedule and will not be competed this year as originally expected, the project director said Wednesday.

Pressure was also affecting other venues and construction work may have to be quickened to meet Beijing's own deadline of the end of 2007, said Wu Jingjun, director of construction projects for the 2008 Olympics.

``All venues are to be completed by the end of this year, except for the National Stadium,'' Wu said, adding March was now the likely completion date for the centrepiece of the Games.

``We may have a pretty busy schedule for some individual venues and we may have to further speed up our efforts, but I can assure you that ... quality will not suffer as a result.''

However Olympic organising committee officials insisted there was no construction delay, and there was no suggestion that Beijing would not be ready to host the Games from August 8-24 next year.

``I don't think we can talk about a delay,'' said Sun Weide, deputy spokesman for the Olympic organising committee.

``Because the National Stadium is hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, it takes a bit more work than the other stadiums.''

International Olympic Committee officials have highly praised Beijing's venue construction and President Jacques Rogge said as recently as this week that work was progressing at a tremendous pace.

However, until now officials have maintained that work on all 36 venues for the Olympics would finished by the end of this year.

The organising committee is staging 26 test events this year and another 16 next year to prepare venues for the hosting of the Games.

The main stadium, known as the ``Bird's Nest'' because of its intricate design of interwoven steel, is set to host its first test event from April 18-19, an International Amateur Athletics Federation race-walking competition.

Wu, the chief engineer for all Olympic construction projects, said the National Stadium and the National Aquatics Centre nearby presented more construction challenges than other Olympic venues.

``We have encountered some difficulties in work on the National Stadium and the Water Cube, which rank pretty high in terms of the complexity of the construction work,'' he said.

The National Aquatics Centre, known as the Water Cube, will stage its first event, the China Open swimming competition, in February.

AFP

[Faster]

although i think that the Athens Olympic Stadium is from an architectual point of view still the best and very "open",.... i think that the stadium is going to look fantastic when finished... When the inside is painted red and the surrounding are complete.. And the right illumination.... The only thing is that it looks a bit too "heavy" from the outside...

Hands down, the best architectual stadium was Munich's. There is no arguing that.

[Sir Rols]

Hands down, the best architectual stadium was Munich's. There is no arguing that.

I agree. It's such a pity that it is dated and falling out of use, but even so, its design, its setting and its concept are still beautiful.

[dave199]

That stadium is quite an eyesore. I expected much more from the renderings even though I really wasn't a big fan of the design to begin with. I guess pictures can be deceiving.

[Faster]

I agree. It's such a pity that it is dated and falling out of use, but even so, its design, its setting and its concept are still beautiful.

They are keeping the stadium functional and in good repair, its becoming a good concert site in Munich because of the layout. Also if Munich were to bid for the WOG, I would assume that Olympic Stadium would be used over AA because of the way AA is set up almost solely for football, while Olympic Stadium is more open and could create a between winter games feel and the fact that the stadium is suppose to look like the alps doesn't hurt.

Edited March 30, 2007 by Faster

[rav3n]

Too bad that we have to wait until the next year to see the Bird Nest finished, anyway i hope they do considerable progress when 2007 ends.

I agree, the Munich Olympiastadion was the best ever venue for an OG, even more than 30 years have passed on & the stadium still amaze me, for being honest, i was very dissapointed when the stadium was not selected for the 2006 WC, and they preferred to build a new stadium (AA is cool, i know, but the Olympiastadion is more trascendental)

[Faster]

Too bad that we have to wait until the next year to see the Bird Nest finished, anyway i hope they do considerable progress when 2007 ends.

I agree, the Munich Olympiastadion was the best ever venue for an OG, even more than 30 years have passed on & the stadium still amaze me, for being honest, i was very dissapointed when the stadium was not selected for the 2006 WC, and they preferred to build a new stadium (AA is cool, i know, but the Olympiastadion is more trascendental)

A lot of people have said that either Nurmberg or Kaiserslaughten shouldn't have hosted and Olmpiastadion Munchen used instead, but others have argued for Dussledorf and more have argued that Breman should have got a new stadium out of the deal.

[baron-pierreIV]

Yeah, the NFL will announce shortly that the exhibition Chian Bowl match up between the Seattle Seahwaks and the New England Patriots, originally planned for the Birds Nest stadium on August 7, will be cancelled. No reason has been given so far -- but it was to be NBC's one-year-and-counting kick-off for its Beijing 2008 coverage, and it probably won't be said so -- but those in the know (including you and me, kiddoo) just KNOW that it's because Birds Nest Stadium is many months behind schedule. I think Beijing 2008 promised too much.

[BTHarner]

The NFL game was scheduled for the Workers Stadium (one of the soccer venues), not the Birds Nest. The reason the NFL is giving is that it wants to focus its energies on the Giants-Dolphins regular season game in London. Is that really the reason? I have no idea.

[baron-pierreIV]

The NFL game was scheduled for the Workers Stadium (one of the soccer venues), not the Birds Nest. The reason the NFL is giving is that it wants to focus its energies on the Giants-Dolphins regular season game in London. Is that really the reason? I have no idea.

Oh, OK. I sit corrected. I always prefer the more intriguing, untold story.

[mr.x]

Water Cube (Left side) and Bird Nest (Right side)

Bird Nest (Photo by 三色七音)

[mr.x]

[mr.x]

Look this image, It's interesting