What's Beijing's Bird's Nest Really Made of?

Beijing’s Herzog and de Meuron-designed national Olympic stadium, nicknamed the “bird’s nest,” reminds us of a giant Anish Kapoor sculpture crossed with a rubber band ball, but in the summer issue of Artforum, Sean Keller notes the Swiss duo’s two principal metaphors for the project: a Shang dynasty vessel(expressing “the desire for an ‘archaic’ form that would overcome the hodgepodge of ticket gates, snack shops, and Jumbotrons that make up a typical contemporary stadium”) and the nonhierarchical structure in which the exposed steel bands support one another (Facade? Ornament? Stop, you’re both right!).