Beijing National Stadium

These days I have watched the video about the Beijing National Stadium, which is one of the most famous buildings in China. It was designed by Herzog ﹠De Meuron, and was opened to the public in 2008.

This stadium has 91,000 seats, the distance between the furthest seat and the Stadium’s centre is 142m, so it is very huge. The appearance of it looks like the bird’s nest, so it is also named “Bird’s Nest”. From the designers’ words, some of their inspirations are come from the ancient Chinese ceramics. The main material of this stadium is steel, like the branches in bird’s nest, these steels are the structure of this stadium, and these steels consist the appearance of the stadium at the same time.  

There are two design concepts interest me very much. First is the angle of inclination of the stands. All the angles are less than 35 degrees. Like showing in the picture right. So it ensures that all the audiences feel safe when they are watching the match. And as a result of it, they can concentrate their attentions on the competition. The second one is the style of the stairway. Unlike other stadiums’ stairways, as the picture shown below,it is divided into several parts by some platforms. It can reduce the injury when people fall off the stairs because falling can be stoped when  people reach the platform. This design is unprecedented in the world.  

I have been to this stadium once, both the interior and exterior are amazing. There are several large screens inside, and the steels above my head are really impressive. This building also shows the Chinese tradition and the “Bird’s Nest” is also a combination of the environment.