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The 'Water Cube': The National Aquatics Center

The facade of the Water Cube can also be highlit and animated

The 'Birds Nest': Beijing National Stadium

China Central TV Headquarters

The National Center for Performing Arts. Called a "floating pearl" by its admirers, its also been criticized as resembling a "fried egg".
Olympic Pride Transforms City, Projects advance architecture to new levels.

In less than a decade, Beijing has transformed itself from a city of gloomy, uninspired concrete cubes to a site containing some of the world's most inspired architecture. While China's new prosperity plays a part, the primary impetus is this year's Olympic Games which are due to start next month in the city. A look at some of the major projects follows.

The surreal "Water Cube", a.k.a. the National Aquatics Center, is covered with sheets of translucent plastic bubbles, which invoke images of a building constructed entirely from water. The bubbles also transmit light and absorb heat, cutting energy usage. The Center is the world's largest polymer-clad building, and will be one of the primary venues during the upcoming Olympics.

The "Bird Nest" is the friendly name for Beijing National Stadium, a 91,000-seat venue with an eye-popping space age design that contains 36 kilometers of unwrapped steel supports. Built for $430M, the stadium will also be one of the Olympics’ primary venues.  It is claimed that as many as 10 people died during the construction of the Stadium.

The hypermodern National Center for the Performing Arts, a gigantic $400 million titanium-and-glass flying saucer, floats like a pearl on its surrounding pool of water. To complete the image, an underwater tunnel provides entry. The Center's lush interior is said to house the most technologically advanced acoustics and mechanical wizardry of any concert hall in the world. The water enclosing the building also acts as thermal mass, to mediate the temperature inside.

There's the China Central TV (CCTV) Headquarters, a massive Escher-like structure that strains the boundaries of what it means to be called a skyscraper. The building's shape is so complex, that computational tools to validate its design didn't exist a decade ago. CCTV Tower's 4.1 million square feet of floor space makes it the second largest office building in the world, after the Pentagon.  The design, which includes a massive unsupported segment, will never be repeated, according to some architectural experts.

Greenpix, a multistory video display wall, is being called a "zero energy video art installation". Built on the wall of a large seafood restaurant, the solar-powered installation will display specially-commissioned videos by renowned artists.

Finally, Beijing has also completed an addition onto its airport: Terminal Three. The two-mile long structure is not only the world's largest airport terminal; it's one of the world's largest enclosed spaces. Built at a cost of $3.5 billion, it has over 100 gates, and covers some 9 million square feet spread over five above-ground and two underground floors. The roof of the terminal is punctuated by raised triangular skylights, meant to evoke the scales of a Chinese dragon.

Beijing is also constructing the world's largest Ferris wheel, in Chaoyang Park.

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world's most inspired architecture
By GaryJohnson on 7/14/2008 6:16:21 AM , Rating: 5
Those pretty buildings almost distracted me from all the human-rights violations.




RE: world's most inspired architecture
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 7/14/2008 8:30:49 AM , Rating: 2
No kidding. As much as China likes to put a modern, ground breaking face on things, they are still nothing more than a second rate Communist country that gets lumped into the same category as the old USSR.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By masher2 (blog) on 7/14/2008 8:59:40 AM , Rating: 5
At current growth rates, this 'second rate' nation will be the most powerful on earth within 25 years, both economically and militarily.

The US needs to either remove the barriers restricting growth in this country, or be forced to live with its subordinate status to China.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By martinrichards23 on 7/14/2008 9:07:15 AM , Rating: 2
When China's economy is 4x that of the USA you could say they are equals, because only then will GDP per capita be even.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By masher2 (blog) on 7/14/2008 9:18:26 AM , Rating: 5
By that metric, Luxembourg is the most powerful nation on Earth. Clearly that approach has a few flaws. :p


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By martinrichards23 on 7/14/2008 9:26:00 AM , Rating: 2
No, who cares which nation has the biggest economy? It doesn't really matter.

Quality of life, of which GDP per capita a big determinant of, is much more important.

For example, people of Luxembourg have a much higher standard of living than the average American.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By masher2 (blog) on 7/14/2008 9:33:13 AM , Rating: 4
And yet Luxembourg exerts essentially no influence on the world social, political, and military arenas, while nations like the US and the former Soviet Union (whose citizens had one of the poorest standards of living of all) set the tune the rest of the world marches to.

In global geopolitique, size matters, plain and simple.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By Pops on 7/14/2008 1:32:05 PM , Rating: 2
While I wouldn't go as far to say China will not pass up the US economically. People thought the same thing about Japan in the 80s. It ended up not happening. A lot of things can change in a short amount of time.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By Solandri on 7/14/2008 2:56:45 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah. I'd even say that as long as China retains its totalitarian political control, the effectiveness of its brand of capitalism will peak at a much lower level than in the U.S. and Europe. So while its enormous population will eventually lead to it becoming an economic superpower and maybe even surpassing the U.S. economy in size, it's not going to reach 4x the size of the U.S. unless they overhaul their political system.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By Pirks on 7/14/2008 5:51:19 PM , Rating: 2
If you think about it, changing political system in China can actually SLOW them down economically. Right now they have kinda dictatorial system - say if the the Party ordered something like "we gotta build a few advanced fission reactors 'cause we really need cheap power" - the nation replies "yes comrade!" and begins the work right away, hiring EU and US experts to help them to build advanced nuclear plant designs.

Now if China changes their system to a US-like, what's gonna happen? "Oh, noes, comrade, we gotta destroy this rare spider habitat, we gonna kill a few birds, we gonna destroy that DUCK NEST ON THE RIVER, NOOOOO SAY NOOO TO EVIL NUCLEAR!"

Do you really want this to happen? You know, looking at the US I'm really enjoying chinese commies, 'cause they just shoot or imprison eco-freaks, unlike stupid US gov't. So while the US can enjoy they great political freedom protecting duck nests and sh1t like that - China will build more great projects that any country ever did, because Chinese eco-freaks get shot (and rightfully so, I wish US people shoot 'em all bastards too)

Hey masher, say I'm wrong or what?


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By masher2 (blog) on 7/14/2008 6:13:58 PM , Rating: 3
Whether we like it or not, the people of China are embarking on a great experiment into a new form of government which might be called "managed democracy". Will it succeed? I don't know...but I'll be watching the results with great anticipation.


By Pirks on 7/14/2008 8:49:28 PM , Rating: 2
Managed democracy - sounds very much Putin-like. Yeah, that'll be interesting. Especially after watching Chilean economic wonder happening under a hardline military dictatorship of General Pinochet (by the way backed by the US - what an irony). Looks like US model of democracy is far from ideal no matter what Bush will tell ya ;-)


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By JustTom on 7/15/2008 11:23:59 AM , Rating: 2
I understand the managed part but where is the democracy?


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By masher2 (blog) on 7/15/2008 12:40:36 PM , Rating: 3
> "I understand the managed part but where is the democracy? "

In a limited, hierarchal form, it certainly exists. Delegates within the Communist Party vote, during the National Congress, and to elect members to various higher groups such as the Politboro and the People's Congress.

An unkind observer could state the only difference between the US and Chinese political systems is that to have a vote in the latter, one must belong to a single party, while to vote in the former, one must belong to one of two nearly-indistinguishable parties.


RE: world's most inspired architecture
By JustTom on 7/15/2008 1:25:47 PM , Rating: 2
Well, under that criteria the old Soviet Union was a managed democracy.

I've heard the term managed democracy before, the Russians use it along with sovereign democracy to describe their particular political system. I see more managed then democracy though.