With less than four months until the Beijing Olympics kicks off, preparations seem to be on schedule. Construction of Beijing’s 31 Olympic venues, which feature modern, cutting-edge architecture, is nearly complete.

The city is being transformed in preparation for the event, both culturally and architecturally.

For a start, it’s nearly 20 years since the massacre in Tiananmen Square and now there’s a Starbucks outlet near the site of the devastation.

Locals are being encouraged to stop spitting and start queuing, which is not typical practice.

The Olympic centrepiece, which will be used for the opening ceremony on August 8 and the closing ceremony on August 24, is the National Stadium, or “Bird’s Nest”. The building was designed by Swiss company Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with Ove Arup and the China Architecture Design Institute.

Its pet name is a reference to the 
42,000 tons of steel strands that weave around the frame. Surrounding the complex is a dragon-shaped mote representing prosperity in China.

The National Aquatics Center, or “Water Cube”, is next to the “Bird’s Nest”. The building is the sustainability hero of the Games and was designed by PTW Architects from Australia. The rectangular structure, which has an exterior of blue bubbles, cost approximately US$140 million to build.

Its unique design incorporates some groundbreaking environmentally friendly measures. The 100,000 square metres of Teflon-like plastic that covers the structure allows more solar heat to 
enter than does glass, which is important for a swimming pool requiring an enormous amount of heating. Another important environmental feature is the building’s link with a rainwater collection system that gathers 10,000 cubic metres of water each year, as well as a recycling system that reuses 80 per cent of the building’s water.

The Olympic venues combined are said to have 121 water-efficient projects, plus energy-efficient measures such as solar panels and fibre optic piping.

Of course, the environment is high on the Olympic agenda thanks to China’s poor track record, and also out of concern for the health of the world’s top athletes.

Beijing has now spent approximately $17 billion trying to improve the environment, and the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee claims that major pollutants in the air have been reduced since the city won the honour of hosting the Games. However, the rest of the world isn’t so sure.

To clean up the air, China plans to shut down factories, take half the cars off the road and ban the burning of coal in homes during the Games.

Nevertheless, the International Olympic Committe (IOC) hasn’t ruled out postponing endurance competitions like the marathon, mountain biking, triathlon and urban road cycling if the pollution doesn’t clear.

It’s an extremely important time for China, and the world waits with bated breath to see how it all turns out.