Does the Olympic Stadium in Beijing really look like this?

I mean, are they serious? Couldn't they have come up with some unique design that embodies Chinese culture rather than some pile of modernity junk?

It is rather unpleasant looking to be honest. Like an odd little spider web...made by a lazy spider.

It's "abstract."

*snort*

-:pirate3:

Well, I think the design idea behind it was probably to create sort of a "quilt," or a "network" (a spiderweb works too) to show how the world is connected through the Olympics in particular and sports in general...

Maybe it wasn't though.

It looks like it is held together by duct tape.

Which, let's face it, is what holds the world together anyways.

It's actually a huge advance in architecture. I mean, how would you like to be the guy that had to do all the math on those angles and how to put that together in the right order? Also to get that organic kind of "swooping" shape (look at the outline of the stadium if it were solid) out of all those geometric lines is really mind blowing. Seriously, it takes some kind of artistic genius to think of that and another architectural genius to actually make it real.

So I can see how you may not like how it looks, but you've at least gotta appreciate the genius behind that. As far as some design with Chinese culture, to me, I'd be sick of being exploited as a culture just because my roofs had those cool curly corners and dragons everywhere. Plus I think the choice of going modern and new was smart, because it's a symbol of China trying to move forward. All the olympic stadiums are built on what used to be one of the worse slums. It's progress. Let 'em have it.

And I did vote 'yes.' And yes, I have watched a special on the construction of the Olympic stadiums. There's other nifty designs I think too. It's been a while though. I'll look those up. Haha.

~Yoyo

EDIT: Here's links to the other Olympic Stadiums in Beijing.

The "Water Cube" for swimming events.

A CGI rendering of the Water Cube and the "Bird's Nest" as they call it.

EDIT II: The same designer did the Munich Stadium. Search "allianz arena" in Google Images and you can see a bunch of different views of how it lights up. Same with the Water Cube, actually. There was one pic of it where it was a sort of rainbow kaleidoscope. Anyways... I'm done adding links.

I think Olympic stadiums should be a symbol all the countries and cultures of the world coming together and not be an embodiment or grand show of the host's culture (with the possible exception of Greece, because they started it). That being said, China's stadium does look awkward and too iron-y for me. The Water Cube, however, is made of awesome!


Edit: So, it's called the "Bird's Nest". Pretty cool, if you ask me. I do like it's profile; the rest is sort of growing on me...

I think it actually looks pretty purdy.

Who cares what the stadium looks like? Isn't it all about the Olympics?

Incandescence wrote:Well, I think the design idea behind it was probably to create sort of a "quilt," or a "network" (a spiderweb works too) to show how the world is connected through the Olympics in particular and sports in general...

Maybe it wasn't though.

I hope you're right. It's still weird.

Bird's Nest: Pretty darn cool.

Water Cube: PURE AWESOMENESS!!!!111one

The shape is cool, but there are too many lines for my taste. Too busy.

The image of the stadium brought to mind a pleasant little tableau: someone bakes a cake for the family picnic, decks it out with all sorts of pretty little flourishes, and sets it on the car seat while she runs off to fetch the kids. Three hours and the chastisement of three tantrum-throwing kids later, she returns to the car... only, in her stress, forgetting all about the cake and proceeding to sit down on the box.

And that, folks, is what we have here. A great, Olympic, squashed cake of a stadium. ^_^

I like it. It looks...graceful. Then again, that may be due to the distance, but still. I like.

Yeah, I actually think it looks really cool. The Water Cube or whatever looks fantastic, though - that looks like a rendering out of a video game or something. Very, very snazzy.