1. Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany
Constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the Olympiastadion was built to present a new face for post-war Germany. Stuttgart firm Behnisch and Partners won the contest to design the stadium with a strikingly modern look echoing the peaks and valleys of the nearby Alps. The concept for the stadium itself was derived from ‘earth stadiums’ commonly built in Eastern Europe so that space for the field and seating for 90,000 spectators would be carved out of the ground instead of built above it.
For the suspended roofs which tied the entire complex together, engineer Frei Otto was brought on the project. Working together with B+P, Otto helped to devise a scheme for tensile roofs of steel cable and acrylic panels, spanning the Olympic site like an enormous tent. Deliberately translucent, the canopy shelters the athletes and spectators without obscuring lines of sight or cast uneven shadows in televised footage.
See also: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Pandelela Rinong, We'll Always Have Your Back