Amazing Architecture

Beijing New South Railway Station is a new project that replaced an old station that was called Yongdingmen Railway Station and operated from 1897 to 2006. New station was opened on August 1 ,2008 and it is reported to be the largest in Asia. Among  two other capital stations: Beijing West Railway Station and Beijing Railway Station it is the third hub for passengers in Beijing. Soon it will be capable of taking high-speed trains that could achieve speed of 350 km/h.

Beijing New South Station during construction in 2008. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The shape of this construction is oval and was designed by Hong Kong/UK company of Terry Farrel and Partners. It was also a single collaboration with the Tianjin Desing Institute. Materials used to create this monster are: almost 500,000 cubic meters of  concrete and 60,000 tons of steel. Over 4,000 workers was on construction site in three years of building. The station outer wall is covered by glass and roof contains 3,246 solar panels that create electricity for the whole complex. The stations possess 24 platforms with an ability to service about 30,000 passengers/hour. In yearly scale that gives about 241,920,000 in every twelve months. There is also large waiting area with ability to create space for almost 10,000 people. The whole complex is much bigger than Beijing National Stadium.

Beijing New South Station final look, visualization. Photo taken from skyscrapercity forums.

Beijing New South Station inside. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Beijing New South Station railway. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Bird’s Nest is a colloquially name of China National Stadium in Beijing. It was constructed especially for the Summer Olympics Games in 2008 (and also for Paraolypics).

The story started when Chinese government announced a competition for the project of new National Stadium. Many architectural offices signed in and presented amazing visions of China’s most important arena. But I must admit that from all those great propositions they have chosen the best. The winner was Herzog & de Meuron architectural company from Switzerland (with help from Stefan Marbach, Ai Weiwei and CADG lead by Li Xinggang).

Bird’s Nest is tremendous example of modern architecture and Chinese power of huge investments. The whole construction was built in just 4 and a half a year, which is not very long for such big project. The cost if this investment is estimated about 423 million dollars and is world’s biggest steel structure.

China National Stadium's steel exterior. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

China National Stadium's steel exterior - night view. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The design is based on “nest theme” and the whole building is supposed to look like a giant bird’s nest. That idea ended with brilliant project of unique building not comparable to any other all over the world. At first the construction of the roof is based on 24 trussed columns encrasing the inner field (each one weight about 1000 tons). But after accident of the roof with similar construction in France the project was reinvented. 9.000 seets were removed and the whole huge roof construction never seen the daylight. Removing huge steel construction also helped to reduce the cost of building. The new look was more opened to the outer world, more resistant to potential seismic activity. The upper part of the roof was changed to protect the audience from negative weather conditions. Building’s capacity was set to 91.000 seats during the Olympics and 80.000 after the big event.

Grand Opening of Summer Olympics 2008. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Nevertheless the  final result is outstanding. The stadium is one of the most beautiful sport objects in the world and one of the most impressive. Comparing to investor plan the whole investment should start giving real profits in about 5 years after the grand opening in 2008.

Bird's Nest. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Bird's Nest. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.