Three Amazing Buildings

Beijing National Swim Center

With all the new construction going up in China, it’s easy to lose track of “one more cool-looking” building. But PTW’s National Swimming Center for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing exemplifies what all this new construction should aim to be: beautiful, functional, forward-thinking, and most importantly, a good example for future development in a nation whose growth appears to know no bounds. The design, which won a competition in 2003 and will sit adjacent to Herzog and DeMeuron’s main stadium, boasts a striking blue “bubble” aesthetic, which is both eye-catching and indicative of the function it houses (we love this interior-exterior architectural connection).

Beijing Olympic Stadium

After featuring the stunning “bubble building” being built for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, we felt it necessary to mention an equally-awesome structure under construction just across the way. Herzog and DeMeuron’s Olympic Stadium, fondly referred to by some as the “Bird’s Nest,” is a feat of engineering, an aesthetic marvel, and an uber-green machine to boot. What we love most about the stadium’s design is its integration of a myriad complex systems all rolled into such an aesthetically and conceptually simple and stunning object. The Swiss architects describe it best, saying, “The spatial effect of the stadium is novel and radical and yet simple and of an almost archaic immediacy. Its appearance is pure structure. Facade and structure are identical.”

My favorite of the two is the Bubble building, it looks like something right out of Science Fiction!

And now to something equally as awe-inspiring...

Peforming Arts Center in Abu Dabi

We’re gaga over these renderings of Zaha Hadid’s proposed Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi. We haven’t heard much about how green the building will be, but we’re excited to see more and more star architects inspired by natural and organic forms (check out the leaf-like windows!). The Performing Arts Center will be part of a multi-billion dollar cultural district with other buildings by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Tadao Ando. In her own words, Ms. Hadid describes the structure as a “biological analogy” whose primary components (branches, stems, fruits, and leaves) are then “transformed from these abstract diagrams into architectonic design.” We can only hope that such poetic biomimicry will be translated into green functions, materials, and technologies as well.

I like the last one a lot as well.

Comments, Questions?

[edit on 13-3-2007 by sardion2000]

[edit on 13-3-2007 by sardion2000]

Very cool pics. I love the swin center at night. Just beautiful.