The Future Is Supposed To Look Like This

A music video (one cannot really call it a video tour) of the new Zaha Hadid-designed National Stadium. (Link)

I am neither engineer nor architect, which is probably why the dearth of lateral bracing in the roof scares me. In a country where the primary stress is gravity working upon arches, where the load is composed almost entirely of the arches themselves, fine. However, in the Tokyo Metropolitan District, the stress comes from side-to-side motion of varying intensity and wavelength, several times a year. The immense window spaces in between the structural elements, with only a few gargantuan linkages, look like invitations to disharmonic disaster.

Tip of the Hat to Michael Rofe for the link.

Later - Was I saying something about earthquakes? (Link)