Gold Medal Architecture

Though I do not follow sports in my "normal" life, every few years I catch Olympic fever! This year, in addition to the amazing displays of athleticism we have seen during the first week of competition, we have seen some fairly amazing display of beautiful and innovative architecture. The key players in Beijing are the National Stadium (the "Bird's Nest") by Swiss firm Herzog + de Meuron and the National Aquatics Center ("Water Cube") by Australian firm PTW. Together, these two buildings sit at the center of the Olympic Green.

Of these two iconic Olympic buildings, the gold medal in my mind goes to the Water Cube. Its cubic massing and light-filled swimming and diving hall appeal to my preference for buildings with relatively simple massing, while the creative use of steel structure and double-skinned ETFE cladding based on the geometric structure of soap bubbles add a level of interest to the facade. The building was engineered by one of the world's preeminent engineering firms, Arup.

Looking back over my own lifetime, though my first Olympic sporting memories are from the 1988 winter and summer games in Calgary and Seoul respectively, the first Olympic architecture that I took particular note of was the M-Wave speed skating rink from the 1998 winter games in Nagano, Japan. Speed skating is one of my favorite winter sports to watch, and even on television, the huge light-filled interior created a stunning environment in which to watch the skating competitions. In addition to the building's interior, the image of the M-Wave among the surrounding mountains sticks out in my memory even after 10 years!

In addition to my own experience and observations, it is clear that the Olympics have had quite a legacy of inspiring great architecture. Here are a few of my favorite summer Olympic stadiums:

Tokyo, 1964

Mexico City, 1968

Munich, 1972

Montreal, 1976

Athens, 2004

Beijing, 2008