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.

Construction site in mid 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Plans of creating financial district in Shanghai were announced in 1993 and included plans of three huge supertalls. Two of them are already standing (Jin Mao building – finished in 1998 and Shanghai World Financial Center – finished in 2008).

Shanghai Tower finally approved project in surroundings of other Shanghai supertalls. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

After years of proposals government chosen design from Gensler. This very innovative construction spins and twists around the central core surrounded by a curtain of glass. The project is based on nine cylindrical cores sticked to each other and rising in twisted shape. This design is supposed to reduce the wind pressure on the whole construction (wind loads will be reduced by 24%). Used materials and unique shape will highly reduce the energy consumption.

Another view of futuristic Shanghai Tower. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The construction is not only innovative but beautiful. Surely this will be one of the most impressive supertalls ever rised. The facade is changing in all directions showing China’s connection to the world, time and space. There will be six sky gardens in building’s parameter. The exterior and interior skin of the building will be transparent. There will be also places for atrium and inside civic squares which makes building open to the world and giving people a lot of public space.

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.