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National Stadium Bird's Nest

National Stadium Bird's Nest
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  • National Stadium Bird's Nest

National Stadium Bird's Nest

The National Stadium (Bird's Nest) is located in the south of the central area of the Beijing Olympic Park. It was the main stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The total area of the project is 21 hectares, and there are approximately 91,000 seats inside the stadium. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as track and field events and the football final. After the Olympics, it became a large professional venue for Beijing citizens to participate in sports activities and enjoy sports entertainment, and it has become a landmark sports building and Olympic legacy.

The stadium was designed by Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Ai Weiwei, and Li Xinggang, and constructed by Beijing Construction Engineering Group. The shape of the stadium is like a "nest" and cradle that nurtures life, embodying humanity's hopes for the future. The designers made no unnecessary modifications to the venue, leaving the structure exposed, thus naturally forming the building's appearance.

Construction began on December 24, 2003, and was completed in March 2008, with a total cost of 2.267 billion yuan. As a national landmark building and the main stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games, the National Stadium has very significant structural features. The stadium is a Class A sports building and a large sports venue. The main structure is designed to have a service life of 100 years, a fire rating of Class 1, an earthquake resistance intensity of 8 degrees, and a Class 1 waterproof level for underground engineering.

In April 2014, the China Contemporary Top Ten Architecture Evaluation Committee selected twenty buildings from over 1000 landmark buildings in China based on four criteria: age, scale, artistry, and influence. This resulted in the final selection of the top ten contemporary buildings. The Beijing Bird's Nest – National Stadium – was one of the shortlisted buildings.