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Of all the buildings under construction in preparation for the Olympics, the most striking is the new headquarters of China Central Television. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, it is a gravity-defying loop of horizontal and vertical sections. When completed it’s likely to become one of the world’s most recognizable icons.

The largest construction project on earth, British architect Sir Norman Foster’s new terminal will welcome athletes from around the world to the 29th Olympiad in 2008. The design resembles a soaring dragon in red and yellow.

Set to be the centerpiece of the Olympics, when finished Beijing’s new stadium will be the world’s biggest enclosed space, capable of holding 100,000 spectators. The innovative design by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron resembles a giant bird’s nest.

The “Water Cube” is a complex of five pools intended to stage the Olympic swimming and diving events. It’s another ground-breaking design, in this case inspired by the formation of bubbles and molecules.

French architect Paul Andreu’s silvery “Giant Egg” (see National Grand Theater), completed in 2006, provides a shocking contrast to the monolithic, slab-like Socialist architecture of neighboring Tian’an Men Square. The building is surrounded by a reflective moat and accessed by an underwater tunnel (upsetting Chinese critics who claim this resembles the entrance to a traditional tomb). At night, a part of the façade is transparent so passers-by can see what’s going on inside.

Built to host gymnastics and handball during the 2008 Games, the stadium boasts a sinuously curving roof with slatted beams, which is inspired by traditional Chinese folding fans. After the Games are over, the stadium will stage entertainment events, such as concerts.

The Convention Center is one of the principal buildings of the main Olympic Green complex in the north of the city. It will serve as the competition venue for the fencing events. It will also double as the main press center for the Games.

China’s conservative state-owned Xinhua bookstore teamed up with maverick Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to produce one of the world’s most digitally dynamic structures. The entire front wall of the eight-story building will be one vast “electronic bookshelf” with a giant video screen, which will address passing pedestrians much like the talking billboards in the movie Bladerunner.

Rem Koolhaas’s third high-profile Beijing project is a companion piece to his show-stopping CCTV Building. It may lack the visual impact of its sibling but when complete it will have much to offer Beijingers and visitors to the city, combining as it does a planned five-star hotel and 1500-seat theater, plus several restaurants, and exhibition spaces.

The Olympic Green will surround the high-tech Olympic Village. It’s part of an overall masterplan to soften the city with trees, parks, and forested beltways in the run up to 2008. At the heart of the Green is a dragon-shaped lake, the tail of which runs by the National Olympic Stadium.