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This 755-foot tall building is actually two interconnected skyscrapers built at an angle and then joined at their tops, forming a continuous loop that houses offices in both the vertical and horizontal sections. It's one of the many instant architectural wonders that Beijing has crafted for the Olympics. You've got to see the weirdness on that top section where horizontal meets vertical. Closeup below. More »
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Click to view When the Summer Olympics kick off in Beijing next month, they will be very different from the Olympics held eight or even four years ago. From weather control to laser timing devices, technology is having an impact on the Olympics in a profound way. More »
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As part of Beijing's efforts to look good for the summer Olympics, its central TV station, CCTV, is getting brand new headquarters. It'll be the first of 300 buildings to be completed in the city's new Central Business District. The 5.9 million square foot building is actually a continuous loop of horizontal and vertical sections, making the building into a giant square tube instead of a traditional tower. Its designers—Rem Koolhaus, Ole Scheeren, and a team of international hot shots from OMA—made the facade an irregular grid to portray the crazy amount of TV work that goes down inside. Image by CCTV CCTV New Site main page More »
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The top of China's "bird's nest" Olympic stadium is open to the elements, and therefore the government has ordered the Beijing Meteorological Bureau to make sure it won't rain during the games. The Bureau has already had some success preventing light rain, but heavy rain is harder to control. They'll use two different "seeding" techniques for dissipating droplets in frozen clouds, and dissipating warmer clouds before they start forming water droplets. Beijing's head of weather manipulation, Zhang Qian, explains how. More »
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Construction is nearly complete on the Beijing Olympic Stadium, shaped like a massive steel bird's nest, and the swimming-pool-filled Water Cube, which looks like a piece of glowing alien machinery. This is an actual photo of the buildings at night. We've also got some less-surreal glimpses of them too. More »
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China is rushing to finish the 7,000 square foot "Water Cube" in time to host swimming events in the 2008 Olympics. This giant building's outer cladding, which will keep the pool warm, is based on research by physicists into "how soap bubbles might be arranged in infinite array," says architecture firm Arup. The bubbles themselves are made of a lightweight, transparent Teflon skin called ETFE, which will also make the building a super-efficient greenhouse, says Inhabitat. Images by EyePress/AP. More »
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