Dome

Stair detail; The Ling Long Pagoda or Linglong Tower (Multifunctional Studio Tower) houses a part of the International Broadcast Center (IBC) [for the Olympic Games]. It is located near the Olympic Cauldron, on the northwest side of the Bird's Nest Stadium. "Ling Long" means delicate, and is referred to as the Delicate Tower in Chinese. The permanent structure is a three-sided tower. The tower contains 6 habitable pods with open space in between. One of the pods displays the Olympic rings. It is 128 m tall, with 7 habitable floors, each an equilateral triangle. The floors are subdivided into two levels. The glass-walled pods are held up by three supporting ribs at the three corners. After fierce competition for the project in 2007, the design work was won by Cui Kai, Fu Xiaoming, Kang Kai, Zhang Junying, architects of the Cui Kai Studio at the China Design Institute. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/16/2010)