Bird’s Nest: Herzog and De Meuron in China

The documentary shows the work in China by the Basle-based star architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron (Tate Modern in London, De Young Museum in San Francisco, among other projects): the Olympic Stadium of Beijing and a district in the town of Jinhua. One is tailored to China’s international appearance; the other caters for the daily needs of the population. The architects, as for their other projects, study and explore local surroundings, culture, and traditions, collaborating, in this occasion, with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei as “cultural interpreter”. The aim of the directors is to show the contradictions emerged by this 4- years building process. The specific architectonic form that gives the stadium his nickname gives us a vivid image of the complex reality of China, the oldest culture of the world, but, at the same time, the most emerging and aggressive economic world power.