More than 90,000 spectators will stream through the gates of the National Stadium in Beijing on Friday for the opening ceremonies. Its elliptical latticework shell likens it to a gigantic bird's nest. (Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times)

The architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, designed a series of cantilevered trusses to support the roof that shades the seats. A secondary pattern of irregular crisscrossing beams is woven through this frame, creating the illusion of a gigantic web of rubber bands straining to hold the building in place. (Photo: Claro Cortes Iv/Reuters)

Mr. Herzog, right, and Mr. de Meuron were chosen for the Beijing project partly on the strength of their design for the 2005 Allianz Arena in Munich. (Photo: David Coll Blanco/European Pressphoto Agency)

Clad in puffy, translucent panels made of a high-tech plastic, the Allianz Arena's doughnut-shaped form seems to swell from pressure within. Mr. Herzog compares it to a boiling pot. (Photo: Philipp Guelland/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images)

Viewed from a distance, the contrast between the Beijing National Stadium's bent steel columns and its bulging elliptical form gives the it a surreal, moody appearance, as if it were straining to contain the forces pushing and pulling it this way and that. (Photo: Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images)

Mr. Herzog and Mr. de Meuron have carved out psychological space for the individual. However the structure attests to China's nationalistic ambitions. (Photo: Joe Chan/Reuters)

Until now, the number of memorable Olympic Stadiums could be counted on one hand. At left, Berlin's 1936 Olympic Stadium by Werner March with its imposing ring of stone columns, a symbol of fascism's absolute disregard for the individual. (Photo: Michael Sohn/Associated Press)

In an intentional counterpoint to the Berlin Olympic Stadium, Gunther Behnisch and Frei Otto designed transparent tentlike roof canopies for the 1972 Olympic stadium in Munich. (Photo: Associated Press)

The National Stadium reaffirms architecture's civilizing role in a nation that, despite its outward confidence, is struggling to forge a new identity out of a maelstrom of inner conflict. (Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times)

(photo Claro Cortes IV/Reuters)

Lire l'article "Olympic Stadium With a Design to Remember" de NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/sports/olympics/05nest.html