2. ❖ INTRODUCTION:
• Building type – stadium
• Location: Beijing, China
• Owner – Chinese government
• Height : 70 meters
• Wide: 296 meters
• Long: 320 meters
• Spectators - 91000
• Cost: $300M
• Demonstrated System: Rigid Frame
• Architecture Style: DE constructivism
• Occupying 258,000 square meters and seating 91,000 people including 80,000 permanent seats and 11,000 temporary seats
with the international standard.
• Number of floors – three but actually 20 stories of an ordinary building
• Architect: Herzog & de Meuron Architekten AG, Arup Sport and the China Architecture Design & Research Group
• CONCEPT:
• The sport stadium design was evolved by the formation of nesting
birds.
• The architects have succeeded in translating the thought, so that their
work on the project soon gained the nickname “bird’s nest” almost
spontaneously among the Chinese population.
• The design is revolving on the nests of birds, not solely aesthetically but
also at a structural level.
• The entire structure, visible from the outside, mirrors the branches of
the nests that working together with each other achieve unimaginable
resistance to the elements.
3. • A retractable roof.
• A multi-functional design, to efficiently incorporate a range of uses in the future.
• An emphasis on green building and advanced technology.
• The main elements support each other and converge into a grid formation.
❖ DESIGN:
4. • The stand of the stadium is a seven-storey shear wall system with a concrete framework.
• The upper part of the stand and the stadium steel structure are actually separated from one another, but both of these are based
on a joint foundation.
• Each section of the bowl is like a building, there are eight different “buildings” all working together each with their own stability
system.
• A series of cantilevered trusses has been designed to support the roof, shading the seats.
5. • The stadium consists of an inner bowl of concrete seating surrounded by a façade of twisted steel, with a public
concourse area sandwiched between the two.
• The variation in the height of the stands between the major and minor axes of the ellipse allows for the majority of
spectators to be seated along the longest length of the track, and “ensures that all spectators are within the same radius
of view from the corners of the field”.
NORTH-SOUTH LONG SECTION
EAST-WEST CROSS SECTION
6. • Like most modern stadia, the “Bird’s Nest” was designed inside out, beginning with the bowl – the competitive field and the
seating stands around it.
• This is because the form of the bowl and the distribution of seating types largely determine all other aspects of a stadium,
including the shape and structure of the roof, the levels and locations of the concourses and premium facilities, and the
amount of natural light and ventilation reaching the playing area.
• The team worked closely with the international Olympic and local organising committees to streamline and rationalise the
on-field facilities.
• The result is a more compact bowl with less distance between the spectators and the track.
❖ INNER STADIUM:
7. • Bowl design involves a skilful balancing of several key
criteria.
• Most importantly, spectators want to be as close as
possible to the action and to have a good view of the
field, while the stadium developer needs to
accommodate a certain number of seats within a
defined budget.
• These requirements often conflict. For example, more
space between rows creates better sightlines but draws
spectators further away from the field and results in a
larger stadium with increased construction costs.
• Even a tiny adjustment to the configuration of the seats
can have a huge impact on the overall design and cost
of the building.
❖ INNER STADIUM:
8. ❖ STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
• Thestructure must resistatotal of 56,625tons of vertical load. The
steelstructure itself must resistits own load of42,000 tons and
11,625 tons of live load, totalling in 53,625 tons.
• Theplinth type of the foundation is essential to carry suchaload,
which isevenly distributed.
• Theloadsateachintersection aresplit betweenthemembers
andtransferred downwardasindicated.
• Themassivesteel structure resistslateral loadsin asimilar manner asthe
horizontalones.
• In addition, insteadof the loadshitting the structure and following it
downwardsandupwardsit isbrokendownthrough the latticeof steel
while being weakenedand providing natural ventilation in thebuilding.
9. ❖ CONSTRUCTION PHASE:
• Construction of the stadium proceeded in several
distinct phases.
• The first phase involving the construction of a
concrete supporting structure upon the concrete
foundations laid for the construction site.
• This was followed by the phased installation of the
curved steel frame surrounding the stadium, which
is largely self-supporting.
• This phased installation involved the
interconnection of sections of the curved steel
frame that were constructed in Shanghai and
transported to Beijing for assembly and welding.
• The entire structure of interconnected sections was
welded together as the primary means of
interconnection used to assemble the entire
surrounding nest structure.
• Upon removal of the supporting columns used for
the purpose of expediting the assembly of the
interconnecting sections, the completed nest
structure as a whole settled approximately 27 cm to
attain full stability before the interior design and
construction of the stadium could be installed and
completed.
10. ❖ JOINERY DETAIL
Of all the geometrical conditions within the Stadium, perhaps the most challenging
from the fabrication viewpoint was the requirement to use a continuous box-profile
over the whole façade.
This box section was defined using a control surface that was part of the structure
envelope.
The outer flange of the box always remains parallel to the control surface, resulting
in a twisting, curving box section that changes as the element progresses along the
surface of the structure.
This twisting form is most pronounced at the eaves of the structure for the low-
angle elements such as the stair lines.
Luckily these are usually very lightly loaded. The way the geometry was defined
resulted in even the most twisted element being formed from developable surfaces.
This meant that the individual surfaces forming the box sections could be flattened
out and cut from a flat steel plate and then rolled to form the fabricated box
section.
11. • Structure & Material
• The stadium is 330 meters long, 220 meters wide and
69 meters high.
• The protagonist between the materials is the steel
that constitutes the various branches of the nest,
between one and another, a series of “cushions” of
inflatable ETFE (ethylene-copolymer tetrafluoretileno)
give the stadium a “quilted” image. The cost of this
large area of material used for the cover was $8
million.
• Besides the aesthetic value of this network, we must
emphasize the role of the structural elements of
metal, which are interlacing and are mutually
supporting.
• Although it produces the impression of a casual and
almost natural course, the meeting of the various
elements and the direction we take in the nest, are
the result of precise calculations.
• ROOF STRUCTURE
• 32 ft. 8 inches deep horizontal trusses that span
the roof
• The roof truss is composed of top and bottom
booms with diagonal struts.
• Deep roof trusses follow a diagonal path
crisscrossing each other
• The roof is supported by cantilever trusses
• Lattice trusses
12. MATERIAL
OUTER SHELL
• STEEL FRAME
• TRUSS COLUMNS
• INTERLOCKED ELEMENT
• SUPPORT EACH OTHER
INNER SHELL
• CONCRETE
• SEATING BOWL
• PRECAST REINFORCED
• CONCRETE SECTION
ROOF
• ETFE MEMBRANE
(Ethylene Tetra
Fluoroethylene
Copolymer) BETWEEN
STEEL WORK