Big+Buildings+of+Beijing

===Beijing has both excellent and classical architecture but few distinguished modern buildings. Now such world famous architects as Ram Koolhass, de Meuron, Paul Andrew and PTW Architects are to display their skills here. With the concept of the 2008 Olympic Games. Ram Koolhass's "door", Herzog and de Meuron's "bird-nest", Paul Andrew's "eggshell" and PTW Architects' "water cube" are just a small part of the skills displayed by famous architects in China.===

**National Swimming Center--exquisite and exciting "Water Cube"**
The National Swimming Center, one of the three landmark buildings for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is located inside the Beijing Olympic Park. Covering a total floor space of 50,000 square meters, it has 17,000 seats. The National Swimming Center is a semi-transparent "cube", with "bubbles" spread out all over its surface, is a shape very similar to the structure of "H2O".

**National Stadium--natural "Bird's Nest"**
"Bird's Nest" is jointly designed by Herzog and De Meuron Architekten AG, Switzerland, and China Architecture Design Institute. The stadium is a bowl shape with a red stand. It looks like a nest structure. It is made of gray mining steel covered with a transparent membrane. "Bird's Nest" is an original creation, with a fresh and unique appeal, an exciting example of global architecture.



** **National Grand Theater--Paul Andrew's "Eggshell"** **
National Grand Theatre is colloquially described as The Egg, is an opera house in Beijing, China. The exterior of the theater is a titanium accented glass dome that is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. It is said to look like an egg floating on water. It was designed as an iconic feature, something that would be immediately recognizable, like the Sydney Opera House.

**New CCTV site--unconventional "Z crisscross"**
The new CCTV headquarters, at a height of 230 meter and a floor area of about 400,000 square meters, combines administration with news, broadcasting, studios and program production - the entire process of TV making - in a sequence of interconnected activities. Although the building is 230 meter tall it is not a traditional tower, but a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections that establish an urban site rather than point to the sky. The irregular grid on the building's facades is an expression of the forces traveling throughout its structure.