Bird's Nest Herzog & de Meuron in China - a fillum of the concept, design, selling, building of the Peking Stadium

Now discover rather belatedly (where can you get the staff these days - or profreaders indeed) that Icarus Fillums (32 Court St, 21st Flr,Brooklyn, NY 11201, Tel: (718) 488-8900 mailroom@frif.com) have produced a fillum , Bird's Nest Herzog & de Meuron in China by Christoph Schaub & Michael Schindhelm (1 hr 29mins)

The fillum (it says here) " ....chronicles this five-year effort, as well as Herzog and de Meuron's design for a new city district in Jinhua, involving hotels, office and residential buildings. Both projects involved complex and often difficult negotiations and communications between two cultures, two architectural traditions and two political systems. Herzog and de Meuron, the Basle-based architects, find themselves working with China's largest state construction company, Chinese artist and architect Ai Wei Wei, lawyers, and countless government bureaucrats.

The film reveals how Chinese cultural tradition affects both projects, with the architects carefully researching esthetic and philosophical concepts of Chinese society and culture, attempting to define universal qualities of "beauty" and being careful to avoid imposing Western ideas, and above all to create buildings that will blend in culturally by being sensitive to Chinese cultural traditions and ways of living. "

At US$444 a copy on DVD or US$150 a copy rental it is beyond most people's pocket books.

It has been available as a download at Amazon Unbox (US only) Rent US $2.99 for a 30 day rental period; 7 day viewing period. or to buy US $9.99 for the duration of the Olympics ... it still seems to be available. Here is the tantalising trailer - why is next week's trailer always better than this week's fillum?



See Saturday, August 02, 2008 £1 Mn. prizewinner not unveiled but identity of the Birds Nest designer is ...

Remarkable that with the fleets (over 400) of BBC and every other media circus known to man that no-one has produced any decent film, photos, review, concern, interest in what is evidently a stunning structure.

Other than Matt in the Daily Telegraph this weekend....


UPDATE : Get to the gym and find that Channel 5 have a 1 hour Megastructures film 12.45 - 13.45 BST on Beijing Olympic Stadium - this is a much repeated documentary series about the world's most pioneering engineering projects. This programme examines the unique features of the Bird's Nest stadium, following its design, engineering and construction up until the ultimate test.

Exceptional fillum - the steel was specially made for the job in China, the parts of the nest (none of which were identical !) were made in Shanghai and transported by road to Peking.The reactions of Herzog and de Mueron when the see the final structure for the first time is an eye opener for any architect / any client.

Why didn't Channel 4 send Kevin McCloud out to do a film instead of that nice guy to do the whole of the events on his own - they could have left all that to someone else.

Look out for the endless repeats.