T+L Design Awards 2008

The National Stadium
Beijing, China.
Designed by Herzog & de Meuron

It isn't often that a building defines a city, and even becomes its icon, but that seems destined to be the case for Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron's National Stadium in Beijing, primary site of this summer's Olympic games. The stadium is a stunning attraction, a woven-basket form that seems to have grown organically on the edge of town like an enormous mushroom, or, as the locals have dubbed it, a bird's nest. Lit up in colors at night, the crosshatched latticework façade announces the city as a capital of the 21st century.
The National Stadium; 8 N. Si Huan Zhong Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing; beijing2008.cn.

The Jury Says: “Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium in Beijing is a fantastic, harmonious, musical, symphonic work.” —Hani Rashid

From the article T+L Design Awards 2008