Beijing Games architecture aims to shock, awe

By Ian Ransom

BEIJING (Reuters) - While feats of athletic brilliance may be the main focus of cameras during the Beijing Olympics, the telegenic venues set to host the athletes will draw their own share of gasps from admiring spectators.

Beijing's Olympic construction boom has bequeathed an 800-year-old city with some of the world's most futuristic architectural statements, potent symbols of a resurgent power's desire to showcase its development and mastery of technology.

"I think the venues show a new openness and tolerance among common Chinese people. They also show our amazing achievements," said Zheng Fang, a Chinese architect who worked on the acclaimed National Aquatics Centre, dubbed the "Water Cube" for its shape and bubbly facade.

The Olympic swimming venue, designed by a consortium of Arup engineers, architects from Australian firm PTW and Zheng's China Construction Design International (CCDI), competes with the adjacent National Stadium for the affections of thousands of camera-wielding tourists who flock to the main Olympic Green every day.

The 91,000-seat Herzog & de Meuron-designed National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest" for its lattice work of interwoven steel, has made such an impact as to displace late Chinese leader Mao Zedong's face from commemorative Olympic bank notes.

Standing together, the stadium and the swimming venue form "one of the most powerful urban precincts in the world," said John Bilmon, a principal director with PTW.

DRAGON'S BACK

Many Games visitors' first experience of Beijing's building ambitions, however, will start well before they get to the competition venues.