Beijing National Stadium

Birds Nest

Location In the
olympic green
Bejing China
Number of floors
Three, 226 feet.
Architect Herzog
& De Meuron
Structural
Engineer Ove
Arup & Partners
MEP Engineers
Ove Arup &
Partners
Contractor CITIC
Internationals

Due to the fact that

Beijing is located in an
earthquake zone, it was
imperative to be able to
withstand the earths
movement. By building
the stadium in two
separate parts, including
a steel lattice structure
and a concrete bowl
separated by 50ft. the
designers were able to
create a structure flexible
enough to handle
considerable seismic
activity.

The building design had

to consider the seating
arrangement for over
91,000 spectators. The
seats and the athletic
fields are housed in the
inner concrete bowl,
similar to an egg in a
birds nest. The stands
that hold spectators, were
constructed as eight
different zones. Each
section of the bowl is like
a building, there are eight
different buildings all
working together each
with their own stability
system. The birds nest is
prepared to withstand an
earthquake of up to
magnitude 8 on the
Richter Scale.

Structural Systems

The Stadium is a
massive and an
incredibly complicated
structure. The structural
design was introduced
by the Herzog & De
Meuron, whom from very
initial stages have been
working with structural
engineers from Ove Arup
& Partners and
developing 3D models.

The detail shows one

of the numerous
connections involved
in the structure. Due
to such significant
loads on the structure
members as well as
their connections had
to be designed
carefully, the welding
process alone
sometimes took 17
hours per connection
with several welders
switching places to
avoid exhaustion.

Welding detail

The structure
must resist a total
of 56,625 tons of
vertical load. The
Steel structure
itself must resist
its own load of
42,000 tons and
11,625 tons of
live load, totaling
in 53,625 tons.
The Plinth type of
the foundation is
essential to carry
such a load,
which is evenly
distributed.

The loads at each intersection are split between the

members and transferred downward as indicated.

The massive steel structure resists lateral loads in a similar

manner as the horizontal ones. In addition, instead of the loads
hitting the structure and following it downwards and upwards it
is broken down through the lattice of steel while being
weakened and providing natural ventilation in the building.

The outer steel structure is completely separate from the inner stadium
seating area and is placed 50 feet apart. this placement allows the two
structures move independently in case of an earthquake. Steel has a
rather high modulus of elasticity as compared to the concrete, therefore
the entire outer structure could be put together as a unit and withstand
earthquakes. The core of the stadium was constructed out of the pre-cast
reinforced concrete. Because concrete has significantly lower modulus of
elasticity, it was divided into eight individual sections. this division allows
each portion of structure to move independently of the other in case of
seismic motion causing minimal amount of damage.