Who designed the Beijing National Stadium ('Bird's Nest')?

Herzog & de Meuron designed Beijing National Stadium, better known as the “Bird’s Nest.”

The Swiss firm won an international competition in 2003 for the stadium built for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The project was a collaboration: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron worked with China Architecture Design & Research Group, led by chief architect Li Xinggang, while Arup handled structural engineering. Artist Ai Weiwei served as an artistic consultant.

Its dramatic outer framework consists of interwoven steel members surrounding a concrete seating bowl. The apparent randomness was partly practical: the steel helped conceal supports originally intended for a retractable roof. The roof was later removed, but the nest-like structure remained. The stadium opened in June 2008 and was also used at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

A common mix-up is crediting only Herzog & de Meuron or only the Chinese design team. The fairest canonical answer is the firm’s name, while acknowledging the larger international design collaboration.