Today, 8/8/08, would fall short of auspicious if I failed to post Olympics-related material. So rather than focusing entirely on the Beijing smog, I will cloak my discussion of environmental pollution in the architecture of the much beloved “Bird’s Nest,” the new National Stadium by quirky-tects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Nicolai Oursoussof’s effervescent New York Times review of the building brilliantly skewered the sophisticated architectural allusions and their witty contradictions, so I don’t feel that I should paper over this territory. In his analysis were mentions of other, memorable olympic stadiums, and I think a visual guide of the buildings he covered is in order, as they may be difficult to recall from memory if you are younger than 100. Here you are, and quotes from the article:
“Until now, the number of memorable Olympic stadiums could be counted on one hand. There is Berlin’s 1936 Olympic Stadium, by Werner March, with its imposing ring of stone columns, a symbol of fascism’s absolute disregard for the individual.
In an intentional counterpoint, Günter Behnisch and Frei Otto designed transparent tentlike roof canopies for the 1972 Olympic Stadium in Munich, daring in their structural innovation.
And there is the elegant ring of slender Y-shaped columns supporting Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzetto dello Sport, which was a minor venue at the 1960 Games in Rome.” Nicolai Oursoussof
It appears to me that the Olympic stadiums of old have birthed a rather precocious youngster in the Bird’s Nest, another symbol of an era. Wholly unlike, say, the stadium shown here for the Atlanta games, so undistinguished that no photos are taken of its exterior facade.
Its always a little hard to rate the success of a work of architecture from afar. The flashy close-ups of the Bird’s Nest that accompanied the Times piece are luscious and a little misleading. Contextual photos of the new stadium are hard to come by, which is why I prefer this image below, that shows the swoopy stadium landlocked in a drab sea of staid office buildings. In this photo, the Bird’s Nest really demonstrates its ability, and by inference China’s ability, to briefly flirt with non-conformity, with all things blobular, dynamic and maybe even subversive.
But when the games are over, the citizens of Beijing will likely emerge from the liberating form of this nest, head straight back to their office buildings and work up a smog so thick it may obscure the stadium from view forever. That’s progress.
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Melissa Hope Matlins 
well conceived, written and educational
Comment by neil matlins August 23, 2008 @ 1:22 pmHi! I am editing a collection of essays in which the author of one essay would like to include as illustration the photograph above (i.e. at ) whose caption reads: “And there is the elegant ring of slender Y-shaped columns supporting Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzetto dello Sport, which was a minor venue at the 1960 Games in Rome. Nicolai Oursoussof.” I would appreciate your allowing him to use it. It will be acknowledged in the foreword.
Gonul Pultar, PhD.
Comment by Gönül Pultar April 27, 2010 @ 12:43 pmPresident, culutral Studies Association of Turkey