Beijing National Stadium almost ready

Jul 22, 2008

Beijing National Stadium almost ready

Beijing’s new seven-level Olympic stadium is a $500 million project. Finishing touches are still being added to the stadium that will be able to seat as many as 91′000 spectators during the Olympic Games starting August 9, 2008. After the Games, temporary seating will be removed, reducing the the capacity to 80′000. This will also be the case of the London Olympic Stadium.

The National Stadium, also known as the “Bird’s Nest” for its lattice work of interwoven steel, has been designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

It has made such an impact as to displace late Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s face from commemorative Olympic bank notes.

Update: Check this new article to watch an amazing Discovery Channel video about the stadium

Beijing’s Olympic construction boom has bequeathed an 800-year-old city with some of the world’s most futuristic architectural statements, potent symbols of a resurgent power’s desire to showcase its development and mastery of technology.

The construction of this stadium started in March of 2004 after a ground breaking ceremony in December 2003. Work stopped in between due to very high construction costs. Almost 10 people (that we know of) died during the construction.

The £280m Beijing National Stadium is set to be a stunning landmark building for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The roof is saddle-shaped, and the geometry is developed from a base ellipse of which the major and minor axes are 313 meters and 266 meters respectively. The outer surface of the facade is inclined at approximately 13° to the vertical.

It is 330 metres long by 220 meters wide, 69.2 meters tall, uses 258′000 square meters of space and has a usable area of 204′000 square meters. It also has some 11′000 square meters of underground rooms with waterproof walls.
36 km of unwrapped steel were used for the construction, with a combined weight of 45′000 tonnes.