Beijing by design

By Charlene Rooke

national stadium

With the 2008 Olympics fast approaching, China’s capital city is prettifying. A mandala of a metropolis circumscribed by concentric ring roads, Beijing is now studded with the foundations of new architectural treasures – most of them in northeast Beijing where international hotels cluster.

Nesting instinct

If you glimpse what looks like a tangle of demolition rebar rising from the roadside on the way from the airport, you’ve just seen a very pre-Olympic vision of the main venue. The National Stadium – nicknamed the Bird’s Nest for its intertwining steel and concrete structure – is the anchor of the Olympic Green, where many competition venues will be located. Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have designed an innovative retractable roof for the stadium, which will hold 100,000 spectators.

Sunny side up

Locals call it the Egg for the way the reflection of the dome of French architect Paul Andreu’s National Grand Theater shimmers in its own man-made lake. (So that the neighbouring Great Hall of the People remained the taller structure, much of the theatre complex is built underground.) Its delicate-looking shell of glass and titanium is the antidote to the fortress-like Forbidden City across the street. Three performance spaces will host opera, theatre and other Olympic cultural events, but for now it makes a surreal backdrop to your Tiananmen Square photos.

Building diplomatic relations

The largest construction project ever outside its home turf, the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing will be a 10-acre minicity housing consular staff and families and services for citizens abroad. American firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed the complex – complete with traditional courtyards, gardens and pools – remaining sensitive to Chinese principles. Yet the planned buildings are American-style bright and modern; two huge coloured panels by U.S. sculptor Ellsworth Kelly will highlight the embassy building.

Side-rise building

High-rises have always been the high-water mark of architecture, but in this age of “hyper-buildings,” new constructions are starting to go wide as well as high. The asymmetric loop of the CCTV headquarters will tower over most of Beijing’s skyscrapers. Not only TV studios but offices, shops and even a hotel will eventually be part of the complex, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’ Office of Metropolitan Architecture. Watch for the massive construction site from the east side of the third ring road.

Old is new

It’s not the actual buildings of the Dashanzi Art District but what goes on inside them that’s new and exciting. A block of East German military buildings formerly known as Joint Factory 718, it’s now a SoHo-type district of studios, shops and galleries for emerging Beijing talent. Sidewalk vendors hawk communist-kitsch posters, and walls teem with politically charged art. A great place to start is 798 Space, one of the largest and best-known art and event venues, which also has an art bookstore and a restaurant. In a city where old is everywhere being torn down to make room for new, the repurposing of these Brutalist-style buildings might be the most radical idea of all.

(Charlene Rooke is the editor-in-chief of Western Living magazine in Vancouver. She travelled to China last year while she was the editor of Air Canada's enRoute magazine.)

Getting There

We have the most flights to China from Canada with daily service to Shanghai from Toronto and Vancouver and double daily service to Beijing from Vancouver this summer. Search for flights. And don't miss our great deals on hotels and car rentals!

Back to top