Studio Zhu-Pei

Beijing Municipal Government has promised to the world that Beijing will present an Olympics which has the highest technological content in history in 2008. As the landmark building of the Digital Olympics, the Digital Beijing Building will be located at the northern end of the central axis, neighbouring the core area of the Olympics Centre, the National Stadium and National Swimming Centre. Seven internationally renowned architectural firms participated in the competition for Digital Beijing, our scheme was selected a winning scheme, and has already been completed.

The Digital Beijing Building, nearly 100,000 square meters in area, will serve as the control centre and the data centre of Beijing Olympics, 2008. At other times, it will accommodate a virtual museum of Digital Olympics and an exhibition centre for manufacturers of digital products.

The rapid development of the digital age has greatly impacted on our society, life and city. If the industrial revolution has resulted in Modernism, the Digital Beijing Building begins to explore what will occur in the digital epoch.

The concept for Digital Beijing was developed through reconsideration and reflection on contemporary architecture in the era of digit and information. Appearing like digital bar code, and an integrated circuit board, it emerges from a serene water surface. Here we are seeking a specific form, trying to reveal an enlarged micro world suggestive of the microchips abundant but ignored in our daily life. With an abstracted mass, like the simple repetition of digit 0 and 1, this building will be an impressive symbol of the Digital Olympics and of the information era.

In the future, we expect the Digital Beijing Building will always be under renovation, evolving keeping pace with technology.