Beijing
National Stadium is the symbol of China’s Olympic PR triumph, but it was designed
and built by two Swiss architects and a dissident artist. Perhaps not surprisingly, the construction was
almost as dramatic as the soaring finished structure. Christoph Schaub & Michael Schindhelm follow
the complicated process in their documentary, Bird’s Nest: Herzog & de Meuron in China (trailer here), which screened
as part of the Practical Utopias programming
at AIA New York’s Center for Architecture.
Jacques
Herzog and Pierre de Meuron had prospective projects in China fall through
before, but they clearly did not let that inhibit their ambition. In addition to the iconic Olympic venue, the
architects were also planning an ambitious mixed-use urban development for the
Jinhua district. Five years later, the
Bird’s Nest would be completed, but the Jinhua project still exists only on the
drawing board. Frankly though, the Swiss architects did rather well for
themselves, given the eccentricities of the Chinese bureaucracy. For one thing, they carried on without ever
having one of those whatamacalits: a contract.
Shrewdly,
the Swiss architects recruited a prestigious team of local collaborators and
advisors, most notably including Ai Weiwei, demonstrating their good taste if
not exactly a determination to curry favor with Party apparatchiks. For the establishment, they also called on
the counsel of Dr. Uli Sigg, the former Swiss Ambassador, and several other academics
and architects.
Happily,
Ai Weiwei is his irrepressible self throughout, expressing rather mixed feelings
about the whole Olympic appeal to “nationalism.” It is too bad he is not around more. There
are many telling encounters with state corruption, incompetence, and rampant
CYA-ing in the film, but Schaub & Schindhelm show a pronounced editorial
preference for scrupulously sober, academic moments.
Still,
in many ways, Bird’s Nest offers an
intriguing perspective on China’s go-go development. At one point, the Swiss partners attend the
opening of Architecture Park, a public park conceived by Ai Weiwei to showcase
small creations of prominent world architects, including de Meuron. It was envisioned to serve the residents of
the as yet undeveloped Jinhua development, but instead it is a surreal Dahli
World in the middle of nowhere.
The
Center’s post-screening discussion also added helpful context on the issues
involved, including post-Olympic development in host nations. According to Thomas K. Fridstein, Executive
Director of the Cunningham Group China, the Bird’s Nest has seen little use
since the 2008 Games, aside from drawing a bit of tourist traffic. However, it still looks great despite the
lack of upkeep and will probably remain as it is, because of its tremendous
symbolic value to the regime.
