Bird's Nest (National Stadium), Beijing

Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, known as the Bird's Nest, is arguably the most architecturally striking stadium built in the 21st century, surpassing #7 Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in unique design. Its complex steel latticework of random-seeming irregular beams, weighing 42,000 tonnes, was engineered with extraordinary precision to create a unified structural system that also serves as the building's primary aesthetic. It hosted the opening ceremony of both the 2008 Summer and 2022 Winter Olympics, a feat no other stadium has achieved.