AllMovie

The name of China's Olympic stadium takes on double meaning in this documentary exploring the complex international engagement that was essential in constructing the architectural centerpiece of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. Our architecture can sometimes stand as reflection of who we really are, and in designing the Olympic stadium Swiss architects Pierre Herzog and Jacques de Meuron created a massive monument to the people. In fact, in the early stages of construction the Chinese people seemed to adopt the stadium as their own by nicknaming it The Bird's Nest. And while filmmakers Christoph Schaub and Michael Schindhelm captured all of the communication breakdowns and mixed up logistics that threatened to sink the project, they strive to focus on the ways in which the architects attempted to use their talents to reflect the culture that envelopes the stadium.