Bird’s Nest Introduction and Bidding
2 min readBeijing National Stadium is known as the Bird’s Nest The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
Located at the Olympic Green，the stadium cost US$423 million.
The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecturefirm Herzog&de Meuron in April 2003 after a bidding process thatincluded 13 final submissions.The design which originated from thestudy of Chinese ceramics implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof giving the stadium the appearance of a bird’s nest.The retractable roof was later removed from the design The construction began on December 24，2003 and the stadium officiallyopened on June 28，2008.A shopping mall and a hotel are planned to be constructed to increase the functions of the stadium，which has had trouble attracting events，games to maintain after the Olympics.
Bidding
In 2001，before Beijing had been awarded the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics，the city held a bidding process to select the best arena design.Multiple requirements for each design，including the ability for post-Olympics use，a retractable roof and low maintenance costs，were brought up.The entry list was narrowed to thirteen final designs.Li Xinggang from China Architecture Design and Research Group（CADRG），said after he placed the model of the“nest”proposal at the exhibition hall and saw the rival entries，he thought to himself，”We will win this.”The model was approved as the top design by a professional panel；it was later exhibited for the public.Once again it was selected as the top.The“nest scheme”became official in April 2003.
