ArchWeek - Beijing Bird's Nest - Architecture

[Kevin Matthews]

Discussion related this ArchitectureWeek story:

[Landy]

hmmm... a couple of things one this is one of the best stadium I've ever seen on paper it really brakes the ice cream carton look that most stadium have. On the other hand the building has become more important than the architects themselves it has become part of the olympic symbol. The stoic almost invisible content of H&M has become as extravagant as rococco architecture. Not that is a bad thing but definitely shows a change on their philosophy to architectural design. It is no longer the architecture of truth but more of architecture of narrative almost in the lines with Gehry's Guggenheim.
LM

[womanthefirstbuilder]

Yes, Kevin, I think it is a tremenous building. I have read the article in ARCHITECTURE WEEK by Brian Liddy on the creation of the Birds Nest from the architects' point of view and found it very informative.

Now I want the 2nd article written from the Engineers' point of view but don't know where to get it. Any ideas?

Cheers,
Elfie

[jonig55]

I am sorry to disagree with the prevailing mindset of architects in this world regarding the Olympic stadium in China. I really do think it's a dose of the "Emperor's New Clothes", a fitting description for this extravagance, together with the pool cube that looks like an old mattress from the air, both of them truly ugly buildings. Back to the stadium, are the architect's playing a joke here? Designed to resemble a bird's nest is like the Spanish Olympic football team's display of the Chinese facial characteristics. As for an "architecture of narrative", well that's pretty apt...have we (architects) all run out of things to say? Used to be a time when architecture and engineering came together in an elegant form for stadium design.....this one was a triumph of engineering over architectural design! Once again Arups, that indominable engineering group (we can engineering anything, no matter how daft) came to the rescue of the architect's so called narrative. It doesn't stand up to critical scrutiny, the Emperor doesn't have any new clothes after all!

[Kevin]

[cryingbaby615]

Can't wait for the second article...

Cheers!!!

[djswan]

I wonder if the engineers calculated accumulated pigeon poo, if in fact birds decide to nest there. Rusty metal has a larger surface area than shiny new.

My buddy ate duck tongue over there. Birds nest soup may be a solution.

The swiss should stick with timing events at the games and leave the architecture to the host country, in my humble opinion.

So weaving metal is the new international fad?

[Landy]

what makes H&M stadium better than the Guggenheim is that is not just "weaving metal" it is a sport facility that blends with the scale of Beijing and is a true urban expression. And when the Guggenheim was on the design phase a lot of the talk was on the titanium shingles (titanium this titanium that etc). H&M building is transparent it uses light as a theatrical experience (red) and most important it goes beyond their swiss box paradigm also for those that read the article it mentions that local architects where proactively involved in the design process.

[JWmHarmon]

One of the characteristics of the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium is the variations in the nest structure.

The interlacing is a reflection of ancient Chinese pottery crazing, the cracks that show up in pottery when the glaze shrinks at a different rate from the body of the ceramic pottery.

Here is a link to a bowl from the Song Dynasty period showing the crazing which was intentionally stained with ink to emphasize the crazing.

http://seco.glendale.edu/ceramics/songgebowl.html

Note the similarity of the crazing and the bird's nest.